blizzardentertainment
Latest
Sombra is officially Overwatch's new hacker hero
If you didn't see Sombra coming, maybe you haven't been paying much attention to Overwatch lately. Onstage during the Blizzcon keynote, Blizzard president and CEO Mike Morhaime described her as a stealthy offensive infiltrator who can hack an enemy's abilities. Blizzard has dropped a few other details as well. She has an EMP attack that can shut down numerous enemies at once, for instance. Additionally, she can camouflage herself, making her harder to see. If you're lucky enough to be at Blizzcon this weekend she'll be playable on the show floor. Everyone else? You're going to have to wait.
'Overwatch' already has 7 million people aiming at your face
Blizzard Entertainment probably knew its online shooter Overwatch was going to be pretty popular following the wildly successful beta, but maybe not to this extent. The company has revealed that the game has earned some 7 million players worldwide already across PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with users logging over 119 million hours of the colorful shooter since its May 24th launch. For context, New York City has around 8.5 million residents and the playtime translates to over 13,500 years.
Blizzard will permaban 'Overwatch' cheaters
Overwatch's massively popular beta might be over, but the game's cadre of developers at Blizzard are already making plans of how to deal with cheaters ahead of launch: Banning them. Permanently. No three strikes rule. No cool down. Just an outright permaban. And that's awesome. Writing on the forums, community manager Lylirra says that if a player is using hacks, bots or anything that gives her or him and unfair advantage, the banhammer will strike swiftly. If you spot someone cheating come the game's May 24th release, send any and all information regarding such to hacks@blizzard.com.
Fans persuade Blizzard to pull sexualized 'Overwatch' pose
Sometimes a beta test is more than a glorified demo that the marketing department pushes for to drum up pre-orders. Fans of Overwatch, Blizzard's colorful new shooter, discovered just that recently. Over on the game's official forums, a user noticed that one of Tracer's -- more or less the figurehead for the game -- victory poses put her in a position that forum-goer "Fipps" thought wasn't befitting of the character. In it, she's glancing over her shoulder, her butt framed by a few straps over her leggings.
Watch the first-ever TwitchCon keynote right here!
What do you do when you're a burgeoning video game start-up that gets bought by Amazon for just under a billion dollars? Well, if you're game-broadcasting platform Twitch, you take over the Moscone Center in San Francisco for a few days and host all manner of panels featuring the top people in your community, game developers and maybe even a few musical guests. TwitchCon kicks off with a keynote address at 1 pm ET / 10 am PT today and you can watch it below via, you guessed it, a Twitch streaming window. In addition to the opening address the weekend's panels and interviews will be broadcast as well.
Diablo 3 bedevils consoles on September 3rd, heading to Xbox 360 as well
Diablo 3 isn't a Sony console exclusive anymore, it seems, with Blizzard Entertainment today announcing it's heading to Xbox 360 as well on September 3rd. The game will arrive for the PlayStation 3 on the same day as the 360 version, with the PlayStation 4 version arriving at an unknown point afterward. It's unknown if the game is also headed to Microsoft's next-gen console, Xbox One, though Blizzard told our friends at Joystiq, "We don't have any further platform announcements to share at this time." Not exactly a straight up "no!" The console version of the game is said to contain all the updates that PC / Mac users have enjoyed thus far, not to mention much needed relief for your clicking finger.
Blizzard reveals Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, coming to iPad and PC
Blizzard Entertainment has revealed a brand-new game coming to the iPad and PC at PAX East this weekend, and all I can say is that it's about time. Blizzard is by far my favorite game developer, and I've been disappointed that as great as their games are, the company has never once made a solid entry into the iOS space: they've released an app to support World of Warcraft, but not once a real game meant for iOS directly. Until now. Hearthstone is a collectible card game based on various Warcraft characters and abilities, and as you can see in the screenshot above, it looks pretty darn gorgeous. Blizzard already has a very popular paper CCG, but this seems different even from that game, though you still collect cards and use them in play to cast spells, summon characters and use weapons all brought directly from the Warcraft universe. The game will be free to play, with extra card packs and cards available via in-app purchase. Blizzard says the game is coming first in a beta for PC and Mac later on this year, but the iPad version is what we'll really be waiting for. It's long past time that this legendary game developer made a mark on the iOS platform, and I have an inkling that if this game is as successful as you might expect, we'll see some more iOS development from Blizzard in the future. First things first, though -- hopefully we'll get our hands on Hearthstone soon.
