Blizzard Entertainment News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

Blizzard has announced that it will not be holding a BlizzCon event this year.

With Blizzard Entertainment having several major upcoming releases in the works, many had expected that the company would have a lot to say at BlizzCon later this year. Recently, however, it was announced that Blizzard had decided not to host the event in 2024. With Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard having gone through last year, there were some who wondered if it was Blizzard’s new parent company that made the decision to not go ahead with a BlizzCon event this year, but apparently that wasn’t the case.

Mayors in RPG games are rarely given the spotlight. They're mostly just there to give you an early quest involving goat banditry or windmill rats or some such other domestic drudgery. Or, in the case of Tristram’s mayor in Diablo, to fret behind the scenes about how to properly fit considerable cathedral repairs into this month’s budget. Well, no more must this valuable civil servant hide behind balance sheets, occasionally popping out to cut a big ribbon in celebration of a nearby mausoleum being turned into a Wetherspoons. Tristam is a 72 hour Ludum Dare project where you play as said town’s mayor. And this time: It’s ceremonial!

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that has been canceled, although the company does have plans for future live events this year. While there won’t be an in-person or digital BlizzCon event for this year, Blizzard promises the event will return in future years, although it may have a different format.

BlizzCon, Blizzard's annual get-together for fans of their games, was halted by the pandemic in 2020 and only returned as a physical event last year. One year later, it is cancelled again, Blizzard have announced.

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that it won’t host BlizzCon this year. The annual event washosted for the first time in person last year since 2020 and was seemingly on the verge of a comeback. Though not meant to be, the company told IGN it’s not a decision “made lightly.”

Blizzard Entertainment will not host a BlizzCon event in 2024, the company announced. However, Blizzard Entertainment said it is “as excited as ever to bring BlizzCon back in future years.”

Blizzard is currently recruiting a dozen members of staff to work on an unannounced game.

A new studio helmed by StarCraft 2 multiplayer lead David Kim has teased its debut RTS project, which it says will be revealed during Summer Game Fest in June.

officially acquired in October, closing a massive $68.7 billion deal. With the company now firmly integrated into Microsoft’s corporate structure, some might wonder how the software giant is influencing Blizzard. However, at least for now, it seems that Microsoft isn’t that interested in meddling with the developer’s affairs.

World of Warcraft is celebrating its 20th anniversary this coming November, which, incidentally, is coinciding with its next expansion, The War Within, which is due out next year and will kick off a new trilogy dubbed the Worldsoul Saga. In commemoration of both milestones, Blizzard Entertainment has unveiled the World of Warcraft: The War Within 20th Anniversary Collector’s Edition.

Microsoft has “let Blizzard be Blizzard” following its acquisition of the studio last year.

Blizzard has said that it still has discussions a console version of World of Warcraft.

Blizzard has revealed the World of Warcraft: The War Within 20th Anniversary Collector’s Edition.

Players can now register for the chance to participate in beta testing for World of Warcraft’s next expansion, The War Within.

Alongside the gameplay trailer forOverwatch 2’s tenth season, Venture Forth, Blizzard Entertainment has released a roadmap outlining dates for the upcoming content. It kicks off on April 16th with the arrival of Venture, a new Damage dealer who burrows underground and dashes through enemies with their Smart Drill.

The first gameplay trailer for Overwatch 2 Season 10, titled Venture Forth after its new Damage dealer, is live. It provides an overview of the content that players can expect, including a new limited-time event – Mirrorwatch. Check it out below.

Microsoft Gaming and NetEase have entered into an agreement to explore bringing new NetEase games to Xbox consoles and other platforms.

World of Warcraft Classic is currently in the midst of the third phase of its Season of Discovery, but fans of the throwback MMORPG have other, bigger updates to look forward to as well. Last November, Blizzard Entertainment announced that its next expansion, World of Warcraft Cataclysm Classic, would be releasing sometime in 2024. Now, the developer has announced a firm release date.

Blizzard Entertainment has renewed its publishing agreement with NetEase, which is set to begin this summer.

