Blizzard cancelled a planned Hearthstone expansion stream in the wake of several content creators cancelling their planned card reveals this past week.
Several high profile Hearthstone content creators are refusing to publish their card reveals after news of the Activision Blizzard lawsuit broke.
Why Hearthstone Creators are Boycotting
Last week, news broke that the state of California is suing Activision Blizzard over its toxic work culture, and the news did not sit well with a host of popular content creators. Blizzard's mobile card game Hearthstone is set to have an expansion 'United in Stormwind' release August 3rd with 135 new cards.
Blizzard partners with popular content creators to reveal new cards, but several creators decided to pull out in respect of the ongoing suit. Some creators such as G2's Thijs decided to go along with their reveal, but only in respect of the developer team not the overall company.
Blizzard cancelled a planned livestream for the expansion, but has been tight lipped as to why it cancelled the stream.
What Will Happen in the Near Future?
Hearthstone has gone full speed ahead with their expansion, and has made no official mention of the break in reveals. Blizzard is continuing HS esports, and the recent news of the suit has had no discernable impact on the Hearthstone team's ability to deliver content.
Content creators have made a distinction between card reveals and creating day to day content, but are all taking individual approaches to the situation. So far, there seems to be no momentum for a widespread boycott of Blizzard, and we will update this piece if any such movement does occur.
The Hearthstone subreddit has been a bed of emotions in the wake of the cancelled stream, and every commentator has a unique opinion on the situation. Overall sentiment seems to be in favor of the victims/content creators, and outrage is centered on the lack of communication between Blizzard and the community.