Activision is making a surprising change this week. Vicarious Visions, the studio behind the Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2, is going to be merging into Blizzard. Vicarious Visions will soon be a new division within Blizzard. From there, all of Vicarious Vision's employees …
Read More »Overwatch is free to play until early January 2021
If for some reason you've never tried Overwatch, or never purchased it since the 2016 launch, then you have plenty of time to give Blizzard's shooter a go over the Christmas break. From now until the 4th of January, Overwatch is free to play. Overwatch has had plenty of free …
Read More »Diablo Immortal undergoes public alpha testing this month
As we know from the disastrous announcement at BlizzCon 2018, Blizzard has been working on a mobile Diablo game for a few years now. Not much news has come out about the project since its announcement, but that changes this week, as the game is now publicly playable in alpha …
Read More »Overwatch 2 will return at BlizzCon 2021
We won't just be seeing Diablo 4 at BlizzCon Online in early 2021, Blizzard also has confirmed plans to show off progress on Overwatch 2. Overwatch lead, Jeff Kaplan, discussed the plans in an announcement post this week. In the Overwatch Development Update video, Kaplan explains that we will be …
Read More »WoW: Shadowlands is the fastest-selling PC game ever, Blizzard claims
Each time a new World of Warcraft expansion launches, it seems to out-do the previous one in terms of sales. The case is no different for the recently launched Shadowlands expansion, which Blizzard claims is the “fastest-selling PC game of all time industry-wide”. Previously, the fastest selling PC-only game was …
Read More »Blizzard updates WoW to run on ARM-based Macs
In a surprise announcement, Blizzard today has announced that World of Warcraft now runs natively on Apple Silicon. The announcement comes just in time for the launch of Apple's latest MacBooks, all powered by the Apple M1 SoC. This is very notable, as it means WoW can run on ARM64 …
Read More »Blizzard cracks down on multi-boxing ahead of WoW: Shadowlands launch
Ahead of WoW's next big expansion launch, Blizzard is making an effort to crack down on certain in-game practices. The most notable thing here is a renewed stance against multi-boxing and automated gameplay methods. This week, Blizzard issued a policy update for input broadcasting software. This allows a single keystroke …
Read More »Activision Blizzard made $1.2 Billion on microtransactions in three months
When microtransactions were first introduced, many video game players expressed their dissatisfaction with the implementation of this new form of monetisation. Despite the narrative mostly remaining the same in the years since, it appears as though microtransactions are here to stay. According to Activision Blizzard, the company made $1.2 Billion …
Read More »World of Warcraft: Shadowlands pre-orders higher than any other expansion
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is finally releasing later this month after delays pushed it out of October and it is already looking to be the biggest expansion launch for the game so far. During a recent Activision Blizzard earnings call, the publisher boasted that World of Warcraft: Shadowlands has the …
Read More »Ex-Blizzard devs team up to create ‘the next great RTS’ game
Last week, Blizzard officially announced that it was done with StarCraft 2 content development. Now, several former Blizzard RTS veterans have left the studio behind, teaming up to build a new strategy-focused studio of their own. Frost Giant Studios has been announced this week with the aim of building “the …
Read More »StarCraft II development comes to an end
It has been five years since Blizzard released its last major expansion, Legacy of the Void, for StarCraft II. Since then, Blizzard has released smaller content updates for StarCraft II but those are coming to an end this year. Today, Blizzard officially announced that it has ceased development on StarCraft …
Read More »Overwatch’s Halloween event goes live tomorrow
Despite launching in 2015, Overwatch continues to be enjoyed by a large number of players. As such, each year, the team-based hero shooter celebrates Halloween with a limited time event. Dubbed the ‘Halloween Terror’, players will be able to play a number of limited time game modes, while also potentially …
Read More »Former Blizzard CEO and co-founder forms new game studio
Mike Morhaime left Blizzard a while back amid reports of growing influence and pressure from Activision. At the time, we all thought the former Blizzard co-founder would retire, but as it turns out, he is not quite done with the games business just yet. This week, Mike Morhaime has partnered …
Read More »Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 becomes the fastest selling game in the franchise
The Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 remake recently released to high praise. The first game in the series since the widely panned ‘Pro Skater 5’, 1+2 proved that the franchise can still offer an enticing and fun skateboarding experience. It appears as though this critical success has turned into commercial …
Read More »World of Warcraft: Shadowlands system requirements call for SSD storage and beefier GPUs
It looks like World of Warcraft players may want to consider moving the long-running MMO over to an SSD soon, as Blizzard has updated the minimum requirements for World of Warcraft: Shadowlands. According to the new expansion's minimum system requirements, players should ideally be using an SSD. This is likely …
