With just days left before BlizzCon 2019 kicks off, Blizzard Entertainment continues to find itself at the center of controversy. The past year has not always been great for the legendary studio from layoffs to disappointing announcements, and the most recent controversy with Hearthstone Grandmaster Chung Ng Wai. This week, the studio confirmed even more bad news revealing that three senior developers have decided to leave the company.
According to a statement from Blizzard Entertainment, StarCraft 2 lead designer and Heroes of the Storm game director Dustin Browder, former Hearthstone production director Jason Chayes, and former Hearthstone director Eric Dodds quietly left the studio a few months ago. Blizzard goes on to make it clear that development is a collaborative effort, attempting to reassure fans who may be worried at how the games may be impacted. What's surprising about the reveal is how under the radar it was, only being noticed in a recent Kotaku article which detailed the studio's struggle in 2019.
Interestingly enough, the timing of the departures lines up with a cancelled game project codenamed Ares. According to reports, the title was planned to be a new shooter that took place inside of the StarCraft universe. Browder and Dodds were also linked to the game before it was ultimately canned. It's unknown why this game was ultimately cancelled but it isn't the first time that Blizzard has stopped development on a non-RTS style StarCraft title. While this may sound familiar to the fate of StarCraft Ghost, this recent cancellation did not result in any layoffs.
For all of the bad that has come out over the past 12 months, Blizzard is hoping to counteract a lot of it by making some major surprise announcements at BlizzCon this weekend. While it may not be enough to completely wipe the slate clean with fans, rumors seem to hint that the studio is preparing to reveal a lot of new content such as a PvE focused Overwatch 2. The Diablo franchise may also be getting much of the spotlight this year with a remastered version of the second game as well as the long awaited next entry in the series, Diablo 4.
Source: PCGamer