Z2Live picks up former AAA execs, rebrands as Z2
Z2Live is the company behind some really big freemium hits on the iOS App Store, including Battle Nations and Trade Nations. The company has today announced that it's rebranding itself as Z2, dropping the "Live" and premiering a new brand identity on its new website. Beyond the rebranding, Z2 is also announcing a number of additions to its executive team, including some developers formerly from some very large gaming companies. Glen Pryer is joining the company as VP of Operations, and he's a former director of global planning at Blizzard Entertainment and former VP of 38 Studios. Adam Flanders is a new senior VP of sales and marketing, who previously worked with both Glu Mobile and THQ. And Shanis Windland is the new senior director of finance, and formerly worked with Big Fish Games. Those are definitely some notable pickups, and they show that Z2 is doing fairly well at pulling in talent with the few titles it has running so far. The company was originally put together to create a multiplayer community on Apple's iOS platform (similar to OpenFeint and a few other networks that were floating around back then), but since the inception of Trade Nations, it's put together a solid reputation as a studio building popular freemium MMO-style titles. It'll be interesting to see what Z2 has coming up next, given this new spin on the brand, and all of the growth it's experienced lately.
Diablo 3 heading to PlayStation 4 (and 3), part of 'strategic partnership' between Blizzard and Sony
Blizzard Entertainment's Chris Metzen announced tonight that Diablo 3 is headed to both the PlayStation 3 and 4. He announced as much during Sony's big PlayStation 4 reveal event this evening, noting that it's part of a "strategic partnership" between the two companies. He didn't say anything about how it'll change, but he did say that fans will get a chance to check out the new version at PAX East this March. Check out our liveblog of Sony's event to get the latest news as it happens!
Windows 8 is 'not awesome for Blizzard either' says studio exec
Calling Windows 8 "a catastrophe for everyone in the PC space" may not endear Valve's Gabe Newell to the folks at Microsoft, but it struck a chord with a member of Blizzard Entertainment's top brass. Rob Pardo, Executive Vice President of Game Design at the Irvine-based company, took to Twitter and chimed in on the matter, stating that Windows 8 is "not awesome for Blizzard either." While far from a resounding indictment, it's not the warmest of welcomes for Redmond's latest desktop OS. By the sounds of it, the October-bound operating system will have to win over a few hearts and minds in the game development community.
Diablo III becomes fastest-selling PC game ever, deluge of broken PC mice likely to follow
Chalk one up for an at least temporary resurgence in PC gaming. Blizzard can vouch that Diablo III has set a new record for the fastest-selling PC game to date: at 3.5 million copies trading hands through Battle.net downloads or retailers in the first 24 hours, and 6.3 million after a week, that's a whole lot of people battling the biggest of Prime Evils in a very short time. Naturally, a Blizzard-obsessed South Korea is accounting for even more activity, where over 39 percent of play at local gaming houses can be pinned on the action RPG, and the tally doesn't even include the 1.2 million bonus copies coming through a World of Warcraft annual pass promo. Before console gamers start packing up their PlayStations and Xboxes in symbolic resignation, D3 isn't the record-setter for the most copies of any game sold in one day -- that distinction goes to Modern Warfare 3's 6.5 million copies spread across multiple platforms. That's still enough to spur on some furious clicking and possibly a glut of dead mouse buttons, but you'll be glad to know there are suitably-themed replacement mice waiting in the wings.
