Is Heroes Of The Storm Coming To Steam?
Is Heroes of the Storm the next Blizzard game to be put on the Steam platform? with recent balance patches, recent changes at Blizzard and the Microsoft Acquisition, we believe it’s very possible. Maybe just maybe Blizzard and Microsoft have pressed the resurrect spell on Hots.
Microsoft gaming CEO Phil Spencer comments about how much he would like to revisit some historical IPS from Blizzard.
Heroes of the Storm is an IP-specific MOBA that really has one of the most dedicated fan bases I have ever witnessed. Now in addition to Phil Spencer’s comments last week we also got a huge balance patch.
So what does this all mean is Heroes of the Storm back on the menu? Has the past couple of years of the fan base trying to keep the game alive finally seen its hopes and dreams come to fruition?
Let’s dig a bit deeper into this story and find out.
Hots Latest Balance Patch Brings Hope To The Community :
We got a 16 November 2023 Heroes of the Storm patch note now why is this so surprising over a year ago Blizzard announced that they ceased active development for Heroes of the Storm but that they would treat it in the same way that they treat other veteran games in the blizzard repertoire like StarCraft 1 and 2 and that they keep the service up and running they fix a couple of bugs and “balance” patches as needed.
but it’s been like one and a half years since the last “balance” patch.
Recently we got the Heroes of the Storm patch notice on 20th September 2023, and this is where my metaphorical brow began to figuratively raise on my metaphorical forehead.
Heroes bug fixes have come out of nowhere, and there are many questions regarding what this means for the future of Hots. Blizzard, of course, has since been successfully acquired by Microsoft.
So what could this accusation mean for Hots well let’s dig a little deeper.
Microsoft's takeover of Blizzard :
Blizzard has been successfully acquired/adopted by Microsoft, and policy changes may be related to that, either before the acquisition was official in anticipation of the acquisition or shortly after Microsoft’s takeover of Blizzard.
What can we say is what’s going on here? Well, there’s a couple of theories floating around. Recently, Diablo went to Steam, and OverWatch 2 went to Steam, and these are deal breakers for Blizzard’s tradition of keeping everything on their own Battlenet platform.
The Battlenet launcher was, of course, the proprietary launcher for all games Blizzard. So for them to go to other platforms was quite a surprise
So, more than five years ago, Blizzard began thinking about putting their games on other platforms in order to attract a wider audience, and this is also crucial since part of the reason for Microsoft’s $69 billion buyout of Blizzard.
The takeover of Blizzard was delayed due to FTC regulation issues in many nations in America and the United Kingdom, and the concern was anti-competitiveness. So, when one huge entity, such as Microsoft, acquires another big player, such as Blizzard, the risk is that Microsoft would make consumer-unfriendly adjustments, such as making all Blizzard titles only available on Xbox.
Consequently, the Takeover is possible. Microsoft and Blizzard had to demonstrate that they would not engage in anti-consumer exclusivity strategies in which certain of their games would only be accessible as exclusives on a single platform, thereby locking out competitors such as PlayStation and PC.
So it makes sense for OverWatch 2 and Diablo 4 to be on Steam as part of demonstrating that games will now be available on a variety of platforms.
Bug Fixes and Preperation For A Bigger Auidenece:
So, maybe Heroes of the Storm is also heading to steam, and if it is, maybe this is part of a preparatory patch that makes it a little bit more ready for a larger audience.
Now, where did all of these Bug fixes come from, and how did they get the list correct? Is the active player base still submitting feedback for flaws in the current patch, despite the fact that the interval between the July 2022 patch and the September 2023 patch is more than a year and the July 2022 patch was so tiny that we could be forgiven for thinking nothing else will ever happen again for Hots.
The way things work in development teams generally, when active development is still going on, there will be a really big bug list in the development team that could be hundreds or even thousands of known bugs on a priority list that they will work through day by day as they have time permitted, budget permitted, staff permitted, and they will go through the bugs from the worst ones first, game-breaking ones then lesser ones.
so my guess is that the this this bug list was stored somewhere at Blizzard and therefore good information was available.
Hero Difficulty Reclassification :
We’re going to see difficulty categorization updates, which seems odd for a game that has basically been neglected for the last year or two.
I honestly believe that this indicates that more attention will be drawn to the game in the near future. This is especially crucial in terms of new audiences coming in, and what better way to gain a new audience than by placing Hots on Steam.
Now, let’s pretend this is a genuine hypothetical and people will be flocking to Heroes of the Storm via Steam, you now have a larger audience, thus the next natural step is to reopen for payment modifications.
Will Hots Be Profitable for Microsoft And Blizzard?
The current shop is still working, buying Heroes is still required outside of the free-to-play rotation you can earn and grind dozens of Heroes but unless you play for thousands of hours you won’t unlock all the heroes that are normally for payment in Hots just quite yet.
So there is a there is a profit incentive even in the current structure of Heroes to bring in more people which is likely going to convert to monetary a profit for Blizzard even without creating new content.
If they anticipate a new audience finding Heroes of the Storm as one of the main MOBAs alongside Dota 2 and League of Legends, with Heroes of the Storm being uniquely positioned as the MOBA that doesn’t take itself as seriously as the other two.
It is not as toxic as League, it has great graphics and audio, it is not as complex as DOTA 2, and it is accessible with all of the well-known Blizzard characters that you know and love.
Even if this is a far-fetched goal, I believe the door is open for them to create one new hero per year, perhaps two, as DOTA 2 does.
Even if they only do one new hero per year, that would be fantastic game marketing. As it stands, you could add a handful more cool Blizzard universe heroes.
It might re-energize the player base, attract more players, and generate a profit. It’s not always about having the biggest and most successful game; you can have extra profit streams. It makes sense for Microsoft and Blizzard, in my opinion.
Which hero would you like to see enter the Nexus next? Let us know in the comments below.
Possible Ease Of Life Changes Needed For Heroes Of The Storm
Final Verdict: Will Microsoft Bring Back Heroes Of The Storm?
With all these interesting niche changes, you wouldn’t be improving the underpinnings of Hots like this unless you’re looking to show it to a new audience I have to believe that.
If we get all these great changes as well as if Heroes of the Storm is put on Steam, I think Hots will be back on the MOBA Menu in full swing.
What hero you love hasn’t been introduced to the Nexus yet and you want to see in Hots? Let us know in the comments below.
We’d love to hear your thoughts.
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