Abandoned by Blizzard - The Tragedy of Heroes of the Storm

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The genre that encompasses games such as Dota and League of Legends sprouted from Defense of the Ancients, a fan-developed mod designed within the framework of Warcraft 3. It seemed fitting, then, that Warcraft creator Blizzard Entertainment would announce a multiplayer online battle arena, or MOBA, of its own during BlizzCon 2010.
A fully-fledged MOBA, the project bore many names and assumed multiple forms throughout its relatively brief lifecycle. It first appeared manifested as Blizzard DOTA, then adopted the title of Blizzard All-Stars due to a legal dispute, before the developer settled on Heroes of the Storm. But the name arguably mattered little overall, especially since players had made their preferences known by the time Blizzard tried cutting itself a piece of the battle arena pie.
A couple delays and a production overhaul meant Heroes of the Storm wouldn’t arrive until roughly five years after stealing the spotlight at BlizzCon in 2010. When its servers finally came online, Valve and Riot Games had cornered the market with Dota and League of Legends, respectively, leaving barely any room for another property to muscle its way inside. Still, Blizzard made an attempt, and succeeded to some degree.
Heroes of the Storm challenged the familiar design paradigms of battle arenas, which allowed the Warcraft studio to carve out a unique space. Professional and collegiate-level Esports leagues even spawned from the endeavor, yet Heroes never quite reached the heights of its competitors. As a result, the game’s few successes did nothing to stave off its early trip to the graveyard of discontinued online services.
This is the tragedy of Heroes of the Storm.
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[@GVMERS]

Download Opera GX for free here: operagx.gg/GVMERS2

[@jrrr9219]

So.... Babylon's Fall for next video? Awesome.

[@bahemutking12]

Abandoned by Disney...... Abandoned by God!!!!!!

[@BacksliderML]

Shared xp and the absence of gold and items lead this game to death. If they do a remake, it will become the best moba this world has known.

[@vincenttorres4953]

@Brian Babin ratio

[@OscarMemo333]

fu

[@kevinloesch]

HotS was and is my favorite MOBA. It is solid and doesn't take itself too seriously. It is pure strategic entertainment

[@famulanrevengeance3044]

+ while alot of people claim it's noob friendly, competetive HotS is actually nuts. Never a dull moment, constantly rotating, clearing waves, trying to get picks. While in League you can sit under your tower, freeze and wait 10 minutes, you can't do that in HotS without losing :D

[@ryzenwick120]

Yes, it's incredible how little time we have as grown ups so this small but frenetic game experiences are actually valuable

[@mward5962]

Yeah there absolutely was a space in the MoBA market for a game where matches have an average length of 10 to 20 minutes, and yet don't feel overly short. It's just... maybe that space wasn't particularily profitable for a company owned by Bobby "Forced a woman to commit suicide" Kotick.

[@capitalistamalvadao4278]

@@famulanrevengeance3044 Yes, but you're being unfair with league. The reason Hots is like this is because of its simplicity. In other words: you can only do this in hots because there's nothing much else to do.

[@gigaus0]

my azmodan would like to have a word with that 'strategic' part.

[@dc8836]

The failure of HotS is really indicative of how poorly managed a company Blizzard had become by the late 2010's. If they weren't so goddamned *obsessed* with milking it for esports money, they had a really unique and fun product on their hands. Heroes of the Storm didn't *need* to out-compete League or DotA... because it wasn't trying to *be* League or DotA. It's the same reason DotA doesn't try to out-League League, and League isn't busily trying to ape DotA. They have their own niche markets and playstyles and there's no need to try and take a piece of the other's pie. It's the typical high-level incompetence and greed that's come to define Blizzard since the Activison merger, a little more each year.

[@seld2040]

HotS had its market, and there arguably some data to support the idea it was gaining ground in the esports area... events where getting more attention when they took the plug. It all went downhill from there. However, I'm still a firm believer that there should be two configurations for games: casual and ranked. Tuning abilities and heroes for the ranked area just make the casual area go boring, because at the end balance is doing the same numbers, depriving heroes from their uniqueness.

[@lightmagus]

Executive at the same company goes "We're doing record profits" and also "hey, this is not making dota money, gut it down", I really hope Microsoft gets them back on track or they run the risk of turning everything into Immortal type games

[@peterneimann9803]

They were rot way before that

[@Outwardpd]

Honestly HoTS is the perfect example of Blizzard losing its ability to smell the market. They made a game that had a really solid foundation but they just couldn't figure out what was making it unable to carve a player base. To me it was pretty obvious, the game took too long to address many strategic concerns and ended up making the game feel more like a mini-game version of what it was supposed to be. It swung pace wildly and diminished the strategic aspects far too much. It missed out on allowing proper customization of the characters, the talent system was great but a complete lack of ways to really differentiate your way to play made the metas stale and burdensome. It needed items, even if they added a unique way separate from CSing to obtain the requirements for them. Especially since this was a blizzard game who has many of the most iconic items in gaming history, hence why items were such a big deal in DOTA1 in fact. The maps were small which meant almost everything was cramped and isolating someone was almost impossible unless you were among a select few heroes capable of 100-0ing someone. Too forgiving in poke and micro play, too punishing in playing from behind and losing a singular fight often decides the entire match due to snowballing from the talent system. HoTS had an amazing game if they had just started experimenting properly, but something has made Blizzard cower at thinking outside the box these days.

