Activision's gaming company Blizzard Entertainment continued to have success in 2014. Not only did the company release the digital trading card game "Hearthstone" and the MOBA "Heroes of the Storm," but it also created new expansions for established franchises "World of Warcraft" and "Diablo III". The gaming company revealed signs of its next steps with the announcement of the next expansion for Starcraft II and team-based shooter Overwatch at Blizzcon 2014. But how well did the company really do? And what else is in their future?
According to Yahoo Finance editor Tae Kim's unnamed source inside Blizzard, the company did quite well and has big plans moving forward.
"Hearthstone" hit 75 million players worldwide, a massive milestone compared to Blizzard's other games (such as "World of Warcraft," which had 11 million at its highest point). The company expects to release the next "Hearthstone" expansion, which will put more emphasis on player vs. enemy gameplay and 2 v. 2 action, in April.
The internal source reported that "Starcraft II's" next expansion, "Legacy of the Void," is already complete and ready to ship. While Blizzard hasn't officially settled on a release date for it, the unnamed source was willing to guess that the game will be released between April and July.
According to the source, Blizzard executives don't have high hopes for their MOBA, "Heroes of the Storm." The source expects Blizzard to let a lot of the senior staff go in the upcoming weeks.
Blizzard's latest project, "Overwatch," is still in development. The source stated that Blizzard isn't sure what to do with the project, business-wise-- the executives are divided over whether they should release the game as free-to-play or as an expansion-focused model. The source expects the game to be free-to-play, but it isn't 100 percent clear how players will acquire additional heroes. However, the source was willing to say that Blizzard wants to release "Overwatch" in some form by the end of 2015, but senior executives think it's more likely to hit the market in 2016.
While Blizzard's RPG "Diablo III" is still being patched and updated over time, the unnamed source said that some members of the team were moved to a new project. The project is supposedly set in the Starcraft Universe that will, according to the source, "Be similar to 'Warframe' and contain gameplay aspects from 'Left4Dead', 'DayZ', 'Smite' and other MOBAs." The source doesn't expect to see this project released until late 2016.
