Blizzard is reportedly working on new installments of their hit franchises
Diablo and
Overwatch, according to a new report from Kotaku. Unfortunately, these projects do not come without sacrifice as the developer has scrapped plans for a first-person shooter game based on the immensely popular
StarCraft strategy franchise.
Kotaku reportedly spoke to multiple people familiar with the inner workings of Blizzard, and allege that the now-canceled project — code-named Ares — was "
like Battlefield in the StarCraft universe." The game was supposedly in development for the past two years. A prototype of the game seemed to exist, putting players in the boots of a Terran marine who could "gun down Zerg aliens." There was also some experimentation with the player controlling a playable Zerg character.
In addition to canceling "Ares" (the StarCraft project), Blizzard also pulled the plug on a second unannounced mobile project. Thankfully, none of the staff or developers working on these games were laid off as a result of the cancelations; they were moved to the upcoming
Diablo 4 and
Overwatch 2 games that will reportedly be announced at this year's BlizzCon in November.
Blizzard did issue a full statement when asked about the games, and while they don't comment on unannounced projects, the response itself seems to validate Kotaku's report.
We don’t generally comment on unannounced projects but we will say the following:
We always have people working on different ideas behind the scenes – including on multiple projects right now – but the reason we tend not to discuss them publicly is because anything can happen over the course of development. As has been the case at Blizzard numerous times in the past, there is always the possibility that we’ll make the decision to not move forward on a given project. Announcing something before we feel it’s ready stands the risk of creating a lot of frustration and disappointment, both for our players and us, not to mention distraction and added pressure for our development teams.
We pour our hearts and souls into this work, and as players ourselves, we know how exciting it can be to see and know with certainty that a new project is coming. Knowing that changes or disappointments can happen doesn’t make it any less painful when we have to shelve a project or when an announcement doesn’t go as planned. We always make decisions about these things, regardless of the ultimate outcome or how things might be interpreted, based on our values, what we believe makes sense for Blizzard, and what we hope our players will enjoy the most. The work that goes into these projects – whether they ship or not – is extraordinarily valuable. It often leads to great things and helps foster a culture of experimentation here.
With all that said, we’re very much looking forward to revealing other things we’re working on when the time is right.
Overwatch 2 and
Diablo 4 are said to be "key parts of Blizzard's strategy in the years to come." While not much is known about either game,
Overwatch 2 will allegedly have "a large PvE element." BlizzCon 2019 runs from November 1-3.