World of Warcraft Classic, the nostalgia-tweaking old-school version of Blizzard's long-running MMORPG, is set to move into the next era of history next month, with World of Warcraft Cataclysm Classic now confirmed to be launching on 20th May.

Blizzard has announced a release date for World of Warcraft Cataclysm Classic.

Activision Blizzard‘s games could return to the Chinese market soon, it’s been claimed.

Disney Games has expanded its leadership team with the appointment of former Blizzard and Ubisoft veterans.

Activision Blizzard’s catalog of titles slowly being made available via Game Pass is one of the most significant things Xbox users have to look forward to, now that the company is officially part of Microsoft. That process kicked off late last month when Diablo 4 launched for the subscription service, which, it turns out, coincided with the game’s player base enjoying a significant boost on Xbox consoles.

World of Warcraft Classic has kicked off phase 3 of its Season of Discovery, bringing with it a host of new content, as well as raising the level cap up from 40 to 50. New content available in Season of Discovery includes six new runes for each class, as well as new PvE content.

As World Of Warcraft Classic - an MMORPG that is, confusingly, a new version of the old version of World Of Warcraft - enters phase 3 of its Season Of Discovery, PCGamer has an interview with some of the devs where they talk about the decision to not run Player Test Realms - servers where they roll out the new content to smaller numbers of players to road test it. This means that when they launch new stuff for Seasons Of Discovery it'll probably break more often, but it means players get to discover brand new things together. Which is great! And the developers think it's good too.

The general manager of the Warcraft series says Blizzard isn’t against the idea of licensing out the Warcraft IP to third-party developers.

Alongside Helltide changes and The Pit of Artificers, Diablo 4 is also getting some new items and Legendary Aspects with the Season 4 PTR. There’s Tyrael’s Might, a new Unique Chest Armor for all classes, which allows all Skills to unleash a “divine barrage” when at full life and Yen’s Blessing, Unique Boots that have a 20 to 30 percent chance to “cast a Non-Mobility, Non-Ultimate Skill” that’s on cooldown once every 12 seconds.

Blizzard is making numerous changes to Diablo 4 in Season 4, with a Public Test Realm going live on April 2nd for PC players to try them out. The crafting and itemization changes have already been detailed, but according to the PTR notes, changes to Helltides are also coming.

Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo 4 is available now on Game Pass for consoles and PC. If you’re an Xbox Game Pass Core subscriber, then, well, tough luck. Check out the launch trailer below.

Despite the release of its successor last year, Diablo 3 remains a tried and true hack-and-slash favorite. Fans clearly don’t mind that it’s over a decade old at this point—it boasted over 3 million active players in March. Luckily, the acclaimed title will be getting its Season 31 update on April 12.

Diablo IV is now on Game Pass.

Blizzard Entertainment’s next season for Overwatch 2 kicks off on April 16th, and while there are several unknowns, like its theme, a new Damage dealer debuts in the form of Venture. Check out their first gameplay below.

Overwatch 2’s next damage hero Venture is tunnelling into the free-to-play shooter a little early - for a while anyway. Before the new drillin’ DPS makes their official arrival next month, they’ll be available to take for a spin from tomorrow through the weekend.

Diablo 4 is headed to Game Pass in just a couple more days, on March 28th, giving the stingy-but-curious like me a chance to click demons to death at lower cost. As preperation, Microsoft have outlined the steps necessary to link your Game Pass account to a Battle.net account - because what is a launcher for, if not launching other launchers.

Diablo 4 is set to make its Game Pass debut this Thursday, 28th March.

Overwatch 2‘s PvE mode has reportedly been permanently scrapped as Blizzard struggles to find focus for the hero shooter sequel.

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox

Blizzard has delayed the fourth season of Diablo 4 by a month, to a new release date of 14th May.

During its latest Campfire Chat livestream for Diablo 4, Blizzard revealed that its first Public Test Realm for the title would go live on April 2nd for PC players. Servers will be available until April 9th for North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, Korea/Japan, and Australia, allowing players to try out the long-awaited loot overhaul.