[@Arouxayis]

It was made worse because back then they also listened to LoL retirees competing in HGC to "make the game more like league." So they made the game more like league. Also the whole trying to make the game an Esport while it was in it's alpha stages was completely inorganic and transparent of Blizzard's greed. IMO losing Dustin as captain was a huge blow, although he was the one that brought the dumpster fire of a hero tracer was.. for the most part the game was in a good state. 2.0 did bring new life but it was temporary because people were farming a WoW mount, OW skins, etc. Imo 2.0 set it on a course to kill itself inevitably. I also dislike how they got rid of the specialist class, it set itself from other moba's with that.

[@vaporwave2345]

As a League veteran of over 10 years I LOVED HOTS and felt that fun was it's main priority over the sweaty "eSports" of other games.

[@PNWAffliction]

yea having quick 35 min games intead of 1.5 hour fkfests where 1 connection drop, lag spike, or dog fart at the door spelt a 100% waste of time.

[@marlowencna]

Same boat. League maybe be my most played BUT Heroes was my fave MOBA

[@barretxiii27]

Yup. When it came to MOBAs I've played League, DOTA2, Smite, Heroes of Newerth, HotS, Strife, Paragon, and even Arena of Valor on mobile. Yet it was HotS that felt like one of the most fun of the bunch (Also liked Strife and Paragon, but those died rather fast). The simplistic nature of the character progression meant less bitching about item builds, and the varied environmental mechanics of certain maps and varied gameplay changes meant that a common "meta" wouldn't be as prevalent and thus won't generate as much of a toxic player base. It felt the most "casual", and honestly that's why it could be genuinely fun to play. The two big juggernaut titles are so ingrained in the "esports" scene, that they're saturated by an overwhelmingly toxic player base that's obsessed with the "meta" and playing the "right way". Everyone acts they're gonna be part of the next big team that's gonna win millions of dollars at the tournament, and they won't hesitate to shit on anyone who doesn't play to absolute perfection. Even though HotS got into the export scene, the game itself was so simple and casual that it actually felt possible to have fun most of the time. Games were pretty short compared to other titles, character upgrades were subtle yet they pretty much all felt viable, and it was just such a nice laid back experience that didn't chase me away like the two big ones do.

[@Bleusilences]

Also the shorter time span of the game worked in it's favor. I hated that DOTA 2 and lol game is 30-45 minutes. Often you lose around the 20 minutes mark and the rest of the game is just a painful spiral into a lose with almost no way out.

[@ricozkirihara2798]

I agreed. It may not be the most competitive moba but it was honestly the most fun moba out of all of them.

[@italolxd3128]

The worst thing about heroes of the storm is that the game is still played by a lot of players. You will still find a game very fast. I really REALLY hope Microsoft tries to revive it and maybe even use it for their own crossover. Imagine: Minecraft Steve, Diablo, Master Chief and Arthas in one game. That's just the peak of a massive iceberg.

[@raptorxrise5386]

We can only hope. Not only is it a fun game but to me its like the smash ultimate of blizzard games. Not only is the gameplay fun but having all these characters in one game makes it such a good glue to tie all of blizzards ips together.

[@MangaGamify]

I hope they add items now, it's ironic they're the birthplace of the genre yet have no items, I see they added so much stuff and some extremely technical stuff like ranking I could barely recognize anything now. They should add items, as other's had said, it feels monotonous w/out items.

[@izicadet9819]

we can try petitions so microsoft sees it and maybe they'll do something. Blizzard could actually "give" HOTS to a independent developers team that could be supervised by some Blizzard agents... I mean they can still do something good, in Europe the game is quite alive. you'll find a match in like 60 seconds in any mode lmfao.

[@chengongwu5718]

>Lots of players most of them are trolls and casuals

[@raptorxrise5386]

@@chengongwu5718 There are not that many trolls in my experience. And casuals? Wtf is a "casual"? Hots is in general a less sweaty game. I think you ended up in the wrong game. Lol is the riot client not battle net

[@Donutearthpodcast]

This video hurts. I had the collectors edition box and put so much money into this game. Additionally I used to play this game for hours every day, after this game announced that it was ending its e sport and all that stuff, I don't think I touched another blizzard game since out of frustration with them.

[@FR4M3Sharma]

Just why do you people like shoving your own money into a product you don't own and know that can be taken offline whenever the author/manufacturer/producer feels like is just beyond my comprehension. I have spent like 5$ on Steam in like 8 years that I've been on it. The only games I've purchased are the Valve Complete Pack and Black Mesa Source both of them during the summer sale. Never spent a dime on cosmetics and shit.

[@gabriatus9508]

@@FR4M3Sharma im no expert but i think people usually like to spend money on stuff they like (sorry for bad english)

[@captainfantastic7643]

@@FR4M3Sharma wow you must be the most efficient guy writing 2 paragraph long biographies no-one gives a shit about in KZbin comments.

