Blizzard’s latest Overwatch hero is perhaps the most intelligently designed yet, as Hammond the hyper-intelligent hamster pilots a giant gun-toting mech suit known as the Wrecking Ball. Endowed with the ability to roll around the map at high speeds, paired with a versatile grappling hook, Wrecking Ball is perhaps the …
Read More »South Korean Overwatch hacker given one year suspended prison sentence
People take Overwatch very seriously, but no one seems to take it more seriously than the government of South Korea, thanks to the Game Industry Promotion Law and the Communication Technology Protection Law. We've previously covered videogame cheaters getting into legal trouble in South Korea, and today another story has …
Read More »A job posting by Blizzard confirms new Diablo project is in development
Blizzard is quite well known for leaking information about new projects through job listings, and they’ve done it again. This time they are looking for a Dungeon Artist for a currently unannounced Diablo project. On the Job Openings section of the Blizzard website, you will find the position of ‘Dungeon …
Read More »Four big video game developers candidly discuss developer crunch
At the end of last month, Digital Devolver creator Mike Wilson spoke up about the egregious practices of overworking developers when a deadline nears. Of course, it’s not just the Hotline Miami publisher that suffers from developer crunch, with Blizzard, Bungie, Naughty Dog and Sony all piping up about the …
Read More »Hearthstone director leaves Blizzard after 15 years
Ben Brode, the Game Director on Hearthstone, has announced that he is leaving Blizzard after spending 15 years at the studio. He started out as a game tester way back in the day and has spent the last ten years developing Hearthstone into the juggernaut it is today. Reflecting back …
Read More »Warcraft 3’s new patch introduces balance changes and proper widescreen support
Back in February, Warcraft 3 remaster rumors began swirling once again as Blizzard began inviting old pro players to take part in a secret event. Unfortunately, a remaster didn't end up coming to fruition, but Blizzard did announce that it would be updating Warcraft 3 to support modern PCs and …
Read More »Overwatch director Kaplan says queuing by role poses a lot of problems
Despite Overwatch being an unquestionable hit, there’s no shortage of fans suggesting how to make the game better. One of the latest propositions was to allow players to queue based on their role, however creator Jeff Kaplan thinks this could “hurt the spirit of the game.” Due to Overwatch being …
Read More »World of Warcraft’s next expansion will launch in August
Back in November, Blizzard announced WoW's next expansion, Battle for Azeroth, pitting the horde and alliance forces against each other once again. Pre-orders went live in January, giving players a number of benefits prior to the expansion's launch and now, we have a final release date. Battle for Azeroth will …
Read More »XMA, Blizzard, Playstation and more back innovative project for computing in schools
For most of us, it's hard to imagine a world where you don't have access to powerful computing devices and high speed internet 24/7. While a quarter of UK pupils are now classed as ‘extreme' internet users (spending up to 3 times the international average online), as many as 10% …
Read More »Sources confirm Diablo 3 for Switch despite Blizzard saying otherwise
Last week, it appeared that Blizzard had begun slyly teasing Diablo 3 for the Nintendo Switch. This turned out to be a big deal, as fans got excited for the first Blizzard game on a Nintendo platform in close to two decades. Blizzard later claimed that it wasn't teasing anything, …
Read More »It looks like Blizzard is teasing Diablo 3 for the Nintendo Switch
It looks like Blizzard might be preparing to jump back into a Nintendo platform for the first time in almost two decades. Blizzard's last Nintendo game was Starcraft on the N64, after that, the publisher's console efforts took a dive until 2012, when Diablo 3 came to the Xbox One …
Read More »Brigitte Lindholm takes on the role of tank and healer as Overwatch’s next hero
As expected, Brigitte Lindholm will indeed be Overwatch’s next hero, as Blizzard closes out a week of teasing with an official announcement. The daughter of Torbjorn will act as a support hero, combining the core elements of a hero and a tank, forming something similar to World of Warcraft’s Paladin. …
Read More »New Overwatch hero hinted to be Torbjörn’s daughter
Official Overwatch pages have been sent into overdrive as of late, dropping hints and teasers at what many suspect to be upcoming hero number 27. Given that already-established hero Torbjörn is the centre of a lot of these, his daughter Brigitte Lindholm is expected to be the one to step …
Read More »Blizzard is holding a Warcraft III tournament next week and will be patching the original game
Earlier this week, we learned that Blizzard had been inviting a bunch of Warcraft 3 pro players to its HQ for a ‘secret offline event'. This immediately sparked rumors surrounding a remaster of the original game, or even perhaps a Warcraft 4. Now in order to keep a lid on …
Read More »Blizzard is inviting Warcraft 3 players to a secret event, prompting remaster rumors
It looks like Blizzard is preparing for a major Warcraft related announcement. Over the weekend, it came to light that major Warcraft 3 pro players were being invited to a secret offline event, with several Europe-based players applying for Visas to take part. This has led to several rumors doing …
Read More »Overwatch director comments on toxicity and hero balancing