In what's quite the shake up for Overwatch 2, Blizzard have announced that starting with Season 10, all of its heroes will be unlocked for all players. And this includes all new heroes going forwards, too, so the next hero Venture will unlock immediately for everyone when the latest season drops. Otherwise, there's changes to unlocking premium skins, earning premium coins, and some tidbits on what we can expect from Season 11.

Blizzard’s Overwatch 2 will see its heroes becoming free for all players in Season 10. Overwatch Coins will also be earnable from the Battle Pass instead of weekly challenges, and a new Mythic Shop allows players to unlock past and present skins at their leisure. But what about the new game mode, Clash?

Blizzard has introduced a new game mode to World of Warcraft. Titled Plunderstorm, it is essentially a new battle royale-styled PvP game mode. Check out the trailer celebrating the launch of the new mode below.

Overwatch 2 is undergoing big changes in Season 10, starting with all heroes becoming free. There will also be a new shop for Mythic Skins, announced game director Aaron Keller in the latest Developer Update. It will allow players to purchase previous and current seasonal Mythic Skins, though pricing is unknown.

Amid reports of Overwatch’s 2 PvE likely not getting any new missions, game director Aaron Keller shared some positive news on the latest Developer Update. He first confirmed that Venture, a new Damage dealer, is coming with Season 10 and can burrow underground.

Overwatch 2 heroes will be free at release starting with the launch of Season 10 in mid-April.

Blizzard has announced Plunderstorm, a new battle royale-inspired limited-time event for World of Warcraft.

Just when I thought I was past being surprised by games adding battle royale modes, Blizzard today announced one for World Of Warcraft. Plunderstorm will drop 60 pirates onto the Arathi Highlands to fight monsters, loot chests, level up, acquire abilities, and beat the hell out of each other as a storm closes in. It's initially due to run only for several weeks and will use wholly separate characters, though you can unlock cosmetics for your main wizards.

Microsoft has revealed its next batch of Game Pass titles for March and into the start of April.

Following the cancellation ofOverwatch 2’s Hero Mode, Blizzard Entertainment shifted towards delivering PvE missions in seasonal updates. However, after last year’s three story missions in Invasion, there’s been no sign of further additions. Sources speaking to Kotaku recently revealed that the original plan was to release three missions “every 18 months.”

The story of Blizzard Entertainment’s Overwatch 2 and PvE still haunts hardcore players. Announced as offering a campaign and replayable Hero Mode, the latter was cancelled, and the former pared down heavily following the game’s “early access” launch. While it would eventually receive three paid co-op PvE missions last year, the possibility of more looks unlikely.

Overwatch 2’s current season will wrap up in the coming weeks, but what should fans look forward to in Season 10? It seems the development team at Blizzard is kickstarting the hype cycle earlier than usual, as a new Developer Update video is coming on March 19th. Game director Aaron Keller will discuss “future updates”, including Season 10, which is “shaping up to be a great one.”

For some areas that Diablo 4 warrants praise, the itemization has been anything but exciting. Blizzard Entertainment promised changes to the loot in Season 4, and on March 20th at 11 AM PDT, it’s hosting a new Campfire Chat livestream to detail them.

Diablo 4’s ray tracing update will launch on March 26, Nvidia has announced.

Blizzard Entertainment and Nvidia announced earlier this year that Diablo 4’s PC version would be adding ray tracing support sometime in March, and now that we’re halfway through the month, we know exactly when that update will be dropping.

The Battlefield series has lost another high-profile figure in the form of Craig Morrison, who has left his role as studio creative director at EA‘s DICE.

Cowboy Bebop, or at least skins based on its core cast, arrive soon in Blizzard Entertainment’s Overwatch 2. While the recent animated trailer looked sleek, the developer has finally showcased what they’ll look like in-game. Check them out below.

Russian state-sponsored hackers have managed to access some of Microsoft’s source code repositories and internal systems, the US company said on Friday.

Developer Blizzard has released a new trailer for Overwatch 2, showcasing the game’s upcoming collaboration with classic anime series Cowboy Bebop. Check out the stylish new trailer for the collaboration below.

