Many of you will remember when Blizzard was working on StarCraft Ghost, which would expand the franchise beyond RTS titles and into shooters. That game was cancelled back in 2006 but it turns out that a team at Blizzard had been working on a similar idea for the last couple …
Read More »Overwatch is a ‘tentpole franchise’ for Blizzard, spin-off could be on the way
Since its launch, there has been plenty of talk surrounding Overwatch and the ways Blizzard can expand on the game. We've seen some of this ambition already, with high quality lore-expanding cinematics coming out every once in a while. Beyond that, the Overwatch League received a ton of investment from …
Read More »Blizzard is skipping Gamescom this year but Blizzcon 2019 will go ahead
Amidst all of the drama that Blizzard has gone through in the last 9 months or so, the studio has maintained that its goal going forward is to double down on game development for current and future projects. In order to avoid distractions towards the end of the Summer, Blizzard …
Read More »Blizzard teams up with GOG to re-release Diablo and Warcraft
Update (28.03.19): Earlier this month, GOG announced that it had teamed up with Blizzard to re-release DRM free versions of Diablo 1 as well as Warcraft 1 & 2. Diablo 1 was made available immediately after the announcement but no date was given for the Warcraft games. That changed this …
Read More »Toxicity in Overwatch is at an all-time low according to Blizzard
Despite its charming aesthetic and colourful characters, Overwatch has long been highlighted for its rampant toxicity in the casual and professional scenes alike. Blizzard has been fighting an uphill battle, but it seems as though its efforts are finally paying off as it claims “disruptive behaviour” has fallen by a …
Read More »Blizzard outlines changes for Heroes of the Storm, including the removal of paid loot boxes
Blizzard downsized its Heroes of the Storm team at the end of last year, putting an end to the game’s stint as an esport. Shifting its focus, the developer is now overhauling the MOBA to expand on hero roles and do away with those pesky, controversial loot boxes. Loot boxes, …
Read More »Activision Blizzard’s job cuts may ‘negatively impact’ business
There has been talk surrounding a shake up at Activision Blizzard for a few months now. All of that was confirmed in February, with the company announcing that despite a record financial year, 800 employees would be laid off. Now, Activision Blizzard is warning investors that this could negatively impact …
Read More »Activision Blizzard is letting go of around 800 employees
Over the weekend, it was reported that Activision Blizzard was planning to lay-off hundreds of staff members. The company held its quarterly financial earnings meeting last night, confirming that revenues are up, but despite that, the company will be shaving off eight percent of its staff. Around 800 employees will …
Read More »Activision Blizzard reportedly set to layoff ‘hundreds’ of staff
At Blizzcon last year, it became more apparent than ever that things at Blizzard were changing. There has been a shift towards mobile gaming, Mike Morhaime has left the studio and Activision has chosen a new CFO to oversee and manage Blizzard's financial situation. Now, the folks at Blizzard are …
Read More »Cyberpunk 2077 narrative director leaves for Blizzard
CD Projekt Red has been hard at work on Cyberpunk 2077 ever since The Witcher 3’s final expansion shipped. We are used to developers coming and going over the course of a long running project. Sebastian Stepien served as the Creative Director on The Witcher 3 and was the lead …
Read More »Hearthstone director’s new studio is working on a Marvel game
Last year, Ben Brode made the decision to leave Blizzard behind, taking a few friends from the Hearthstone team along with him. Together, they formed a new studio called ‘Second Dinner’, things have been quiet on that front for a while but this week, we started hearing some new things. …
Read More »Blizzard downsizes Heroes of the Storm team and cancels future esports events
We've known for a few weeks now that Activision has started to take a bigger role in Blizzard's operations, with plans to cut costs and ship more games to boost profits. The first casualty appears to be Heroes of the Storm, which is having its development team downsized and future …
Read More »Sources speak out on Diablo 4 development and why it wasn’t announced this year
Ever since the announcement of Diablo Immortal at Blizzcon, we've all been wondering what state Diablo 4 is in. At points throughout the year, it seemed like a shoe-in for a big end of the year reveal, but that didn't turn out to be the case. Now, multiple sources have come forward to share the story of Diablo 4's development and why it seems to be further behind than others had hoped.
