In dieser Woche hat der aktuell als Präsident von Blizzard Entertainment fungierende Mike Ybarra einen neuen Blogeintrag auf der offiziellen Internetseite dieses Entwicklerstudios veröffentlicht. Bei diesem Schreiben handelt es sich um einen Jahresrückblick auf die vergangenen 12 Monate, der betonen soll, wie viele tolle Sachen die Firma in 2023 mit den Fans teilen konnte. Gleichzeitig nutzt Ybarra das Ganze auch noch dafür, um auf das Jahr 2024 vorauszuschauen und einige amüsante Statistiken zu veröffentlichen.

Dem Brief des Blizzard-Chefs zufolge wurden in 2023 in WoW und Diablo 4 zusammen über 1 Milliarde Charakter erstellt, Razageth war die tödlichste Figur in WoW 15.8 Milliarden Packungen in Hearthstone wurden geöffnet. Die vor Kurzem durchgeführte Spendensammlung für BlueCheck Ukraine war wohl besonders erfolgreich und brachte insgesamt 1.5 Millionen USD zusammen. Ansonsten gibt es wohl an die 150.000 Battle.Net Accounts, die bereits seit mehr als 25 Jahren aktiv sind und aus einer Zeit von vor WoW stammen.

Was den Ausblick auf 2024 betrifft, so bezeichnete Ybarra das Ganze als ein massives Jahr für das Warcraft Universum. Schließlich stehen in 2024 mehrere wichtige Meilensteine für verschiedene Titel an und die Entwickler haben eine Reihe von Neuerungen wie The War Within und den Duo-Modus für den Schlachtfeldmodus von Hearthstone geplant. Weitere wichtige Neuerungen sind die erste Erweiterung für Diablo 4, drei neue Helden für Overwatch 2 und einige noch immer unangekündigte Projekte, die in 2024 möglicherweise endlich ins Rampenlicht gestellt werden.

2023 End-Of-Year Review:

Hey everyone! It was awesome to see so many of you at BlizzCon 2023 – if you joined us in person or online, thank you for being a part of it! As we head toward the end of 2023, this is a great time to reflect on what has been a massive year of learning, growing, and joy for Blizzard.

Blizzard Games in 2023

Looking back on this year, we had a great focus on putting people at the forefront of everything we do – both players and our teams at Blizzard.

• The World of Warcraft team worked hard throughout the year to ensure there was always something fun to do in both Dragonflight and Classic, with more players joining us right now than we saw at the launch of Dragonflight! The WoW communities also worked together to raise USD $1.5 million for BlueCheck Ukraine.
• Hearthstone launched three expansions – taking us to a music festival, allowing us to wield the power of the Titans, before finally bringing players to the heart of the Badlands. We also brought on a new game director this year, Tyler Bielman, and the team continues to inspire with their creativity.
• Warcraft Rumble launched at BlizzCon, and millions of players around the world are reveling in the joyful chaos.
• Diablo IV had an amazing launch, and Season of Blood is a great example of how the team is growing their game alongside their players.
• Diablo Immortal celebrated its first anniversary while introducing the first new class for the universe in nearly 10 years, the Blood Knight.
• Overwatch 2 celebrated Pride in-game for the first time ever, and joined forces for legendary crossovers with our very own Diablo,  One-Punch Man and LE SSERAFIM.

The 2023 Blizzard Community By The Numbers

Blizzard Culture in 2023

We always say that we want to think of our culture work at Blizzard like the work on our games – part of who we are. We’re always building and iterating on different initiatives, programs, and more. We believe great ideas are core to Blizzard and should come from anywhere. Earlier this year, we relaunched Blizzard University (or BlizzU, as we like to call it) and introduced Pamela Burga as our new DE&I Officer. Together, we hosted hundreds of trainings and events aimed at educating our teams and building our internal communities, totalling in 11,282 sign-ups throughout the year! We launched new employee networks, and brought the Inclusion Nexus back to BlizzCon 2023. Our teams working on accessibility continue to inspire, with World of Warcraft continuing to take massive steps forward, and Diablo IV being nominated in the Innovation in Accessibility category at The Game Awards. This award recognizes advancements we’ve made with dexterity assistance (including button remapping); text assistance (including transcribing spoken word to chat); vision assistance (with audio cues) among many other areas so we can ensure our games are available and playable to as many people as possible.  Within our industry, we are making it a priority to connect with, share, and learn from our peers: at GDC, the 2023 D.I.C.E Summit, multiple discipline-specific conferences, and through contributing to important research initiatives like the Design Playbook for Digital Thriving.

Blizzard in 2024

Of course, alongside planning for and holding BlizzCon 2023, we have been planning for next year. 2024 is going to be a massive year for the Warcraft universe, with a collection of anniversaries coming up: 30 years since the first Warcraft game, 20 years of World of Warcraft, 10 years of Hearthstone, and the one-year anniversary of Warcraft Rumble! We have some fun activities planned throughout the year to celebrate within all of our communities (and across them!), and we’ll be releasing the first installment of the Worldsoul Saga, The War Within. Hearthstone will bring a new way to play Battlegrounds with friends with Duos, alongside more incredible themes and mechanics for upcoming expansion sets. Warcraft Rumble will roll through seasons, bringing new minis, Raids, and even more ways to have fun in Azeroth on the go.

Diablo IV will have new seasons, and its first expansion, Vessel of Hatred, will also be released in 2024: this will continue the story of Mephisto and Neyrelle, and bring with it a brand-new class never before seen in the Diablo universe. Overwatch 2 will have three new heroes next year (Venture, a hero codenamed Space Ranger, and a yet-to-be-revealed tank), the new Clash mode, a rework of Competitive mode, and much more.

Then there are our projects in development. We look forward to sharing more about these projects with you when the time is right. As I said at BlizzCon, this is a brand-new era for Blizzard – now part of Microsoft Gaming – and so much more is possible as we double-down on what we love to do: craft genre-defining games and legendary worlds for all to share.

I want to end the year with a thank you – for supporting our teams here at Blizzard, whether it’s through how you play our games, what you share with us on social media, and more. This is only the beginning, and we couldn’t be more excited to be here alongside you.

See you in 2024!

Mike “Qwik” Ybarra (via)

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