[@ardonis99]

@@FR4M3Sharma why do you eat? Ur just gonna shit it out - what a waste of money. Not ur money not your problem

[@OshMMf]

Wtf, there was a physical edition?

[@eriktred]

my favorite online game. low barrier of entry, challenging to master. fast paced and quick matches. Even though it's dev has stopped, I'm still enjoying it.

[@nyerion5712]

My most fun games were me as an offensive Kharazim, with the level 1 quest plus the flurry of punches at level 13/14 I was almost unstoppable, but it was hard to get the team to cooperate sometimes

[@doubleclick4132]

i just wish they had a 3v3 small arena pvp mode. no creeps, no objectives, just a small map with a few walls for cover, 1tnk,1healer,1dd....i love the fighting in mobas but i cant stand the damn objectives getting in the way

[@SolusBatty]

Me and my friends reinstalled HotS 2 days ago and had so much fun, just like before. I played Dota 1 for years, then League for years and HotS was the best one. It focused on what mattered. This is truly a tragedy.

[@kevingriffith6011]

I recently started playing the game again too (Like... last week) and I was pretty shocked by how quick the queue times are, even though the game is "dead". (For context, Quick Play queue was about one minute and ARAM was less than 10 seconds). It's still absolutely worth playing today.

[@twotoohonest2907]

@@kevingriffith6011 ARAM is fun at times, no strategy just chaos

[@ottolilja4673]

It's crazy how hots is still fun despite getting no meaningful updates for over a year, while games like league of legends gets a new champion every other month and still doesn't make me wanna play it.

[@virgobro2025]

Still fun af

[@TomLehockySVK]

There was also the disaster how they handled the eSports scene - so many people were playing the game for years in preparation for tournaments, and Blizzard in their wisdom (or more accurately zero f*** given) just made a twitter post announcing they have no more plans for an eSport scene. Shame on Blizzard.

[@tincano-beans2114]

Fun > esports. You want esports you can play league where esports fucked balance sideways.

[@Roovka_]

What's worse is journalists knew about the shutdown of its esports scene before the people who put their heart and soul into the game showing just how much Blizzard cared about its community.

[@Roovka_]

@@tincano-beans2114 Horrible take. There were a lot of people involved in the esports part of HotS that lost their jobs overnight. Also I don't think you really understand balance in LoL when Riot actively balanced based on their ranked system that any old shmuck can play. Ranked is nowhere close to how professional teams play the game.

[@TomLehockySVK]

@@tincano-beans2114 You have zero idea what you are talking about. Roovka explained exactly what i wanted to say how actual jobs were lost.

[@WHATTHEH4CKZ]

Especially since they had already stated that the scene was going to continue regularly the following year just weeks before they made that post.

[@DyoKasparov]

Legit the only moba I liked, nothing else came close to this. The simplistic yet competitive gameplay, with already known from other games characters

[@DyoKasparov]

@Donnie Darko cold also b a reason lol - more casual with less tryhards

[@tyrap6949]

@Donnie Darko What does it matter if its a "noob game"? Its fun.

[@kctr_ch7021]

Best character/skill set design of all moba for me i have really lil hope they change it to mobile would be really enjoyable and suitable for short time playing

[@odalicio]

Dude same. Tried LOL, but I gotta admit even vs AI HoTs got me for longer time

[@thevomit5851]

@Donnie Darko Okay go back to your endlessly tedious creep farming, because that's "fun" apparently.

[@Tallborn5]

Plz Microsoft don't let this game die.

[@antoniogiannuzzi1256]

I would not say it was "too little, too late", I'd say in stead "wanting too much, too soon". Blizzard's project was to rival or even best the popularity of LOL and DOTA 2 which were some of the most successful games in history, were on the market longer and had reacher character roasters, this in a genere which is developed piece by piece, step by step. I think they could have even achieved that by playing for the long run. A further problem was Blizzard never ment HOTS as a "main game", but always cast it aside because they feared HOTS could have taken too much SC, Diablo or even worse the highly paying WOW players. So the impression my friends and I always had was Blizzard never wanted to fully commit into the game, but at the same time they wanted it to be one of the most successful games in history. They wanted the moon! The last problem was, as you sayed, the game kept changing rapidly over the years, year after year changing director and future projects and in the end no game director was in charge of any project and all this changing lead the game into chaos. The sickest thing of all is that despite all this they had an amazing game in their hands, with a loyal player base and they made good income out of it, but since the game did not match their absurds financial goals they shut it down anyway in 2018 (not technically, but signaling it as a dieing game). That's the crazyest thing of all! It's like they wanted to win the heavyweight championship closing every match first round, with a hand tied to the back and without much of a sweat.🤯 I belive this whole disaster was caused by "wanting too much, too soon".🪦

[@Kimera92]

Couldnt agree more I'm still hoping Microsoft revives this IP with the Activision/Blizzard aquisition. One can dream.

