Hundreds of people lost their jobs after Blizzard stopped supporting Heroes of the Storm esports

After the heated debate about Diablo Immortal last month, we can clearly see Blizzard is starting to cut costs and prioritize launching more new titles. While Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm (HOTS) is one of the smaller games, it still has a steady eSports community. But recently Blizzard has announced that it will stop supporting HOTS eSports, which means hundreds of people lose their jobs.

Earlier this year, Blizzard’s chief financial officer (CFO), Amrita Ahuja, announced in a company meeting that Blizzard needed to cut costs and “not spend what is not needed.” Now, towards the end of 2018, Blizzard announced on social media that they will no longer support the eSports HOTS event in 2019.

This decision shocked hundreds of eSports players, casters and everyone involved in the HOTS competition. Over 200 people lost their jobs as a result of this decision, and many of them rely entirely on eSports HOTS as their primary source of income.

As someone who’s commentated Heroes of the Storm since 2015, I mostly really feel for the 200+ pro players who have lost their jobs via a blog post today. I always loved casting Heroes, so it’s tragic to see it go so suddenly. Thanks for all the kind messages today, friends.

— Wolf Schröder (@proxywolf) December 14, 2018

While HOTS has never been seen as Blizzard’s most successful title, the game’s main attraction is competition. Now, without eSports, it can hardly compete with Dota 2 or League of Legends – two popular games that continue to have strong eSports support.

Although Blizzard officially stopped participating in eSports HOTS, the company continues to update and improve the game. In the blog post, Blizzard elaborates, “Ultimately, we want to make sure the game can last a long time.” Also, while Blizzard is cutting support for eSports HOTS, that doesn’t mean third parties will stop hosting their own eSports HOTS.

While eSports HOTS ended somewhat unexpectedly, it’s not surprising that many factors were considered in the process. CFO Amrita Ahuja highlighted how 2018 will turn out for Blizzard as she announced she will focus on cutting unnecessary costs. Additionally, many believe the decision on HOTS was heavily influenced by pressure from Activision, which wanted to sell more games.

Heroes of the Storm is now available on PC.

Source: Blizzard, Kotaku, Twitter