Read More »Diablo 4 development ‘going very well’ with devs working from home
Back in March, former Gears of War franchise head, Rod Fergusson, moved over to Blizzard to helm Diablo 4's development. Of course, the global coronavirus pandemic hit just one week later, which has had an impact on many game development studios. In the case of Diablo IV, while there were …
Read More »Blizzard will hold a digital Blizzcon in early 2021
As we learned back in May, Blizzard will not be hosting a BlizzCon this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, event organisers said that an online alternative was being explored and now, it looks like those plans have been finalised, with a digital BlizzCon set for early …
Read More »Blizzard confirms WoW: Shadowlands Xbox listing was an error
The rumour mill began spinning early this week, as World of Warcraft: Shadowlands was rated in Brazil for both PC and Xbox Series X. There have been rumours of a console port for WoW floating around for years and at the time, this seemed like the evidence console-only gamers had …
Read More »World of Warcraft: Shadowlands beta begins next week
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is still on track for release later this year and soon, some fans will be able to test it out early for themselves. During a livestream this afternoon, Blizzard announced dates for the Shadowlands beta test, which kicks off next week. Blizzard will be sending out …
Read More »Activision investors argue that CEO is paid too much
Activision CEO, Bobby Kotick, has come under fire this week as some shareholders are beginning to argue that he is paid too much. Specifically, Activision's top brass are accused of “irresponsible and unethical corporate behaviour and excessive executive pay”. Activision Blizzard is a giant in the industry, pulling in billions …
Read More »Blizzard’s World of Warcraft: Shadowlands stream delayed
With World of Warcraft's next expansion launching within the next few months, Blizzard has been planning to show off more footage and share new details about what fans of the MMO can look forward to. There was supposed to be some announcements taking place live next week, but the event …
Read More »Diablo 2 might be the next Blizzard classic to get remastered
In an effort to release games on a more regular basis, Blizzard has begun going back to its older titles and remastering them. So far, we've had spruced up versions of StarCraft and Warcraft 3, but now, it looks like Diablo 2 might be next on the list. According to …
Read More »World of Warcraft is getting ray-tracing
Some of the biggest games in the world have been implementing ray-tracing in the last year, including the likes of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Minecraft. Now, World of Warcraft is going to be joining that group, as shown by a recent update to the alpha for the MMO’s …
Read More »BlizzCon 2020 is being planned but it is too early to tell if it will be possible
Blizzard hasn't exactly had the best run of PR over the last couple of years but Blizzcon still tends to be a hugely popular event each year. Currently, Blizzard still plans to hold another Blizzcon this year, but the company also warns that it is “too early” to tell if …
Read More »Blizzard survey hints at The Burning Crusade for WoW Classic
Since the release of WoW Classic, there has been talk of Blizzard also adding support for the older expansions in their original form. Blizzard appears to be curious about this idea too, as it has begun surveying current Classic players on the possibility of bringing out a classic version of …
Read More »Blizzard shares new Diablo IV details in quarterly developer update
While Blizzard isn't necessarily on solid ground with its fan base at the moment, the studio is taking at least one step in the right direction. This week, the first quarterly update on Diablo IV was released, detailing new progress being made on the game and changes already being implemented …
Read More »Overwatch is getting an experimental mode to publicly test gameplay changes
Despite a new hero reveal and the announcement of a sequel at Blizzcon last year, Overwatch has remained somewhat stagnant. Blizzard is hoping to change that in 2020 with the launch of a new experimental mode, with the first experiment being matches with triple damage. Blizzard will be cycling in …
Read More »Overwatch and Diablo TV shows confirmed through LinkedIn profile
Though film and TV adaptations of video games are certainly nothing new, it seems as though 2020 will see more projects come to light than usual. A Diablo TV show featuring an anime art style, and an Overwatch animated series have both been confirmed to be in development thanks to …
Read More »StarCraft: Ghost resurfaces with new gameplay footage
StarCraft: Ghost has been one of the biggest ‘What If?' stories in Blizzard's history. The game was famously announced as a shooter spin-off for the franchise before being scrapped several years later. We've not seen much of the game in action up to this point, but that changed this week …
Read More »Activision Blizzard pulls its games from GeForce Now
Nvidia officially launched GeForce Now just one week ago, but the cloud gaming service's library of supported games is already getting a bit of a shake-up. While there is hope that the situation will eventually change, for the time being, Activision Blizzard's games will no longer be accessible via GeForce …
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