[@antoniogiannuzzi1256]

@@Kimera92 I think Microsoft has absolutely no intention of resurrecting this game whatsoever, but I have a certain feeling they are interested about Warcraft 3 IP. So maybe we'll see some sort of MOBA in the future, but it will be bond to Warcraft 3. I can't tell if they are going to rebuild W3 from scratch or if they'll try to fix what they have though. Finger crosed.🤞

[@Kimera92]

@@antoniogiannuzzi1256 Microsoft could add their own IPs to Hots tho. That would be a cool way of advertizing their other games and vice-versa. Just imagine Ori, Master Chief, Steve and Banjoe-Kazooie entering the nexus, I would shit my pants lol

[@antoniogiannuzzi1256]

@@Kimera92 I don't know, it sounds like a clown fiesta to me. The game has already as it is a low identity since it's a Blizzard all stars, if you inject all this kind of stuff in it people wouldn't even know what the game is about. It would feel like a dispersive strange commercial. I would have wanted a Warcraft MOBA with some skins and special, rare cameos of Diablo and Star Craft. Even the Nexus and it's lore feels out of place to me.

[@Kimera92]

@@antoniogiannuzzi1256 I'm sorry, but low identity? It's the moba with the most identity considering every character is iconic, unlike league and Dota which new heroes are always another random generic re-work of the same old heroes I strongly disagree

[@Ragelia]

I still love this game. It's my go-to game when I wanna play a MOBA game.

[@Roshea]

This video might have come too soon, there’s a chance for additional crossovers if Microsoft decides to invest in Hots and turn it around like Ubisoft did to R6S

[@raptorxrise5386]

@@Roshea tbf this video is still right. There are still players playing it but by all accounts the game is dead. At most it could be revived

[@Draeckon]

@@raptorxrise5386 Less dead, more like on life support - like an iron lung. It's up in the air whether or not it will have the plug pulled or if maybe, possible, Microsoft decides to breathe new life into it.

[@raptorxrise5386]

@@Draeckon How would the plug be pulled? The only way it could get worse is if they shut down the servers but i doubt that would happen as long as some people are still playing

[@ultimategrungo]

I liked HOTS specifically because it took mechanical risks. No CSing, no fiddly item system, and some real weird champs. It was so fresh and fun for the genre.

[@godot1785]

it had so goddamn many good things . awesome champ ideas, multiple maps ( why are lol and dota acting like its a impossible thing to do?´hots showed us it can be awesome) and many more things hots was the best moba of all time

[@HumbleHonkingEnthusiast]

I miss my dude abathur

[@Aliens1337]

Those are the reasons it failed. HoTS was a brawler, not a MOBA. It is fun to play at a casual level, but very shallow at high level. Proof is that HoTS never got the amount of viewership that other Blizzard titles have like Overwatch or Starcraft. The peak of HoTS viewership was like 80k viewers. League's peak viewership for World's championship in 2021 was nearly 80 MILLIONS viewers. HoTS has long time to kill due to low personal dmg + very high sustain, solo kills are basically impossible + shared EXP. This is intentionally designed so a totally newb will never get stomped by a better players like LoL or DoTA. Again, this makes it fun for casual play, but also makes pro play very boring. People watch pro play to see their biggest stars popping off and completely demolish their opponents. That's never going to happened with a shared EXP system + no gold/items. People want to see aggression, kills, huge mechanical outplays that turn a teamfights around. That's not gonna happen in HoTS because of low dmg + high sustain. Most of the teamfights in pro play are two teams slapping each other like wet noodles and then one team back off when their resources are deleted. No kills happened, just war of attrition. That's not an enjoyable viewing experience.

[@CraftyArts]

yeah when I saw the item menu in league of legends I didn't get past the tutorial. It's just more busy body work to needlessly manage cause in the end you're gonna end up looking up some guide to follow on a forum anyways so it's not like you can afford to experiment a little and have fun with yourself unless getting stomped all the time is your idea of fun.

[@CrimzonAE]

Abathur mains let's gooooo

[@Daniel-vx8ke]

This game deserved so much more, an absolute gem

[@TheAdammantium]

What an odd feeling to see a video about the tragedy of HoTS while waiting for a match to start on said game. The game was indeed released too little too late; but I'm glad it has made itself a home for many players like myself during its tenure and even after it ceased development/support.

[@ihateyoubees]

Finally talking about a game I have thousands of hours in. Yeah it sucks that they finally announced there were going to be no more updates but we all saw the writing on the wall a long time ago. I still play HotS and really enjoy it. Lucio in the House!

[@FunkyPants92]

They will release balance patches tho

[@kisamebalusong4980]

@@FunkyPants92 maintenance mode

[@themore-you-know]

"Hmmmmmmm... acceptable." - Alarak

[@kobymusic108]

Keep it alive brother! I’m still playing as well

[@Tsugandate]

I've played other mobas way more than HotS, but out of all of them, HotS was probably the most fun overall, and maybe the best one in terms of presentation as well. There's so much variety in the gameplay between different maps and characters, and it's quite impressive how they managed to do that despite not having any itemization like other mobas do. I'll miss this game.

