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Blizzard gives Battle.net a social makeover
Blizzard is giving its Battle.net desktop app a makeover. The gaming portal now has a tab dedicated to chats and groups, while the service is also introducing personal profiles and avatars for players to customize to their liking. It seems Blizzard wants to bring Battle.net's social and personalization more in line with Xbox Live, PSN and Discord, which is in line with the social-heavy mobile app they released last month.
Blizzard is recruiting for an entirely new 'Overwatch' project
Blizzard could be working on a new Overwatch game. Between its updates aimed at curbing toxicity online and the bevy of new features it keeps rolling out, the publisher has plenty on its plate. But, a new vacancy on the Blizzard website suggests it may be looking to expand the Overwatch universe. The company is seeking a "generalist artist intern" with "knowledge and understanding" of Overwatch to work on an unannounced project. The role seems to be geared at students, as it's expected to last just a few months during 2018 at its office in Irvine, California.
‘Overwatch’ Halloween bash begins on October 10th
Overwatch's Halloween event last year introduced the title's first player-vs-computer co-op mode , a fun brawl featuring four heroes against a horde of enemies. Even if the holiday season only lasted a month, it was a delightful surprise that paved the way for later (tragically temporary) PvE game modes. If you were worried Blizzard would pass up another opportunity for spooky gameplay and new skins, don't fear: Overwatch's new Halloween Terror event goes live on October 10th.
Blizzard's Battle.net mobile app is strictly social
With its original moniker intact (sort of), Blizzard Battle.net is making the jump to mobile. The online gaming platform already boasts a desktop portal, through which players can install and patch games, voice chat, message one another, and livestream their gameplay to Facebook. Its brand-spanking new iOS and Android apps, on the other hand, offer a pared-down service focusing entirely on the social aspect.
'Overwatch' fights toxic players by muting them on Xbox Live
Yesterday, Overwatch's team released the new map, Junkertown, and a few character tweaks in a moderately-sized update. But tucked away in the patch notes was a new tool in Blizzard's fight against toxicity in the game: Xbox Live users that earn enough scorn for the "Avoid Me" reputation are banned from in-game voice chat.
Overwatch League’s first season is set to begin January 10th
The Overwatch League has added three more teams to its roster, bringing the total up to its target number of 12 and making way for the very first competition season. The new teams represent Philadelphia, Dallas and Houston and are owned by Comcast Spectacor, Team Envy and OpTic Gaming, respectively. They join franchises located across the US as well as China, South Korea and the UK.
Now all 'Overwatch' players can visit Junkertown
At Gamescom last month, Blizzard teased fans of its hero shooter Overwatch with a new map: Junkertown. The escort map across the post-nuclear Australian wasteland was opened up to PC test realm players a week later, but now it's live on all platforms for all players.
PC players can try the next 'Overwatch' map early
Hot on the heels of the deathmatch modes added to the main game today, Overwatch is allowing players to try out the game's next map, Junkertown, on the PTR servers. While only PC owners get to play on the test servers, they'll get some time to explore the hero shooter's payload map before it hits the game proper.
Blizzard preps aging 'Warcraft 3' multiplayer for future changes
So this is a bit strange: Over 15 years later, Blizzard has added a public test realm to its premier real-time strategy game, Warcraft 3. Overwatch (also made by Blizzard) fans know that the PTR is where experimental features and modes are tested before going wide to the full player population. In Warcraft's case, this is to test out new map pools for 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 and 4v4 multiplayer. Updates that address slow matchmaking, lag and that add automated tournaments and a "ladder board" are planned as well.
'Hearthstone’s ‘Knights of the Frozen Throne’ expansion is live
Blizzard's digital card game Hearthstone's newest full expansion is now live. Knights of the Frozen Throne brings 135 new cards and free solo content to the title and a couple new mechanics, which will shake up the game's competitive meta. Sure, it's a lot of what we've come to expect from a Hearthstone expansion, but who can complain about new additions to tried-and-true gameplay?
