The Activision Blizzard sexual harassment lawsuit has brought with it many different knock on effects. Starting with Activision’s name not being featured in the Call of Duty: Vanguard trailer, the name of the popular Overwatch character Jesse McCree is being changed, as they were originally named after a Blizzard employee. …
Read More »Call of Duty: Vanguard makes no reference to Activision, following lawsuit
Call of Duty: Vanguard was recently announced, showcasing the latest that the first-person shooter franchise has to offer. Interestingly however, the trailer made no reference to its publisher Activision, instead saying “Call of Duty Presents”. While some have speculated this to be due to the recent controversy and lawsuit against …
Read More »Diablo 4 director and level designer and WoW designer no longer at Blizzard
Activision Blizzard is going through a number of internal changes at the moment in the wake of a lawsuit regarding workplace harassment at the company. We've already seen Blizzard's president and head of HR leave the company, and now, a number of high profile developers have been let go, including …
Read More »Diablo 2: Resurrected will have an open beta this month
Given all the controversy surrounding Activision Blizzard at the moment, we weren't sure if Diablo 2: Resurrected would still have an open beta or even make its September release date. For now, it looks like everything will be going ahead as planned, with the remake's public beta beginning this week. …
Read More »Overwatch 2 may not launch until 2023
While Overwatch represented one of the first and biggest live-service titles of the modern era, the 2015 hero shooter was announced to be getting a full sequel back in 2019, with a release year expected to be 2022. Since then however, very little news has come out regarding the game, …
Read More »Investors to sue Activision Blizzard over recent allegations
Recently, Activision Blizzard has found itself in controversy once again, following a lawsuit from California's Department of Fair Employment (DFEH), which contained a number of serious allegations. As you would expect, some investors are not pleased with how things are playing out, with some brewing a second lawsuit against the …
Read More »Diablo Immortal delayed to 2022
Last night following the Activision Blizzard earnings call, it was announced that Blizzard's controversial mobile game, Diablo Immortal, will no longer be releasing this year. Diablo Immortal was announced at Blizzcon 2018. At the time, many fans expected to hear about Diablo 4, not a new mobile-only spin-off and as …
Read More »Blizzard President J. Allen Brack steps down following lawsuit
We're just a few hours away from Activision's first quarterly earnings call since the state of California sued the company on allegations of widespread misconduct. Many of these allegations have centred around Blizzard, so some changes were expected – the first of these changes was just announced, with J. Allen …
Read More »Nearly 1000 Activision Blizzard employees call publisher’s response to lawsuit “abhorrent”
Activision Blizzard recently found themselves at the receiving end of a lawsuit due to the company’s workplace environment, the cultivation of which has been steeped with sexism, harassment, and even led to the suicide of a female employee. Following this, the company reacted to the lawsuit – the response to …
Read More »Blizzard head responds to “extremely troubling” allegations
Earlier this week, the California Department of Fair Employment revealed that it would be suing Activision Blizzard over workplace misconduct, harassment and other issues. There has already been an ‘official' response from Activision Blizzard lawyers, which dismisses the allegations, however, an internal memo sent from Blizzard head, J. Allen Brack, …
Read More »Activision Blizzard sued for workplace ‘frat boy culture’
As time goes on, it seems as though nearly every major video game publisher has suffered from toxic workplace cultures, filled with harassment and more. Following on from allegations levied against Ubisoft, Quantic Dream and more, it seems Activision Blizzard has suffered from equally bad, if not even worse issues …
Read More »Diablo II: Resurrected is launching in September, beta in August
Last night during the Xbox E3 showcase, Blizzard made a surprise appearance to reveal the release date for Diablo II: Resurrected. We already knew that the remake would be releasing this year, but it'll be coming a bit earlier than expected, there is also going to be an open beta …
Read More »Overwatch is getting cross-platform multiplayer on PC and consoles
Overwatch is still going strong and Blizzard is continuing to work on new features alongside Overwatch 2. One of the new features coming to Blizzard's original PvP shooter is Crossplay, allowing those across console and PC to team up and duke it out. In the latest Overwatch developer update, newly …
Read More »Unofficial Diablo 2: Resurrected offline patch removed from GitHub
Earlier this year, Blizzard began closed playtests for Diablo II: Resurrected and sure enough, some people took those files and modified the game to be playable offline. These offline patches were hosted on GitHub, but a DMCA wave has taken them all down. As reported by TorrentFreak, Activision Blizzard has …
Read More »Overwatch 2 PvP changes include a switch to 5v5 matches
Blizzard's big Overwatch 2 stream took place last night, during which developers revealed a lot more about the sequel. One of the biggest changes is a move away from the 6v6 matches in the original game to a new 5v5 format, which is much more common amongst competitive shooters. With …