[@theatter1837]

it's not dead yet, you can just hop on for a QM and enjoy the cluster fuck that we all love

[@Oxazepam65]

Heroes of the storm was the game I never asked for, but ended up liking the most.

[@Stormche]

I always loved HotS. I STILL do, I still play it every now and then it's just as great as it always was. I'm glad that people are still playing it, queues are fast and I rarely see the same players twice. I just wish Blizzard came to their senses on it. It had a small but dedicated dev team, loved by the community for their efforts where most developers receive a ton of criticism.

[@FengshenNL]

I miss Kevin :(

[@TheWhiteWolf2077]

The design flaw was shared team exp- robs the game of big moment plays and player agency that you see in LoL and Dota 2.

[@Stormche]

@@TheWhiteWolf2077 I don't particularly agree, as a League player. You can still carry in HotS one some specific champs, but whenever you're on the receiving end of that one stomped in League, it's not a fun feeling or one where you can at any point turn the game around.

[@Kramerica962]

Man...I've been fearing that this video would become a reality at some point and here it is. Damn, talk about dropping the ball. I've spent countless hours and dollars on this game over it's life span. This one hurts to watch.

[@FunkyPants92]

Oh i did too...loads of money

[@lopiklop]

@@FunkyPants92 I never spent any money. I spent a lot of time on it though. I'm a WoW fan so I mainly tried to collect Warcraft heroes

[@FunkyPants92]

@@lopiklop i also play wow...but i love hots very much

[@lobstergod8993]

Never spent money but I am lvl 997 so I have a bit of time in it

[@FunkyPants92]

@@lobstergod8993 i played since day one beta, the good old days

[@Sta_cotto]

I always wanted this game to succeed, but not in the "dethrone DotA and LoL" way; I loved the art style, all the stories told by the alternative skins and just the sheer fun of the game. I always thought the biggest misstep was trying to force an eSports scene without letting it grow organically.

[@shanaeverowe9626]

I know it never became league or dota level, but 7 years of enjoyment out of a game is still something worth recognizing.

[@CubiStudios]

Blizzard might have dropped future updates, but at least the servers are still up for this game. I still play it at least once a week when I can get some friends together.

[@DaveVoyles]

I put a stupid amount of time into this game. It was actually really well polished, had tons of updates at the beginning, and was completely different from the other titles in the genre. The community was fantastic and I made some incredible friends along the way. It is just a damn shame that blizzard barely supported this product

[@Reknilador]

I've played HotS since the beginning of 2015 I got into the closed beta. I never liked MOBA games but i fell in love with HotS, a new hero every 2 weeks constant patches with changes, new maps, it was insane! In 2018 a patch called 2.0 comes out, tonnes of new stuff, old players got rewarded with so many chests with skins and mounts, it was so awesome, and then they axed it... The team was really passionate that worked on hots they gave it their best, I''m sad that blizzard killed the game. It did not have the best matchmaking I'll admit, more resources should have been diverted to it, hots came out just a tad bit too late, if it came out a year earlier in 2014 it would have been a different story, but it got overshadowed by other titles. Still, I log in on occasion to play some casual games, I still get instant queues, so it's not the end of the world, but it's extremely sad, one of my favorite online games of all time.

[@MissClickGaming]

Still log into the game to this day and can't help but feel grief. Since 2014 it's been one of my favorites through the ups and downs. Maybe one day again. 💔

[@bjt0056]

Heroes of the Strom is the only moba I could get into. I loved that game all the way to the end.

[@Nillerus]

Still has short queue times, hop back in.

[@itsyogirlcrim1476]

HotS is my favorite MOBA of all time. It’s such a tragic fate for such a unique MOBA.

[@Stef-an]

I'd love to see more Blizzard games on your channel. They got some of the most influential franchises in gaming history

[@lilpp4791]

But they are greedy bastards

[@OBIONEBARRONI]

The only thing keeping HoTS going was the micro transactions. Because of some places cracking down on gambling they started loosing money for a game who only had a small Community. “If the money isn’t there then we don’t care.” -Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick

[@WHATTHEH4CKZ]

I mean, the game did make them money - plenty of inside sources claimed so. It just wasn't as much as Hearthstone, WoW or Overwatch made them. So when they made a lot of bad decisions and also screwed up with the Diablo Immortal reveal in late 2018, HotS was the game that got punished for it.

[@TheCooderix]

@@WHATTHEH4CKZ Their investor report doesn't even include hots because it's a blimp on the radar in comparison to these other games.

[@GigioR]

I freaking loved this game so much, the quick matches and team leveling just made it unique for me and a game I knew I could finish in my break at work, such a freaking shame

[@thevomit5851]

Can't you still play the game though?

[@mr_ekshun]

While I'm heartbroken that HotS (and the dev team that clearly cared about their game) was abandoned by Blizzard, I was really happy to see there were still plenty of active players when I logged back on last month after a long break. Idk how many active players there are obviously, but my in-game experience and matchmaking time was just as good as it's always been and, in spite of the abandonment and lack of updates, the game still feels very alive. My brother even told me he saw somebody playing HotS on their laptop on university campus just a few weeks ago!