‘Hearthstone’s next expansion adds undead fun in icy Northrend
Digital card game Hearthstone started off a new year of themed expansions with April's Journey to Un'goro, adding 135 cards and introducing new concepts to refresh the game. Last night, studio Blizzard announced the second new content block for 2017, Knights of the Frozen Throne, which will launch in August.
'Heroes of the Storm' adds everyone's favorite 'Overwatch' hero
Last month, Blizzard announced it would revamp its MOBA game, Heroes of the Storm, in a huge patch released in April. Its 2.0 update, which is live in North America, promised to upgrade its player progression system and added random-reward loot boxes, a staple of the free-to-play model. But the studio had a few other surprises to drop today, including adding a new hero to the nexus, Overwatch's teen mecha-piloting pop star, D.Va.
Blizzard puts a smidge of 'Overwatch' in 'Heroes of the Storm'
Blizzard is working hard to overhaul its free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) Heroes of the Storm. The studio has announced some big changes are coming in the game's 2.0 update, including a new reward system similar to Blizzard's hugely popular online shooter, Overwatch.
'Overwatch's' four-legged tank hero is here (for casual players)
Overwatch's new badass robot centaur Orisa makes her official debut today, but players hoping to climb those Season 4 ranks with her are going to have to wait. Blizzard is disabling her from Competitive mode for one week, according to the game's official forums and Twitter account, so people can get to know her a little better first.
The 24th 'Overwatch' character arrives next week
Orisa, the latest character to enter the Overwatch fray, will be widely available on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on March 21st. Orisa is an "anchor tank," as Blizzard calls it -- this means she's the kind of massive, damage-absorbing hero that an entire team can rally behind and use as a home base, even in the middle of hectic fights. Reinhardt is another example of an "anchor tank" in Overwatch.
'Hearthstone' will release three full expansions in 2017
Blizzard is shaking up its Warcraft-themed digital card game, Hearthstone, with a slew of changes coming this year. Unlike its prior habit of alternating smaller Adventure releases with larger Expansions, 2017 will see three of the latter full-size sets added to the game. But they're also taking away half a dozen cards from the competitive Standard format, including fan favorites Ragnaros the Firelord and Sylvanas. Welcome to the Year of the Mammoth.
'Overwatch' boasts over 25 million players
Last we'd heard, online shooter Overwatch had 15 million players. A little over three months later, and that number's gone up by quite a bit. Developer Blizzard has just announced that the current count has crossed 25 million across PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It's pretty impressive and given all the moves Blizzard has made (announcing an eSports incubator, frequent seasonal events and doling out additional characters for free) perhaps it isn't surprising that the number of players is growing. Now, if some of them would actually help move the payload we'd really be in business.
The next 'Overwatch' holiday event celebrates Chinese New Year
It doesn't look like Overwatch's holiday celebrations are over just because Christmas is in the rearview mirror. Next up? Chinese New Year. The game's Twitter account sent the news out along with a quick video, proclaiming that the event, Year of the Rooster, will begin January 24th -- a few days before the actual holiday this year. Given that previous installments have included special gametypes and character skins, it stands to reason we can expect the same here too -- especially given Mei's garb in the 11 second clip.
'Hearthstone' is going to Gadgetzan
The next expansion for Blizzard's wildly popular digital card game goes out into the desert. But it'll be a bit different than when you checked out out in World of Warcraft. "Mean Streets of Gadgetzan" is a bigger, more populated city now, but executive producer Hamilton Chu said that it has some seedy back alleys and underworld elements to it.
Google DeepMind and Blizzard partner for 'StarCraft II' AI research
Google's Deepmind AI has already learned how to best humans at Go, but now Deepmind's resources will be pointed at an entirely different game: Starcraft II. Blizzard just announced at Blizzcon that it is partnering with Google to open up Starcraft II as a research platform for those building AI programmers. "Blizzard will release an API early next year that will allow researchers and hobbyists around the world to build and train their own AI agents to play Starcraft II," said Oriol Vinyals, a research scientist at Google DeepMind.
