With BlizzCon 2019 right around the corner, Blizzard President J. Allen Brack spoke to Gamespot to reflect on what fans can expect to see, and to reflect on the message they have mistakenly sent players recently and hopes to remind them that first and foremost, they are a PC game developer.

For those who may have forgotten, the convention of 2018 was largely panned as a disaster in the eyes of many fans when Blizzard went all in to present the next Diablo title at the largest Blizzard event of the year, only to reveal that the game was going to be a mobile exclusive. The negative reactions in person and online were swift, which jeers and boos going alongside memes poking fun at the company for being so out of touch with its core consumer base.

Speaking on the announcement of Diablo: Immortal, Brack stated that:

While such an explanation sounds fantastic, a brief look at Blizzard’s actions over the past year paint a completely different picture. We can point to several, but we will only look at three now. Since Brack brought up Diablo, it is only fair to point to the mismanagement and overall mess that was the handling of the third game in the series.

“The thing that we did a poor job of when we announced Diablo: Immortal was contextualizing what we think the future can be and what we think of mobile in particular. And I also think the key thing that was lost, that we did a poor job double emphasizing, is we are a PC developer first. And then we look for other platforms that we think are awesome that can support the types of gameplay experiences that resonate with the type of games and values that we want to put forth into the world… If we think about what mobile was going to be for Blizzard in the future, we think that mobile doesn’t have to be a lesser-quality experience. We think that we can make Blizzard-quality games.”

Recently, TheGamer discussed why Blizzard had begun working and then scrapped plans for a second expansion into Diablo 3 called The King in the North. This occurred years ago, and one would imagine if Blizzard were truly interest in PC game development, they would have had something, or rather, anything of substance to speak about at last year’s BlizzCon event. Instead, they showed their most dedicated PC gaming fans a mobile game.

Putting the Diablo series aside, there is also the frustration that came with how the company mistreated the fans and professional players of Heroes of the Storm. In December of 2018 Blizzard mostly gutted the development team for the game, leaving only a slow drip-feed of content, and cancelled all esports production, abandoning the game and the community who had put so much effort into the game.

Finally, the Starcraft series also shows virtually no plans for the near future either. This was revealed indirectly through the Second-Quarter 2019 Financial Results which listed all other Blizzard properties as continuing to be expanded upon, with the complete omission of Starcraft and instead focus on, of all things, Candy Crush. 

Blizzard can claim to be a PC gaming developer all it wants but needs to start backing its claims with even the barest minimum of efforts.

Source: Gamespot.com