Read More »Blizzard will showcase new Overwatch 2 gameplay this month
While Overwatch 2 didn't make a big appearance at BlizzCon this year, Blizzard does have updates to share with us. At this point, the sequel has a new director, as Jeff Kaplan left the company a short time ago. Now, Overwatch 2's new director, Aaron Keller, will be holding a …
Read More »Blizzard confirms release date for WoW Classic: Burning Crusade
Two days ago, Blizzard accidentally leaked a June 1st launch date for WoW Classic: Burning Crusade. At the time, we didn't know if this was the final release date or a placeholder, but that changes today, with Blizzard officially confirming the launch. The Burning Crusade is coming to World of …
Read More »Blizzard to launch WoW Classic: The Burning Crusade in June
World of Warcraft Classic is going through some changes this year, with Blizzard launching new servers for The Burning Crusade expansion. There is currently an on-going beta for this but a release date has not been announced – although a Battle.net update may have leaked it. A number of players …
Read More »Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan leaves Blizzard
After a near 20-year long career at the studio, Jeff Kaplan has announced that he is leaving Blizzard, continuing a trend of long-term creative leads departing from the company. Most recently, Kaplan was in charge of Overwatch and had begun leading development on Overwatch 2. Kaplan joined Blizzard in 2002 …
Read More »Two more classics added to the Blizzard Arcade Collection
Back in February, during BlizzCon 2021, Blizzard shadow-dropped the Blizzard Arcade Collection, packaging together three classic Blizzard titles from the 90s. Blizzard is now expanding the collection, adding another two games. The Blizzard Arcade Collection began with three games, the first of which is The Lost Vikings, a puzzle platformer …
Read More »Diablo 2: Resurrected gets its first playtest this month
Blizzard is making good progress in Diablo 2: Resurrected, with the first technical play test set to begin this month. Blizzard has invited players to sign up for the first alpha test, which will focus on the single-player portion of the game. The technical alpha test for Diablo 2: Resurrected …
Read More »Crash Bandicoot: On the Run downloaded over 8 million times at launch
March has been a big month for Crash Bandicoot, not only have we seen Crash Bandicoot 4 launch for next-gen consoles, Nintendo Switch and PC, but a mobile spin-off has also come out, which garnered over 8 million downloads on its first day. Crash Bandicoot: On the Run launched on …
Read More »Blizzard removes WoW 30, 90 and 180 day game time cards to push subscriptions
Blizzard has caused some drama this week after making changes to ‘game time' codes for World of Warcraft. While previously people could buy game time cards for 30, 60, 90 or 180 days, three of those options have been removed, leaving 60 day game time purchases as the only option. …
Read More »Activision Blizzard downsizing esports and live events division
Back in 2019, Activision Blizzard underwent a round of lay-offs, losing hundreds of staff members. This year, the company has another round of job cuts on the way, this time focusing on the esports division, which has suffered due to the lack of live events over the course of the …
Read More »Blizzard adds 120Hz option to Overwatch on Xbox Series X/S
Blizzard has finally begun upgrading Overwatch for next-gen consoles. In a patch this week, the developers added Xbox Series X/S enhancements to the game, bringing additional graphics modes – including a 120Hz mode. Overwatch on Xbox Series X/S will now have three different performance/graphics presets. The first is “resolution”, which …
Read More »Diablo 2: Resurrected PC system requirements revealed
Diablo 2: Resurrected is officially coming out this year, with development handled by the excellent team at Vicarious Visions, previously responsible for the Crash Bandicoot N'Sane trilogy remake. Following on from the game's announcement at BlizzCon, the PC version's system requirements have been revealed. Diablo 2: Resurrected is a remaster …
Read More »Blizzard announces Diablo 2: Resurrected
BlizzCon Online officially kicked off late last night and as previously rumoured, we did indeed get announcement for Diablo 2: Resurrected, a remaster of the fan-favourite ARPG for PC and consoles. Diablo 2: Resurrected will be releasing for PC, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4 and Nintendo Switch later …
Read More »Blizzard Arcade Collection of 90s classics leaks ahead of BlizzCon
The BlizzCon announcement leaks continue ahead of this weekend's virtual event. This time around, a collection of Blizzard Classics have leaked, with the studio bringing back three games from its humble beginning back in the 90s. A leaked listing for the Blizzard Arcade Collection was spotted on the PEGI website …
Read More »Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 will be part of BlizzCon Online
We learned via an earnings call earlier this week that Blizzard won't be releasing Diablo 4 or Overwatch 2 this year. However, we will be seeing both games in action at BlizzCon, which takes place later this month. The BlizzCon Online schedule went live last night, so we know what …
Read More »Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 won’t be releasing this year
Back in late 2019, Blizzard announced both Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2. Neither game has been given a release date yet, but many had hoped we'd see at least one of them in 2021. This week, Activision Blizzard confirmed that this won't be the case. During Activision Blizzard's quarterly earnings …
Read More »