There’s Still Life in Heroes of the Storm

Blizzard Entertainment’s MOBA, Heroes of the Storm, has been in what’s euphemistically known as “maintenance mode” for about three years now. In other words, that was Blizzard’s way of saying it didn’t plan any further major content updates for HotS and would only occasionally release patches to fix bugs and address character balancing issues. I was among the crowd of fans mourning HotS’ presumed death when that “maintenance mode” announcement was publicized. To my tremendous shock, though, it seems Heroes of the Storm is still kicking despite what it’s been through since 2020. I admit I’m rather hopeful about this.

Now, I don’t want to sound too hopeful here. I recognize that nothing guarantees Heroes of the Storm won’t be permanently shut down tomorrow, much less be completely revitalized. Still, I think it’s safe for me and my fellow Heroes of the Storm fans to allow ourselves a degree of cautious optimism. I can’t over-emphasize my use of the word “cautious” there, but maybe things are starting to look up for the first time in years.

The cynical side of me suspects Blizzard is only keeping Heroes of the Storm’s servers running because its microtransaction revenue still hasn’t run dry, and the fact that Microsoft now owns Blizzard doesn’t exactly make me less skeptical. That being said, Heroes of the Storm’s recent appearance on Xbox Game Pass came as quite a positive surprise. Maybe, just maybe, Microsoft does intend to try and resuscitate Heroes of the Storm since Blizzard seemed to have written HotS off entirely before the acquisition. The HotS community seems to be in relatively high spirits about this possibility.

PC Gamer spied some users on the official Heroes of the Storm subreddit making a joke about the state of HotS that’s similar to a light-hearted jab fans often take at Valve. “Fans online have spun HotS’ slow but sure development pace into an inside joke, saying they owe the game’s continued life to a theoretical hero: the nameless ‘janitor’ who keeps the lights on and does an occasional balance pass.” Considering Blizzard recently updated HotS’ main menu to feature the Janitor Leoric skin, it seems this inside joke may have gotten Blizzard’s attention. This could still be entirely coincidental, of course.

Heroes of the Storm hasn’t received any major content updates since the addition of Warcraft’s Hogger in 2020. As I said, HotS was placed in “maintenance mode” limbo two years after that. However, it seems the Heroes of the Storm community intends to keep the game alive and kicking for as long as possible. Dedicated fans may get the attention of Blizzard (and Microsoft) and convince them to give HotS a shot in the arm. HotS wouldn’t still be bringing in money without its player base, after all. Microtransactions don’t buy themselves, not yet, at least.

I know there are still some naysayers out there who think it’s silly to believe Blizzard and/or Microsoft will bother attempting to properly revive Heroes of the Storm. To those people, I say this: You may well be right. However, you should still keep in mind that hardly anyone expected Valve to do anything about the legions of bots and cheaters that plagued Team Fortress 2 for years. Look where we are now on that front. I stand with the HotS community and share their optimism that Blizzard will see Heroes of the Storm still has plenty of life left.