World of Warcraft was still enormously profitable, but it was clear that the game had peaked, and attempts to speed up the development of expansions weren’t working. StarCraft II’s two expansions, Heart of the Swarm (2013) and Legacy of the Void (2015), met Blizzard’s modest expectations but weren’t breakout hits, leaving many of the company’s leaders regretful that they had committed to releasing three games. Heroes of the Storm was a commercial disappointment, and the next Diablo game was many years away. But Blizzard still had an ace up its sleeve—a game planned for 2016 that was set to be
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