In a regular developer update, Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan has addressed a number of popularly talked about topics in the game’s community. This touches on toxicity and how the team is currently handling it, as well as the state of hero balancing, particularly in the way of Mercy. Blizzard and …
Read More »Hearthstone ends the year with another big expansion, three more due 2018
Hearthstone is set to close out the year with its 135-card expansion, Kobolds & Catacombs on December 12th. This hasn’t stopped people looking ahead at what’s to come, as lead artist, Ben Thomson reveals that 2018 is set to see three more sizeable expansions, including single-player content. Kobolds & Catacombs …
Read More »StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty is free starting from today
Blizzard is looking to give StarCraft 2's multiplayer a resurgence this year. At Blizzcon earlier this month, the publisher announced that StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty would be turning into a free to play game. This comes into effect starting today, meaning you can play through the entire Wings of …
Read More »Activision Blizzard exec seems positive about a potential Overwatch film
When Overwatch was first revealed in late 2014, we were greeted with an excellent cinematic trailer introducing us to the game's initial character roster. Over time, Blizzard has expanded on this with various character-focused animated shorts. At this point, all of the Overwatch animated short films have a combined run …
Read More »Blizzard boss says Overwatch’s loot boxes aren’t controversial
Loot boxes have gained quite the stigma lately, arousing controversy due to many perceiving its randomised nature and ties to microtransactions as a form of gambling. We’ve seen many games cited as a part of the problem, such as Destiny 2, Middle-earth: Shadow of War and the upcoming Star Wars …
Read More »Unofficial WoW server providers reconsider plans following Blizzard’s WoW Classic announcement
Last year, the shutdown of Nostalrius caused quite a bit of uproar from fans of vanilla World of Warcraft. Over the years, Blizzard had been adamant about leaving the past in the past, but with hundreds of thousands of players on unofficial servers, the outcry became difficult to ignore. Now …
Read More »WoW legacy server, Elysium, disbanded due to embezzlement
World of Warcraft legacy servers are popular, offering the vanilla experience of the game before its universe was expanded via expansion packs. Usually these projects are shut down due to Blizzard’s intervention, but this time the Elysium server suffered at the hands of the developers themselves after an embezzlement scandal. …
Read More »Overwatch surpasses 35 million players
During Overwatch's first year on the market, the game has hit a number of milestones. 15 million players had enjoyed the game during the Summer of last year and by May this year, that number had doubled to 30 million. Now, with the Halloween event getting under way, Overwatch has …
Read More »Blizzard’s unannounced project could be Overwatch related
Blizzard has worked hard on creating an entire world within Overwatch, comprised of a relatively simple good versus bad story full of intricate and unique characters. It’s no surprise that there’s a possibility that the developer might be looking towards expanding this universe and a recent job listing implies just …
Read More »Blizzard release new Battle.net social features
Ahead of Destiny 2’s PC release on October 24th, Blizzard has updated its Battle.net client with brand new social features. Currently the new functions are only available in beta, which is open for anyone to use. One of the most significant introductions to the beta client is the new Social …
Read More »Blizzard is ‘hard at work on the future’ of Diablo but don’t expect announcements at BlizzCon
Last year, Diablo fans had a lot to get excited about at BlizzCon. Not only was the original Diablo rebuilt inside Diablo 3, but the game got a new class announced for its roster. This year unfortunately, things are going to be much quieter when it comes to Diablo content. …
Read More »Overwatch players are experiencing unexpected seasonal bans
A rare bug in Overwatch is causing some players to lose skill rating by a distinctively large margain and receive an immediate season ban. Signs of the bug have arisen since earlier this month and seem to be picking up pace. It is unknown what causes the bug, but Redditor …
Read More »Overwatch could have more content, if it weren’t for toxic players
Most, if not all competitive games are plagued with toxic players and the more popular the game gets, the worse the case usually is. Blizzard’s Overwatch is no different, with director Jeff Kaplan admitting that the game’s development has been slowed down because of the behaviour. The latest Overwatch update …
Read More »All proceeds of Blizzard’s new WoW pet goes to disaster relief
In light of the disasters surrounding the U.S., Blizzard has promptly shifted the release of this year’s charity pet in World of Warcraft forward. Every purchase made before December 31st will see the complete $10 adoption fee split evenly between the American Red Cross Disaster Relief and the International Federation …
Read More »Blizzard has decided not to abandon the ‘Battle.net’ name after all
Just under one year ago, Blizzard announced that it would be rebranding Battle.net after 20 years. At the time, the company just changed out the app’s name to ‘Blizzard’ in order to follow the same theme as new services like Blizzard Streaming and Blizzard Voice. However, since basically nobody stopped …
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