[@Seramics]

Keep Hots alive.

[@navjotsingh2251]

Since blizzard abandoned it they should just open source the project, have a community of developers/designers pick it up and continue to make it better.

[@matthewfuller8066]

People still play the game regularly. It’s still got a good community. It’s a shame that there is no more content.

[@Dezorbo]

Good community? The general chat in-game was some of the most toxic I've ever seen.

[@bismarckimperia8781]

@@Dezorbo You havent played League i guess.

[@Zinemay]

Simple to understand, yet very deep and interesting game. I played Dota for almost 5 years, tried LoL but finished my way in HoTs. Best friendly community, best tempo of games and best mechanics.

[@CraftyArts]

It did moba better then any of the others with it being balanced and not a second job in order to be good at, the other mobas a match could take hours but here it was 20-30 minutes. But alas it was around this time that what we knew as blizzard was gone with senior developers and other creatives leaving the company due to the environment created by the activision merger.

[@jeannecaelum5167]

That's especially sad for me, since I was playing this game since beta pretty much regularly, until the cracks started to show years later. They had such a good chance to grow and take care of this game, but here we are now :/

[@fringer6]

Loved HotS, because it just felt nice to play with strangers and friends alike. I still enjoy playing, due to it's ease to just pick up after months offline.

[@alrightyoreilly19]

Thanks for making this. Heros has some of my favorite characters in gaming. It is tragic that this game was left to die, but I am still happy to play, thinking of what new Heroes I would like to see added

[@AstroManriqueOrellana]

I don't see a tragedy anywhere. The game is live, I always find matches rapidly and the game is amazing.

[@Draeckon]

The problem is we won't be getting anymore heroes or maps anymore. I also miss the old Brawl feature that had fun scenarios to battle out, rather than just the boring ARAM mode that exists now. Escape from Braxis was by far my favorite one of the bunch, especially since it served as a vehicle for showing off all of the Zerg-themed skins and heroes.

[@joshuaperrin3910]

The fact that Blizztavision doesn't even see this game as a vehicle to advertise their other games is insane.

[@raptorxrise5386]

Agreed. They have a equivalent of smash ultimate on their hands that could be used to tie all of their games together but they only saw it a a failed attempt to get a bunch of money from a new genre

[@wuthghomer9546]

I not only love the game and have played non stop since release, I have the best memories of playing it with my dad. I hope that at least the community stays populated and doesn't die out. I would hate it if one day you can't find a match with other players or even worse, the game gets shut down

[@TheEDFLegacy]

Great subject for a video. I've always wondered how this failed. It was such a good game.

[@Draven.G]

Still the best moba in the scene and its not dead at all

[@Blakeness86]

Save some copium for me brother

[@notarmchairhistorian7779]

lmao

[@raptorxrise5386]

@@Blakeness86 What the means is that the playerbase is still there. Arguably abandoned is a much better term then dead

[@Shibby]

Tough to swallow and watch. I loved HOTS. Played at a Rank 1 level with friends. Such an excellent brawler/moba that cut a lot of the "BS" from others in the genre. Miss this game a lot. Reminds me of how Valve basically gave up on TF2...

[@MacCoy]

i loved heroes of the storm. played it alot until they announced the downsizing and the end of the esport thing. left a bad taste in my mouth. i kind of forgot it existed until recently when i tried to find out if i bought a thing on blizzards site and saw my purchases for heroes of the storm stuff.

[@GrumpyRook]

Man, your voice so similar to the "How It's Made" narrator. It so soothing, and nostalgic. I love this channel. Its relaxing just to listen to your videos!

[@Ausf.D.A.K.]

I hope Blizzard goes bankrupt.

[@Mixin88]

In theory almost happen that why MS was able buy it

[@twotoohonest2907]

I do too but I also don't want to lose the Hots servers or SC2 especially, the past year or so the modding community has gone nuts with what they can do with the built in dev tools

[@Mixin88]

@@twotoohonest2907 sadly we dont have this option for Hots

[@svenlul5105]

3:16 peak game development

[@matteofontana_]

"tragedy" is actually a good word to describe this

[@Suli5241]

The opening gave me chills, your videos are quality content

[@ryanpurdy9951]

what was that last video clip taken from? when the voice over says "wont be the last of its kind"

[@briealice1065]

I actually really loved this game. Out of the moba games I’ve played, this was my favorite.

[@JD-qq8fz]

3:16 Literally the first clip chosen for Blizzard working on a game: "..and then when the giant boobs are smushin like THIS..." Yeah, this is peak Blizzard

[@forsakensavior7316]

i saw that and was like oh another man of culture i see! lol

[@JanJanNik]

awooga

[@kenshigo3833]

Best gaming documentaries out there. You should be on streaming services!

[@OfficialPSUtube]

Great video guys! Love your work. Thank you!