Read More »Blizzard has some of its ‘best developers’ working on mobile games for all IP
Blizzard’s recent reveal of Diablo Immortal was an unmitigated disaster, with many criticising the publisher for being out of touch with its fans. However, that hasn’t stopped co-founder Allen Adham from revealing that Blizzard has ‘some of its best developers' working on mobile games across its other franchises. “Many of …
Read More »Overwatch’s next patch will need to fully reinstall the game
Blizzard has coined its next Overwatch update as a “remaster” patch thanks to its comprehensive overhaul and large size. The publisher warns players that this means the client will be required to fully download and reinstall the game from scratch. “The next major patch will have some pretty fundamental changes …
Read More »Blizzard celebrates 100 million Hearthstone players
Since its release in 2014, Hearthstone has experienced a steady influx of players, reaching 70 million within three years. This number has surged exponentially in the past 18 months, with Blizzard now celebrating the notable 100 million players milestone. A large part of its growth is thanks to a growing …
Read More »Blizzard claims there were ‘no plans’ to announce Diablo 4 at Blizzcon despite what sources say
Blizzard landed itself in a bad situation over the weekend after choosing to close out its Blizzcon mainstage announcements with Diablo Immortal, a mobile spin-off. At the time, fans of Diablo have been left scratching their heads wondering why they didn't at least acknowledge Diablo 4. According to sources, acknowledging …
Read More »Warcraft 3: Reforged is a ‘complete reimagining’
While Diablo fans may have been let down at Blizzcon this year, Blizzard did bring along some better news for Warcraft fans. Rumours of a Warcraft 3 remaster have been floating around for a couple of years now but Blizzard is hoping to kick things up a notch with Warcraft …
Read More »Blizzard co-founder speaks out on Diablo Immortal backlash
In the build up to Blizzcon this year, we knew that there were ‘multiple Diablo projects' in the works and that we would see at least one of them announced. Prior to the event, Blizzard did try to temper expectations, dashing away hopes for Diablo 4. So what exactly did …
Read More »Blizzard announces new Diablo for mobile and fans are not happy
While Blizzard hinted that Diablo news was on the way, the firm did its best to temper expectations surrounding a fourth mainline entry in the run-up to its annual BlizzCon event. Sadly, these efforts were in vain as the newly announced Diablo Immortal for mobile has become one of the …
Read More »WoW Classic demo goes live this weekend with playtime restrictions in place
Back in April 2016, Blizzard shut down Nostalrius, one of the most popular vanilla WoW private servers around. This kicked off a lengthy discussion for Blizzard, with the studio ultimately announcing plans to launch WoW Classic. That announcement came in late 2017 and now this year, people will finally have …
Read More »Blizzard tempers expectations for Diablo news at Blizzcon
There has been some hype surrounding Blizzard's Diablo plans this year. Not only is Diablo III coming to the Nintendo Switch, but ‘multiple Diablo' projects are confirmed to be in the works at Blizzard. Unfortunately, it sounds like we are unlikely to get any big news at Blizzcon this year, …
Read More »Diablo Reign of Terror teased, Diablo III to get cross-platform multiplayer
Blizzcon is coming up in a month's time but it looks like two pieces of interesting Diablo-related information have made it out ahead of time. For starters, Blizzard is working on something called ‘Diablo: Reign of Terror' and secondly, cross-platform play is officially in the works for Diablo III. Diablo …
Read More »Mike Morhaime steps down as Blizzard President, WoW exec will take over
Blizzard is going through another big change this year, as Mike Morhaime, studio co-founder, is stepping down. Morhaime worked at Blizzard for 27 years but will be departing this year, with WoW executive producer, J. Allen Brack set to take over as president. Morhaime will no longer be leading Blizzard …
Read More »World of Warcraft Classic demo on the way this year
Back in April 2016, Blizzard shut down Nostalrius, one of the most popular vanilla WoW private servers around. This kicked off a lengthy discussion for Blizzard, with the studio ultimately announcing plans to launch WoW Classic. That announcement came in late 2017 and things have been quiet ever since- until …
Read More »Diablo reportedly set to get an animated series on Netflix
Last year, Netflix began dabbling in video game based animated series with the release of Castlevania- which turned out to be pretty solid, albeit quite short. Now, we can expect another video game series to hit TV screens, with Diablo set to get its own adaptation. Blizzard has been interested …
Read More »Diablo III heads to the Nintendo Switch in November
A few weeks after the game's official announcement, Diablo III now has a release date for the Nintendo Switch. The Diablo III Eternal Collection has been teased for Nintendo's console all year long but we'll finally be able to get our hands on it in November. During the Nintendo Direct …
Read More »Blizzard removes Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm loot boxes in Belgium
Back in April, the Belgian Ministry of Justice began enforcing harsh punishments for games with loot boxes, considering them a form of gambling. Despite disagreeing with this conclusion, Blizzard has complied with the new laws by preventing Belgian Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm players from purchasing loot boxes with …
Read More »Battle for Azeroth is WoW’s fastest selling expansion to date
It looks like World of Warcraft is still alive and well as Blizzard's latest expansion, Battle for Azeroth, has become the game's fastest selling expansion. Earlier today, Blizzard announced that Battle for Azeroth sold 3.4 million copies worldwide on day one. These day one sales beat out the launch of …
Read More »Diablo III confirmed for Nintendo Switch, launches this year
Just last week, Blizzard announced that it has ‘multiple' new Diablo projects currently in the works. Now, we know that one of them is indeed Diablo III for the Nintendo Switch, as someone accidentally broke an embargo last night. While the news wasn't supposed to go live until later today, …
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