Blizzard President Mike Ybarra is sharing a look back at 2023, a very big year for the company in many ways. In the annual year-end blog post, Ybarra shares details on new and bigger milestones, community stats, and an update on company culture before looking ahead to 2024.
Several new milestones were set across Blizzard’s active portfolio. World of Warcraft continued releasing new content for Dragonflight and Classic, updating both with fresh story, new features, technical changes, and goodies to collect. As of the time this was written, there are more active WoW players than at Dragonflight’s launch.
Hearthstone released three expansions. Overwatch 2 held its first Pride event and several crossovers, including with Diablo and One-Punch Man. BlizzCon even returned to a large-scale, in-person event packed with reveals and community back in early November.
Diablo IV launched to huge success in June. That game is currently in its third Season, and in late 2024, we’ll see Vessel of Hatred, the first expansion, along with more seasonal content to come. Diablo Immortal also marked its first anniversary.
Also coming in 2024 will be The War Within, the first of three World of Warcraft expansions announced at BlizzCon. Cataclysm Classic is also on the way by summer. WarCraft Rumble, which launched at the con, will also get seasonal content, new updates, raids, and more. Ybarra even teased more Overwatch 2 content, including the new Clash mode, and new heroes Venture, a hero codenamed “Space Ranger” (Buzz Lightyear, is that you?), and a new tank.
Blizzard also has a number of other projects in development (including a new IP previously announced), and as the company continues settling in as a part of Microsoft, we can expect more info to come down the line.
The update on company culture takes an encouraging tone, which some might debate, but Ybarra points to documentation the company has worked with, like the Inclusion Nexus at BlizzCon, a new DE&I officer, and research contributions, like the Design Playbook for Digital Thriving. Other highlights include a continued expansion and consideration of accessibility, which led the Diablo IV team to a nomination for accessibility at The Game Awards.
For more details, see the full blog over at Blizzard.