[@executable3]

I remember wanting to get into this because it was like League but they removed a lot of the fluff like the illogical mechanic of last hitting and attrition based leveling and item progression. Not to mention they actually had more than one map (playing on just boring old Summoner's Rift was a major reason why I stopped)! But at that point I was done with MOBAs and stupid restrictive metas and also I only play multiplayer games with friends and none of them were interested in it. It's a real shame as from the outside looking in it looked like easily the best MOBA out there by leaps and bounds.

[@dc8836]

CSing isn't illogical in the slightest. It has a very clear, intended purpose in the game. But Blizzard showed that you don't have to clone DotA before trying to do your own thing. When you make XP and most rewards shared among the entire team instead of personal, suddenly there's no need for CSing.

[@StygianZinogrex]

@@dc8836 it also works on its favour on the respect of helping team mates, you don't lose a lot by losing a wave of minions for going to help on a gank or something, which it could hurt a lot on the early game on League/DotA, especially since maps are twice as big as hots and also you move way slower

[@mechkota]

This is the reason why HotS failed. Most people are enjoying mechanics like last hitting,items etc..

[@DRJuicyBear]

Last hitting was a boring BS mechanic. OH YOU MISSED 1 MOB? WELL THEN YOU LOSE!!!!! Items would've been good if there wasn't cookie cutter, it was so damn rubbish, the community is generally pretty good too.

[@skylex157]

@@mechkota last hitting was integrated to the game, enemies now drop exp orbs and last hitting instantly gives them to you instead of needing you to get close, also, no, there were a ton more reasons for hots to fail than this, most of them related to blizzard more than the game itself

[@Lord_Deimos]

Pulling the plug on HotS and Blizzcon 2018 were the last drop for me. I've been playing their games since the original Diablo, spent countless hours on WoW and loved HotS since beta but Blizzard is a joke. I have never touched their games since and I don't intend to ever again. I just can't bring myself to like this company anymore after all their bullshittery, scandals and mismanagement.

[@Lightboiardo]

Hopefully Hots will be back someday, I'm pretty sure the old fans will be there, with more to join if they hit the spot. :) Hots was/is such a daring game, and before they stopped updating it, it had tons of events, new heroes every 20-30 days, new maps, reworks, many original heroes, and slowly they were even starting to add lore to the Nexus. What a game.

[@TheBrokenEclipse]

Great video, I was never really part of the moba scene so HotS was never my kind of game, but it was really interesting hearing what happened to it!

[@Zetheseus]

i loved this game because it was fun and unique, but what i truly loved was the fact it felt like well written fan fiction. i just loved seeing all these characters interacting and also learning about characters from games im less familiar with. and only near the end of its life, they were adding characters that were original. i just think that the world had potential. edit: btw, i think we can all agree Kevin was the best

[@PhxSml]

I loved this game so much. I still play from time to time mostly because of nostalgia. It’s really sad they couldn’t make it work

[@mrbyorself]

I remember playing the custom game version of this on the Arcade in Starcraft 2. That was before HoTS came out, and it was my first introduction to a MOBA lol. I never touched HoTS unfortunately.

[@cI0udnine]

HOTS was a great MOBA, maybe the greatest. It had a quality of life that made it more relaxing to play. I never had to worry about item combinations and the ideal build. Unfortunately, it was designed to fail as an e-sport because of that imo.

[@zeebaa6]

I still play this almost daily. Just arams tho. My friend has nearly exclusively got to 1k with just arams lol. Something about it reminds me of 5v5 arena. They need to bring back the pvp medallion but for arams only tho lol. Rip

[@BlondeMcGuinn]

Reminds me of the death of Paragon, the best MOBA I ever played. God it was fun and I miss it dearly.

[@Gu3ssWhatsN3XT]

Same for me but with Master x Master. That game was by far my favorite moba ever and if NCsoft didn’t do what they always do I’d be playing it still every damn day

[@G281088]

Iim gonna be playing this game until the last server is down, this is my favorite game and I've met in real life with great people thanks to this game. As long this game is up, count me in!

[@drew8235]

Easily the best MOBA on the market and a huge missed opportunity. Tragedy is an understatement.

[@zgthor]

No

[@TheZachary86]

The best? Not by a longshot

[@Dr.Strangelewd]

HOTS had awful feedback from combat. I remember playing it for limited at the time Overwatch skin and gameplay felt nowhere close to LoL or DOTA, and HOTS was the first real MOBA I tried.

[@Aztonio]

@@Dr.Strangelewd I played DotA and LoL recently and they're SO outdated compared to Heroes ! the gameplay fluidity of StarCraft 2 engine is just far better. (Just an indication, you can make a character spin quickly on himself on the other games, not enough ticks)

[@Reshapable]

The "came out too late" thing is such a cop out. Smite came out a year before HotS and is STILL going strong with nowhere near the financial backing or popularity Blizzard had at the time. Blizz just wasn't satisfied with the bronze financial medal. The devs made a great game in spite of their superiors bungling.

[@adamms96]

3:17 that's some development alright....

[@Zeiss120]

I still play HoTS at least once a day. Very sad this game didn't catch on.

[@Denazon]

Awh its gone? I really enjoyed this MOBA. It was my favourite one.

[@Unislash]

It's still online, playable, and free. Just no new content.