After initially facing a delay, Diablo 4’s long-awaited Gauntlet and Leaderboards will go live on March 5th as part of Season of the Construct. As a weekly fixed dungeon, players compete to earn the highest scores, with separate Leaderboards for different classes, parties, and Standard and Hardcore players.

Changes to Overwatch 2’s Competitive system in its most recent Season Nine has seen the ranked mode overtake casual Quick Play as the most popular way to play the hero shooter sequel. Its developers are also looking ahead to further changes in Season 10, including adjustments to grouping restrictions and its experimental Hacked event.

Blizzard Entertainment has announced that the next Campfire Chat stream for Diablo 4 will air on February 29th at 11 AM PST. It provides the first look at Trials and The Gauntlet, which were delayed past the start of Season of the Construct.

Rainbow Six Siege “can last forever”, according to the game’s creative director.

The power of the undead will come back to your favorite dungeon crawler. Be ready to destroy constructs with the return of Vampiric Powers in Diablo 4 Season of the Construct.

With Activision Blizzard now officially part of Xbox, it was obviously going to be only a matter of time before its games started appearing on Game Pass. That process is set to kick off on March 28, with Diablo 4 being the first game to join the service– but though the action RPG is joining the service’s catalog, it turns out not all subscribers are going to be able to dive in.

During a recent episode of the Official Xbox Podcast, Microsoft made a number of key announcements, such as four of its first-party games coming to rival platforms (but not Starfield and Indiana Jones, contrary to prior rumours), Diablo 4 joining Game Pass on March 28, teases of new Xbox hardware later this year, and beyond that, a next-gen Xbox, and more.

Diablo 4 is headed to Game Pass, Microsoft have announced. It'll be the first Activision Blizzard game to arrive on the subscription service since Microsoft acquired them, and it'll arrive on March 28th.

Diablo 4 is coming to Game Pass this March.

While Diablo 4 has kicked off its latest season last month, and more recently saw the release of a major new feature in the form of Uber Unique crafting, Blizzard’s Rod Fergusson has revealed that one of the new features coming to the game, Gauntlet and Leaderboards, is being delayed.

Blizzard Entertainment’s newest season for Overwatch 2 goes live today, offering an overhaul of Competitive Play (but also requiring 38 GB of free space). Placement matches are returning; Skill Modifiers provide details on how your rank will progress after each match; and there will be a new top tier, Champion. However, that’s not all, as overall hero balance is being overhauled.

Season 9 ofOverwatch 2, Champions, arrives on February 13th with an extensive rework of Competitive Play and sweeping changes to balance. It’s fitting then that it’s a “rebase” patch, which will consolidate previous patches, ensuring the overall installation size isn’t too bloated.

Microsoft completed its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard in October, though life under new ownership has got off to a rough start for the latter. Last month, Microsoft announced that it was cutting 1,900 jobs across its entire gaming division, with Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, and Xbox all set to be impacted.

For a season that doesn’t add a new map or hero,Overwatch 2 Season 9: Champions is looking pretty packed. Blizzard Entertainment has outlined when players can expect different content, with the new Competitive Play changes, Battle Pass and Cosmic Crisis co-op mode (which is limited-time) available at launch.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has said the recent spate of layoffs at Microsoft «contradict» what was presented in the antitrust trial over the company's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Blizzard Entertainment revealed the first trailer for Overwatch 2’s next season, Champions, which includes multiple changes to Competitive Play. Check it out below.

Microsoft has responded to claims by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that its decision to make mass layoffs in its gaming division contradicts statements it made in court about how it would run Xbox after acquiring Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft recently announced widespread layoffs, confirming that it was cutting 1,900 jobs across its entire gaming division– which, following the company’s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, also includes Blizzard Entertainment. The layoffs have also gone hand-in-hand with the cancellation of Blizzard’s long-in-development survival game, codenamed Odyssey, which was officially confirmed to be in development in 2022, and a new report published by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier has shed more light on what brought about the highly anticipated project’s cancellation.

Fresh details about Blizzard’s cancelled survival game have been revealed.

Following its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft is reportedly reducing of 1,900 employees from its workforce. While he didn’t confirm being part of the same, Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Ybarra has revealed that he is also departing the company.