Just as the Blizzard had loosed upon us the 2025 Pride Collection of merch, the splintering of opinions began. The company announced an all-new line of t-shirts, hoodies, and long sleeves with fresh logo ideas for their games, with proceeds directed to GLAAD from June 2 to June 30. While some gamers still keep up the hype, for others, not so much.
For the merch itself-the collection is very merchandise-like. Designed by Blizzard’s LGBT+ Employee Network, it splashes rainbow and trans pride colors across Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and many other Blizzard titles. The company tweets about unity, “proud to stand together.” Cute, right? Well, not everybody repents that way.
The reply box? Yikes! The players are left angry beyond understanding. @LesusGames went on, “LGBT stopped being about the LGB a long time ago…” and @vermithrax12 accused Blizzard of supporting “pedophiles” because of the “+” in LGBTQ+. And there were others like @LegrandSouthers, who just wanted Blizzard to “focus on making your game good again.”
Now, about those trans colors. Several replies noticed the designs mainly embody trans pride colors and called @MadamSavvy’s opinion “exclusionary” for not embracing the broader LGBTQ+ community. They asked, “Why do you have 16 options of tops but don’t include the color variation for anything but the trans colors?” On the contrary, @OliWilly took a different approach as he just laughed it off: “lmao they’re all trans colors.”
But hey, it’s not all curses and jeers.-Some fans were giving compliments, with @Valariny commenting, “Those look so good!!! thank you sm!!❤️❤️❤️.”
The real problem is that most players think this company has given pandering a bad name. @DanielCannel75 went supra-typos memorably: “You should focus on making good games not Politics or Ideology that most of us don’t want?!” Then, @Baka__Jin92 whittled down the whole discussion by accusing Blizzard of bad “virtue signaling” for their “weird game design choices.” Ouch.
Then, the kids debate came. @burin_felipe stated this Pride promotion is “unnecessary sexist propaganda, especially in an environment where there are children playing.” Meanwhile, @AI_EmeraldApple dubbed Blizzard “groomers” for pushing trans colors over the LGB.
Back to politics. @thePcOmega reentered the fray by stating that with Trump as president in 2025, Blizzard doesn’t “need to pander and virtue signal anymore.” Because, sure, that is perfectly relevant.
Then, the Blizzard Pride Collection is doing what it does best-draining allegiance from among the players. A few feel it’s the cool way to support LGBTQ+ causes; the majority just feel it’s corporate fluff. The loud bunch: they’re tired of the rhetoric.
Now, another round of Pride Month- another year, another controversy. Has this affected Blizzard’s bottom line? Not a chance, but it sure has gotten people talking. Well, these hoodies look pretty good- maybe.
