Much like Blizzard’s impeccable track record of putting a stamp on any genre it decides to play in, whether that’s a first-person shooter or a massively multiplayer game, Heroes of the Storm was quickly recognised as something different and fresh for both the genre and the studio. Released as Heroes of the Storm in June of 2015, Blizzard’s MOBA may have been late to the party in one sense, but a milestone release for the genre in another. But, the game would remain in development for a number of years and in that time, see many changes. Blizzard DOTA, or Blizzard All-Stars, was very much seen as major contender for hitting similar highs. After its initial release in 2009, it wasn’t long before the Defense of the Ancients-inspired League of Legends had garnered a player-base that could be measured in the tens of millions. This was a time before the juggernaut we know as DOTA 2 came onto the scene, but not before the huge explosion in popularity for the burgeoning MOBA genre.
Now, at the time this made a lot of sense, the MOBA was born as a similar custom game for Warcraft III called ‘Defense of the Ancients’ and becoming an official part of Blizzard’s next high-profile game release felt like the logical next step. A MOBA that would feature a cast of characters drawing from Blizzard’s many franchises ranging from StarCraft to Warcraft to Diablo. Blizzard’s take on the MOBA genre can be traced back to the release of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, where as part of the player-creation StarCraft Arcade the studio was planning release its own custom game called ‘Blizzard DOTA’.
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