SteelSeries Diablo III headset and mouse: demon slaying flair for your skull and desktop
Sure, there are plenty of great gaming goodies to be found on the floor at E3, but some of the best stuff is much harder to find. For example, SteelSeries' new Diablo III Mouse and headset, which were revealed to us when the prototype devices were pulled from a backpack. The headset packs the same 50mm drivers, retractable boom mic, and overhead suspension design of its Siberia V2 stablemate, but adds some sinister-looking design tweaks. These cans come murdered out in matte black with lava red accents (which can be turned off) courtesy of 18 LEDs, plus matching red external speaker grilles. There's also a braided cord that plugs into your Mac or PC via USB. %Gallery-126062% We got to see the Diablo III mouse as well, and found it sports an ambidextrous design similar to the SteelSeries Xai. Its inky exterior is cloaked in smooth, soft touch plastic sporting silvery tribal accents, and a glowing ember Diablo III logo and trim around the scroll-wheel. Given Diablo's click-happy gameplay, Steelseries gave the mouse beefy Omron switches that are good for 10 million presses (which are backed by a five year warranty). All those clicks are tracked by custom driver software that also lets users tailor the pointer's button layout by dragging and dropping character-specific commands to the button of your choosing. Now that your appetite has been whetted with the design descriptions, here are the details that matter most: the mouse will cost $69 and the headset $119 when SteelSeries starts selling 'em at BlizzCon in October. %Gallery-126063%
Analysts speculate on leaked Blizzard release schedule
Last week's leak of a series of internal documents detailing Blizzard's upcoming products has taken a turn away from tabloid headlines with reports of a full investigation underway at the gaming behemoth's China offices. The leak, brought to light by MMOGameSite.com, may be linked to the recent resignation of Ye Weilun, Blizzard China's general manager. Among other things, the leaked documents indicated that Blizzard could be releasing Diablo 3 and something Starcraft 2-related (dubbed "Phoenix") in 2011. The 5-year roadmap also shows two new World of Warcraft expansions and Blizzard's long-rumored WoW followup, an MMO code-named Titan. While much of the information surrounding the leak should be taken with a grain of salt (Blizzard has yet to officially confirm any information relating to the story), several analysts and industry reporters have speculated that the scenario seems entirely plausible.
Community Detective, Issue #12: World of Warcraft
Hey look, it's time for another installment of Community Detective! This week, boys and girls, we're going to venture where many folks have ventured before: the lands of Azeroth. That's right, World of Warcraft awaits, and I figured it's high time we took a look at the community and customer service aspects of the industry's resident titan. To be honest, I had a bit of an ulterior motive: I've been playing the game in my spare time, the better to get in and enjoy the old-world scenery a bit before Deathwing does his Pearl Harbor re-enactment on December 7th. So, why not kill two birds with one stone, right? While the reigning MMORPG subscription champion's community is often referred to as the stuff nightmares are made of, the customer service is some of the best in the business. Yes, yes, I know, WoW's devs stole your lunch money, kicked your dog, and ran over your mother with their gold-plated sports coupes, so how much did Blizzard pay me to say it has good customer service? Flip past the cut to find out.
The five classes of guilds
Blessing of Kings does a great job with this post of putting into words (and then extending) the idea of something we've talked about many times before: all guilds are not equal. He separates them into a kind of hierarchical class structure, with "Royalty" (guilds like Stars and Ensidia) at the top of the raiding game, going down to "Aristocracy" (guilds working on hard modes), "Gentry" (guilds who've cleared normal but haven't been able to do hard modes yet), "Bourgeoisie" (guilds working on normal), and the "Proletariat" (casual folks who haven't started raiding). I think he's squeezed things down a bit farther than he should -- I would call the "Bourgeoisie" level guilds still working on Ulduar and Naxx normal fights, as I think there are quite a few of those out there. But his points are strong -- there are bands of raiding guilds, partly by Blizzard's design and partly by mere fact that people approach the content in their own ways.
Upcoming Blizzard announcement to be a new Starcraft?
