Blizzard said it has banned Diablo 4 players who used a character realm transfer exploit that went viral late July.
19.07.2023 - 18:17 / rockpapershotgun.com / Mike Ybarra
Blizzard is going to offer its digital PC games outside of its Battle.net launcher for the first time, starting next month with Overwatch 2 - though you’ll still need to sign in through Battle.net to play.
The release of Overwatch 2 on Steam on August 10th will mark the first time that Blizzard has stepped outside of its veteran launcher, which was launched in late 1996 ahead of the first Diablo. As well as the likes of StarCraft, World of Warcraft and Hearthstone, Battle.net has since become home to Activision games including Call of Duty as part of the ActiBlizz merger in 2008.
Blizzard said the Steam release of Overwatch 2 and what the studio merely teased as “a selection of our games” - without naming any other titles, or when we might see them - wouldn’t see it pull away from its own platform in any way, simply expand onto an additional launcher.
“While Battle.net remains a priority for us now and into the future, we’ve heard players want the choice of Steam for a selection of our games,” said Blizz president Mike Ybarra.
Its announcement added that “gaming is no longer just for specific communities as it was when Battle.net launched over two decades ago”, casting the wider availability on Steam as an effort to make it easier for players to pick up its games where they wanted.
Of course, Overwatch 2’s Steam launch on August 10th puts it in line with the release of the free-to-play shooter sequel’s major Invasion update, which adds story missions, a new competitive mode, two maps, an extra hero and a bunch of other stuff - but not for free, mind.
Although you’ll be able to play Overwatch 2 through Steam, you won’t be able to dodge Battle.net entirely - you’ll still need to sign in with a Battle.net
Blizzard said it has banned Diablo 4 players who used a character realm transfer exploit that went viral late July.
By Umar Shakir, a news writer fond of the electric vehicle lifestyle and things that plug in via USB-C. He spent over 15 years in IT support before joining The Verge.
Blizzard Entertainment is gearing up to release the sixth season of Overwatch 2 into the marketplace. If you’re eager to dive into the season, then anything marketing-wise might catch your attention. Well, it looks like one piece of marketing material managed to get out to the public before its actual scheduled release. The best part about this is that the actual president of Blizzard Entertainment was reportedly the individual responsible for the leak. Now fans are getting a quick peek into some of the upcoming season six skins.
The Destiny and Diablo communities went at each others’ throats on Twitter last month due to a comment made by a Destiny 2 developer who called out Diablo 4’s enemy scaling. He said that “it is one of the worst ideas in video games” and said that it takes away from playstyles and ruins power trips. Blizzard President Mike Ybarra responded with a simple “Lazy, huh.” but gamers on Twitter were divided over how games should adjust the difficulty.
It’s the battle of the free FPS games, as Valve’s Team Fortress 2 has briefly overtaken Blizzard’s Overwatch 2 in terms of concurrent Twitch viewers. With multiple reasons for the spike in viewers that overtook OW2, and the Blizzard shooter’s impending Steam release, it looks like it could be in for some friendly competition with Team Fortress 2 going forward.
The US Federal Trade Commission has withdrawn its proceedings against Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard. According to IGN, the FTC responded to Microsoft’s motion to withdraw from the recent proceedings with no objections, essentially giving Microsoft the green light to go ahead with its $69 billion acquisition.
In what looks like a first, Blizzard will offer some of its games on Valve's Steam store.
Following a fast-tracked trial with multiple revelations, the US Federal Trade Commission’s injunction to halt the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft was denied in court. It then filed for an appeal last week, which was also denied. Nevertheless, it’s not giving up just yet, as Reuters reports that it brought the case to an internal FTC administrative judge, with a trial scheduled for August 2nd.
Blizzard games will be coming to Steam, starting with Overwatch 2 on 10th August, giving PC gamers an option outside of Battle.net for where they buy and play their Blizzard games.
Blizzard is bringing a selection of its PC games over to Steam, starting with Overwatch 2. The free-to-play team-based shooter is headed to Valve's gaming client on August 10, in what appears to be a change in Blizzard's strategy due to its impending acquisition by Microsoft and the low player engagement the game has garnered in recent times. The Windows PC version of Overwatch 2 and other games from the publisher is largely restricted to its Battle.net launcher — a hot topic for most PC gamers, who prefer having all their games on one platform and hate having to juggle between them. The Steam version will also include the niceties of unlockable achievements and cross-platform multiplayer.
Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have renegotiated the deadline for concluding the proposed acquisition of the Call of Duty publisher, giving them more leeway to conclude the discussions with market regulators with a new deadline to complete by 18th October 2023.
For a while now, Blizzard fans on PC have had to begrudgingly put up with Battle.net, the developer's very own launcher that it uses to boot up pretty much every game released by Activision Blizzard. It's a pain in the neck for any PC player to have to constantly download launchers for different games, but Battle.net is a particularly annoying example of a developer forcing its fans to put up with a subpar launcher when Steam is already installed on 90 percent of computers at this point.