[@fallenphoenixiv]

6.5 no comebacks, I loved how the devs even rolled with it cause it was obvious the person who reviewed it wasn't going to give any moba other than dota 2 a good score

[@marks7646]

Still fun game up to date. I’m playing in Korea only ARAM, queue time is in seconds and very competitive players to play with.

[@joshuamain5083]

What was the cinematic shown at the very start from?

[@krustbruh8841]

League and Dota

[@raulfreeman313]

Nemestice trailer. dunno the league one.

[@randallbishop6216]

Absolutely love this game. Hopefully after the merger MS brings it back to life!

[@1Daron2]

I played OG Dota and Dota 2 for many years and then switched to HOTS and i absolutely loved it, it was my favorite MOBA mainly because it was quick (matches last max 20min) there was no items (no farming) maps and heroes were creative and fun, support heroes were much more usefull then in Dota for example and it had a very high emphasis on teamwork. I was sure that this game will have a massive fan base and gonna go strong like Dota and League, then it fell of the cliff which is sad, but i will always remember countless hours of fun i had with this game.

[@YellowTissueBox]

GVMERS is one of the channels i just stop whatever i'm doing and tune in. Incredible work, you guys bring me and many others joy thanks for everything!

[@magneticzero9575]

RIP to the best game I played during my college years. It was a great run. I would play it still but it hurts to see that its last update was like 2 years ago.

[@ShiYuMeng2]

I literally just played this game online last night - so not discontinued online service YET

[@creepycassette]

2015-2017 really was a golden age for Blizzard, i remember playing HOTS every friday night, having some intense matches, and even more hype when overwatch came out and even crossed over into HOTS. Alas nothing good lasts forever, and all i can say is thanks for the hours of free entertainment from this amazing game, and the talented people who made it, and wishing all the best to those who I played with and played against.

[@Miketastic1990]

Golden Age was years before that during WOW.

[@marlowencna]

I think HOTS is the last innovative game from Blizzard

[@foristrothbert568]

You KNOW you're talking about old, pre-diversity/ESG score Blizzard when they actually says things like, "We have to do something to make the fans happy since they're paying our salaries."

[@michaelgarbett4088]

I still enjoy this game here and there. I hope one day it makes a comeback

[@5H4D3]

I'm still playing HoTs today, I can only hope that one day someone will pick it up and resume development.

[@tincano-beans2114]

A shame since Riot is such absolute trash.

[@FunkyPants92]

I play it every day, nothing is gonna make me play Dota2 or LoL

[@SubzeroCage]

There is still ranked play right? This video made it seem like the game is shut down

[@FunkyPants92]

@@SubzeroCage there is

[@seld2040]

@@SubzeroCage Game is functional, the only mode struggling to find players is Unranked, but that's because people prefer to play Ranked, it's almost the same anyways.

[@BobbyThompsonRocks]

I tried playing this, but I really didn't understand proper game play. People kept reporting me because they thought I was purposefully doing bad, but in fact I was just that bad... I ended up discontinuing playing because I didn't think I'd ever be able to master it.

[@limitess9539]

I played Dota for like 5 years before playing Hots and both were great in their own way. Hots has awesome music, interesting and creative maps, but I really wanted to see items in hots instead of talents, especially that you share the exp.

[@MADORCS]

Best MOBA ever!

[@seld2040]

Amen!

[@smittywerbenjagermanjensen752]

I put so much time & effort to obtain master skins. Wearing it before 2.0 was meaningful. Now you can just purchase it effortless.

[@zippydipity42]

HoTS is still the only MOBA I bother playing. The team coordination an composition feels like it matter so much more than something like League where you just try to get fed early and steamroll. There's a reason why there's no surrender option in HoTS - You can always make a comeback. Sometimes it's hard, but it's always very possible.

[@borispsalman]

Yup i remember a few games when we made a comeback from 1% core HP

[@marlowencna]

The first couple years was super fun for me. Only stopped because of the queue time

[@khaaaaaaaaan4580]

Would love to see something similar for Valve's Artifact :) Great video!

[@ashnovahmada499]

1 year ago I stop playing because my laptop was broken. Now I bought a new one and my favorite moba was shutting down. Damn, gotta play it for the last time

[@winter117a]

Is that a Travis Gafford sighting at 5:18?

[@jimmyji8086]

It's the fact there were different maps and objectives that made me love this game over LoL. I actually LOVE that game is a bit quicker and the team shared XP. Just made the game feel so much more about teamwork and less about individuals showing off. I still play it and you can find a game so quick....which hurts because it shows there is still a strong fan base ready to support the game.

[@user-go2ld4ti6r]

Little reminder: there was games before DotA map. Like AoS or DDDay. DotA-map just become more popular because more custom spells and items then that old maps.

[@KolMan2000]

I have over 5000 games to date in HOTS. It will always hold a place in my heart.

[@wolf1nsoul]

HoS was such a rare gem in the oversaturated market man, it makes me sad to think about what could have been...

[@Nedvesperec]

I loved this game, it's reminded me to Old Blizzard. I never really understand why this game was so underrated