Blizzard's MOBA Heroes Of The Storm Is Officially On Life Support

Blizzard is pulling the plug on new content development for its free-to-play MOBA Heroes of the Storm, which will stay online but will now only receive updates in the form of bug fixes, client sustainability patches, and balance updates "as needed."

Heroes of the Storm, which pits characters from across Blizzard's various universes against each other on a number of objective-focused maps, will join the likes of StarCraft and StarCraft II as legacy Blizzard titles that are no longer receiving new content, the company has announced. However, seasonal events and roster rotations will continue, and the in-game shop will stay online (though no new content will be added). Paid loot boxes were removed from Heroes of the Storm in 2019, but cosmetic items can still be purchased with currency earned in-game.

It's not the first time Blizzard has taken resources away from Heroes of the Storm. Back in 2018, Blizzard scrapped the game's competitive esports league and announced it was shifting developers away from the project. As a result, Blizzard announced content updates like new heroes and maps would come at a much slower pace than before. Since then, the game has received several new heroes (like Overwatch's Mei) and events, but it seems that is now officially coming to an end. This past June marked the game's seventh anniversary.

As a "thank you" to the game's community, Blizzard is gifting a rare in-game mount, the Arcane Lizard, to all players with the game's next patch.

"To our Heroes community, we say, 'thank you,'" Blizzard's official blog reads. "You continue to be one of our most passionate communities, we're grateful for your continued dedication and support, and as always, we look forward to seeing you in the Nexus."