Blizzard has posted a list of job openings for Heroes of the Storm

A slew of new job listings on Blizzard's careers page show an interesting amount of hiring opportunities for the previously hobbled MOBA Heroes of the Storm.

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One of the more disappointing moments in Blizzard’s recent history (keyword one of), was its decisions to completely gut both the esports scene and development of its MOBA game, Heroes of the Storm in 2018. Despite that move, development, content, and updates for the game have carried on. Contrary to what you might think, Heroes has actually continued to bring the goods and deliver them quite well throughout 2019 and 2020 despite being hobbled. It’s performance may have turned Blizzard’s opinion on the matter too because the company just listed a number of job openings for the Heroes of the Storm dev team.

It was recently noticed that on the Blizzard website’s career page, there are quite a few new listing very specifically for roles on Heroes of the Storm. In particular, several software engineer roles are open, as well as a spot for a Senior Technical Artist. Each of the positions would be on-location in Blizzard’s offices in Irvine, California.

Skeleton crew or not, Heroes of the Storm has continued to show life throughout the years since its esports division was shut down and the development team was trimmed.
Skeleton crew or not, Heroes of the Storm has continued to show life throughout the years with new content like Mei from Overwatch since its esports division was shut down and the development team was trimmed.

When Blizzard shuttered Heroes of the Storm’s esports and stripped down its dev team in 2018, things looked pretty bleak for the game. Blizzard saw further layoffs in 2019 which hit the entire developer/publisher offices throughout Blizzard Activision. Despite this, Heroes of the Storm has continued on with a healthy array of updates that have seen the addition of quality and interesting characters like Deathwing from World of the Warcraft and Mei from Overwatch. Meanwhile, events like Fragments of the Nexus have also kept the game trudging forward with fun events for the community to engage in. New hirings don’t necessarily speak to a comeback for Heroes of the Storm, but it has arguably pushed through some rough years of misfortune to remain a quality game in Blizzard’s stable.

Will we see any change or boost of Heroes of the Storm in the future? Are the hirings a sign of better support for the game? It remains to be seen. But kudos to the Heroes of the Storm team for keeping the drive alive in 2020. Here’s hoping the team gets the support it needs to keep making the game better and delivering good things for its community.

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    July 10, 2020 12:43 PM

    TJ Denzer posted a new article, Blizzard has posted a list of job openings for Heroes of the Storm

    • reply
      July 10, 2020 12:58 PM

      are they hiring a necromancer, or a 13th Level Cleric to cast resurrection?

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      July 10, 2020 1:04 PM

      I'll never forgive them for rendering Master Skins meaningless.

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        July 10, 2020 3:51 PM

        I worked to get that on several of the OG heroes. Now, no end knows or cares when I use those skins. Sigh.

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          July 11, 2020 2:09 AM

          i still use Tassadar's and Tyrande's... dont recall off the top of my head if i had earned others

    • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
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      July 10, 2020 1:31 PM

      Despite the memes HotS is not dead, it's just sort of puttering along with a very loyal fanbase. They did just release Mei. It'll never be on top of the MOBA pack, but I hope Blizzard appreciates that it's still a fun game worth keeping alive as long as people are playing it.

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        July 10, 2020 3:54 PM

        I agree. I enjoy it. The other big ones are just waaaay to toxic for my taste. I play just to blow off some steam, not go into rages about someone new to the game being stupid and too noob to live – or whatever the current drivel is that gets yelled out when someone new tries to pickup the game.

        Plus, I've already invested years to understand how hots works. Vs AI is nice when you just want a quick cpu stomp to relax.

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        July 11, 2020 5:24 AM

        Yeah, I played again yesterday after a very long break (nearly 2 years?) because there's nothing to do in WoW at the moment and I had lots of fun. I think HotS is the best MOBA, because Blizzard:

        - removed pointless complexity like last-hitting and kill-denying, and generic item shops
        - focused on making the matches shorter and more team-fight oriented (no farming for the first 15 minutes before things start getting interesting)
        - designed lots of different maps that each have unique objectives

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          July 11, 2020 1:04 PM

          Agreed, it’s so much more accessible and fun than other MOBAs to me. I still haven’t played it in ages, but it was the only MOBA I actually enjoyed for a while. Last hitting is so absurd and boring.

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      July 11, 2020 5:26 AM

      Btw, why is Blizz doing this? Is a console release maybe planned? I think Blizz could have a lot of success bringing this to next-gen consoles.

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        July 11, 2020 6:15 AM

        [deleted]

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          July 11, 2020 6:43 AM

          Ayye, I'm hoping that this is an indication that they are willing to commit resources to getting an engine upgrade or preparing to port it to new technology.

          I think if they wanted to kill the game they would have done it not too long after the cadence adjustment. It's in some kind of zombie maintenance mode right now, and yeah this seasons anomaly is causing issues I don't think they have resources to address right now.

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