Blizzard hasn't produced even one single-player-focused game since... Diablo I? Their strength has always been multiplayer, I very much doubt they could deliver a blockbuster single-player open world game.
I would argue initial release of Warcraft 3 was single player focused, with multiplayer as a feature, however I think post launch support was more multiplayer focused.
However I think that was the model of many of the older games. Once the game has been developed and released, single player improvements are largely either bugs, quality of life improvements or platform changes. The first 2 were needed less because of old school blizzard's dedication to quality.
Totally fair point! But I'd also like to point out that prior to World of Warcraft, Blizzard hadn't released an MMORPG. Prior to Overwatch, Blizzard hadn't released a first-person shooter. I totally understand your point that Blizzard might not have the talent to pull off a single-player RPG game, but I still think it's within the realm of reality.
Sure, but some of those jumps have been more gradual - WoW's hotkey gameplay isn't all that different from a fast-paced RTS, especially given WC3's dabbling into RPG mechanics with the hero units.
Overwatch and HearthStone are much bigger jumps to be fair.
The SC2 expansions were basically three good single-player games that came bundled with a different multiplayer game built on the same engine and art assets. HotS in particular the single-player game arguably wasn't even the same genre as the multiplayer.
