Radio silence over at Blizzard this year

 So is Blizzcon going to be attended by tumbleweeds this year?

You know what I hate? Promises. I've always found people to be at their most pathetic when trying to curry favour through empty assertation about the certainty of the future and/or their abilities to cement it. It seems whenever Ii happens, the only result can be inevitable steaming-hot disappointment, seemingly always. And of course there's no better example for that then when it comes to companies promising the world to their consumers. I could list examples, and for another topic I may just do so, but today there's only one company who has riled me up and it's good ol' Blizzard. Remember them? They remember you, and that's why for the last two years they've been living off of your nostalgia in a desperate attempt to not lose face among the gaming community, likely a little unsure as to how 'too big to fail' their franchises are. 

What feels like a life time ago, Blizzard managed to rile up some controversy through transparently making moves against real political issues, something which anyone should have told them is absolutely not their world to interact with. We live in worlds of fantasy and make-believe, and sure, they may be filled with visions and whispers of our lives and the world as we see it, but at the end of the day it's all just immaterial. Which is why there are a thousand better ways to handle a potential political incident when it's shoved into you lap, like simply ignoring it, rather than trying to do self-censorship in as authoritarian a manner as you can muster. Act in the latter manner, and you'll have convinced others that you have some sort of horse in this way, which Blizzard sort of did, but before this turns into the gaming equivalent of Steel Ball Run, let me move onto how Blizzard acted in the wake of these issues (I've covered them extensively anyway)

Blizzard were clearly up against it. They had dug a hole so deep for themselves that actual politicians were lining up to bury them in it, and the gaming public, who's goodwill had made them as a company oh-so-long-ago, were leading the mobs. Which is likely why a lot of people were immediately sceptical when they suddenly held their annual Blizz-con event and everyones favourite games were there. They had Diablo and Overwatch and maybe even a little bit of Warcraft. Hah, what a crazy coincidence, right? In the same year that they happened to piss off everyone they were incidentally making sequels to all the games that they liked. Isn't that just the darndest thing... Of course, in the year since then the scepticism has really boiled and right now, with the news that both Overwatch and Diablo aren't making it to us at all this entire year, I think it's fair to say that we've been played.

Now to be the utmost fair, Diablo IV was announced back with the stipulation that it was early in development. Very early in fact. So early, that one guy was noted as saying that the game itself could be years away from launch. (Guess they were right) Still, it makes one wonder how they managed to have a full CGI reveal trailer alongside a gameplay teaser trailer lined up for the event. It's just kinda makes me think; what the heck are you guys even teasing? You haven't even finished coming up with all that's going to be in the game, nor the systems that'll run it, how can you tease that? It's such an old-school way of marketing your game that more and more is suffering backlash from fans. People are starting to put stock into marketing materials, much more than they really should, and when the product deviates from that original in any single way, they get out the pitchforks and scream "shenanigans!" At sometime these studios need to acknowledge that and shift the way they market, cause it's only causing them undue stress.

The one that really gets to me, however, is Overwatch 2. We've heard diddly about Overwatch 2 for two whole years now, and it's getting to the point where some are even wondering if it's still a real thing that's being made. Overwatch 2 was supposed to be the jumping off point from Overwatch, where the team would actually take that solid basis and maybe even squeeze a narrative out of it. Because for all of it's 'design' and overwhelming 'world building'; there's literally never been a story for Overwatch and that seems exceedingly stupid the more the franchise languishes. (How are communities supposed to thrive on fan speculation alone?) I was excited for narrative cohesion to enter this universe in even the most basic manner. Sure it seemed to be shaping up as little more than one-off missions for characters, but that's still better than nothing. But nothing is exactly what we got, for one year going on two now. Meanwhile the Overwatch base game has felt like it's been in limbo too, save for a few new characters. What is even happening with this franchise anymore?

Bethesda, a few years back, announced a shift to how they wanted to handle marketing, in that they wanted to do full game reveals just months before release. At the time I remember gawking at the proposition, thinking it insane to try and condense an entire marketing cycle into 4 or 5 months, but they did it with the lukewarm Fallout 4. And then again with the, dead shortly after arrival, Fallout 76. So perhaps it hasn't been the most successful program they've ever done, but it did contain glimmers of promise. There was no years of lamentable waiting, no cannibalising of fan goodwill in order to keep folk excited for one more year. No external fan pressure to hit the heavy goals set before the release date. It was all just there for people to see, the only hurdle Bethesda had to get over from there was actually making a goodgame. (But babysteps, I guess) The more self-made messes that this industry keeps slipping itself up on, the more I'm beginning to think that Bethesda had the right of things, because imagination will always trump whatever human hands can make, so give that imagination as little time to fester as possible and you'll have an easier time managing expectations.

And I think that 'managing expectations' is the secret formula that everyone should be shooting for, because we've literally seen the golden child of the industry dissolved into an industry punching bag over this sort of issue. Then again, of course, many of these studios can't simply stay quiet about their project until a few months before launch, because they need fan reaction for a plethora of reasons. Sometimes it's in order to gauge the market for their project and justify investments, sometimes to build anticipation and heighten potential profits, sometimes just to remind everyone that they still exist and haven't gone bankrupt in the void. That's likely why Bethesda themselves broke their rules to issue two consecutive teaser trailers for games we've not seen hide nor hair of for years. So there's obviously a balance to be struck here, although I'd argue literally showing off gameplay for a title that was seemingly in pre-alpha at the time, certainly isn't it.

I don't like Blizzard, although that's because I was born into the gaming world between their initial rise to stardom and their resurgence, so I'm lucky enough not to have that nostalgic tie. But be that as it may, I still like the look of some of the games they've made and thus was stupid enough to buy into the hype even in just that small way. Right now, we're looking at Overwatch 2 (which I'm still 80% sure is vapourware) and Diablo 4 (Which has a high bar to live up to) both going through another year of marketing silence and it's slowly driving me away. I mean is there even going to be a market for these games once they launch considering all the stiff competition? You'd think they obviously would, but Star Citizen serves as prime example that no idea is future proof, so overpromising too early can really bite you down the line. See all you hopefuls in 2022, I guess.