Since its arrival on the scene 20 years ago Valve's Steam has taken over digital distribution for games and, increasingly, gaming-adjacent software. Its ubiquity ensnared most other major publishers and it swiftly became the de-facto storefront in which indie titles were sold. Some tried to break free from its grip - Ubisoft chief among them, but Steam's immense audience inevitably drew them back to the fold. Until recently there was been one major exception, but one of its crown jewel franchises is about to make its presence known in the house that GabeN built for the first time.
Like Valve, Blizzard Entertainment was ahead of the curve when it came to developing the infrastructure for online play and game data distribution; a digital storefront was a natural fit by the time Starcraft 2 launched in the late 2000's. Millions were already present in their ecosystem thanks to legacy Battle.net accounts and the behemoth that was World of Warcraft, Steam's additional reach would be negligible. Once acquired by Activision, Kotick's biggest IP's also swiftly switched.
Times change however and Blizzard is not the titan it once was. In an effort to rediscover their earlier popularity they recently made Overwatch 2 available on Steam, a move that was billed as a gradual sunsetting of exclusivity rather than a wholesale transition to the platform. It's also believed that this has Microsoft's approval, an important factor given the ongoing acquisition which should have finalised this year.
On October 17th Diablo 4 will be joining Overwatch 2 on Steam. The move was announced during a developer livestream this evening discussing Diablo 4's second season, The Season of Blood, and the availability date coincides with the start date of this new Season. Joining Steam will also offer some indication of player retention rates for the game, a metric that Activision-Blizzard has been reticent to share for any of its titles.
Blizzcon 2023 is scheduled for early November and could herald more announcements of this nature.
SOURCE: news.blizzard.com