With the countdown continuing on Blizzard's homepage, there's plenty of speculation on what Blizzard is cooking up. Warcraft 4? Starcraft 2? Diablo 3? I'm staying out of the speculation game, myself -- as much as we might guess and hope for a specific product, Blizzard is good at throwing us surprises. However, the Starcraft 2 rumors are growing in volume, fueled by the recent discovery of a Starcraft2.com page owned by Blizzard Entertainment which redirects viewers to Blizzard's main site. Gamespot went live with the story on Tuesday, and since then I've heard it just about everywhere. Reports of it are crowding my inbox. Barrens chat can't stop talking about it. And Blizzard rumors even seem to dominate OOC chat in Lord of the Rings Online. But is this really a sign that we're going to be hearing all about Starcraft 2 this weekend?My magic 8-ball has informed me signs point to no. Or even if Starcraft 2 is what we're going to hear -- this isn't really a sign of it. The domain record from Network Solutions tells us that Blizzard has owned Starcraft2.com since 1999 and the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine shows the page redirecting to Blizzard's main home page since at least 2002. Starcraft2.com is neither new nor has it recently changed. No, Blizzard doesn't own Diablo3.com (it's a Diablo 3 news site), Warcraft4.com (an advertisement site), WorldofStarcraft.com (a German WoW site), or WorldofDiablo.com (a German Diablo site). But does the fact that they've owned Starcraft2.com for eight years now mean anything relevant to the coming announcement? I think not.[Thanks to numerous tipsters]
Blizzard planning a new MMO -- but which one?
Hot on the heels of rumors that Blizzard might be announcing a Starcraft 2 in the near future, job postings are springing up on Blizzard's web site seeking people for a "Next-Gen MMO" project. World of Starcraft, maybe?World of Warcraft 2? (Though it seems early for a sequel, with Blizzard's development cycle you never know.) World of Diablo? There's no details of yet, which just leaves plenty of room for uninformed speculation. But f you think you have what it takes to work for Blizzard as a Lead Engine Programmer, Lead Tools Programmer, or Lead Technical Artist, it's time to polish up your resume.
Blizzard opening customer support center in Austin, TX
For those of you hoping to score an exciting job in customer service for Blizzard, but not really wanting to move all the way out to Irvine, CA, you now have another option. The Austin Business Journal is reporting that Blizzard is opening a facility in Austin, TX that could eventually house around 500 employees, consisting of gaming support, quality control, and internal support staff. If you happen to be in the area, they're currently accepting resumes for customer service representatives. I'm in the area, but if the amount of angry forum posts I see on a daily basis are any indication, I'm not sure I could take the sort of abuse Blizzard's CSRs probably deal with. At least not for 40 hours every week!
Blizzard just says no to consoles (or do they?)
Our friends at Joystiq have pointed out an interview with Blizzard's VP of business development, Itzik Ben Bassat, at GameIndustry.biz. In it, he again confirms yearly expansions -- though he didn't let slip any details on what we might see in the next one. However, he has some interesting things to say about gaming consoles, summed up in this quote:Consoles are becoming sophisticated PCs which sit in the living room... We'll have to see how all this develops. Maybe in five years you won't need a console because you'll have one PC which delivers content all over your house.No plans to bring World of Warcraft to the console market, then? Bassat says there are no plans to bring the game to consoles, though Blizzard is keeping a close eye on the next gen machines, especially their online services. And he has nothing but good to say about Xbox Live Arcade:I'm very impressed, I'm impressed by the people who do it, and the service is very easy, very intuitive. I love it.Is anyone else getting mixed signals here?
Rob Pardo's keynote at the Austin Game Conference
Elizabeth Harper is covering the MMO-heavy Austin Game Conference for Joystiq and our WoW-obsessed friends at WoW Insider.Haven't heard of Rob Pardo? Well, you might want to familiarize yourself with him. Not only is he Blizzard's Vice President of Game Development, but he recently was put on Time Magazine's list of the top 100 people, which points out that Pardo didn't invent the MMO, he just perfected it.So Wednesday morning, when the Austin Game Conference started out with a keynote from Mr. Pardo on the game design philosophy behind World of Warcraft, it wasn't to be missed. Read on for the highlights of the keynote.
