Blizzard Entertainment News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

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.

Microsoft has announced that it’s cutting 1,900 jobs from its gaming division’s workforce of around 22,000, with the massive round of layoffs set to impact employees across Xbox, Activision Blizzad, and ZeniMax. Given the scale of the layoffs, the full extent of their impact likely won’t become perfectly clear immediately, but it looks like game cancellations will also be involved.

Back in 2022, Blizzard announced that they were working on a survival game set in an "all-new universe". Not much more was known about the game except that the studio were actively ramping up recruitment, seemingly after having been working on the project since 2017.

Blizzard’s president Mike Ybarra and its chief design officer Allen Adham are leaving the studio, which has also seen a previously announced survival game cancelled.

Microsoft’s head of gaming has confirmed that 1,900 staff will be laid off across Activision Blizzard, Bethesda and Xbox.

Microsoft has laid off 1,900 employees from its gaming division—mainly roles at Activision Blizzard King, but also some at Xbox and ZeniMax Media.

Following the end of Overwatch League, Blizzard has unveiled new plans for its competitive Overwatch esports circuit.

For all the backlash that Blizzard’s Overwatch 2 has received for going back on promises regarding Hero Mode and PvE, it’s seemingly done very well for the company. Discovered by Timur222 on Twitter, the LinkedIn profile for Sam Saliba, former VP and head of global marketing at Activision Blizzard, reveals that Overwatch 2 has over 50 million active users.

Fight through fearsome Vaults and avoid lethal hazards while fighting alongside your Seneschal Companion in Diablo IV’sSeason of the Construct. On January 23, dive into a new Seasonal Questline where you’ll receive your very own Seneschal Construct. As an exclusive deep dive for Season of the Construct, we’re going to give an overview of how to earn your Construct and the Stones needed to increase their lethality. Here’s the insider scoop on key builds you can use to obliterate your enemies.

Earlier this week, Blizzard announced what's coming up in Season 3 of Diablo 4, and underneath the mountain's worth of lore and loot updates, there was the surprisingly good news that WASD key controls were finally being added to help provide even more accurate and precise movement in the game over the series' traditional mouse clicks. Not that any of them could decide how to actually pronounce WASD when it came to talking about them on last night's Developer Update stream, though, as there were competing cries of "was-dee", "wased" and "double-you-ey-es-dee" all over the shop as they debated this clearly very "controversial topic" live on air. Read on for more details about what they're hoping to achieve with WASD controls in the game, but more importantly: how do you pronounce WASD? Let's get a poll up asap.

The second Xbox and Bethesda Developer Direct showcase takes place today, and you’ll be able to watch events unfold live right here.

With so many Diablo 4 announcements already unveiled and pending, one can wonder what else can Blizzard be saving up for us. Well, surprise, Season 4’s release date might have been leaked. Let’s talk about it!

What the hell is going on in Diablo 4 these days? "Devilish machinations", would you believe. Blizzard have formally unveiled the brooding action-RPG's Season 3, aka Season of the Construct, which launches at 6pm GMT and 10am PST on January 23rd, and features a new quest line in which you investigate an ancient technology, the Loom, created by the mage Zoltun Kulle, which has now been purloined by the demon Malphas.

World of Warcraft: Dragonflight has gotten its latest update. Titled Seeds of Renewal, the update brings with it a host of new events, including a new public event, a new zone revolving around the Night Elves getting a new place to call home, and the ability to make use of Dragonriding mounts in old-world continents.

New enemies, new quests, new loot, and new dungeons. Here is everything you need to know about Vaults in Diablo 4 Season of the Construct.

Now that Season 3 has an official name and we know what Blizzard has been concocting for us behind the scenes, it is time to talk about what we say during the announcement trailer. Here is a breakdown of what we saw during the Diablo 4 Season of the Construct announcement trailer.

Blizzard has announced Diablo 4 Season 3.

Last week, Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller caused controversy among players by revealing major gameply changes that'll see tank and damage heroes receive a «modified, tuned-down version of the Support self-healing passive» in Season 9 — and Keller has now admitted it was a «mistake» to make the announcement «out of context».

Say what you will about Overwatch 2, but Blizzard Entertainment isn’t afraid to experiment with the core gameplay. Fresh off Quick Play: Hacked, game director Aaron Keller confirmed that features like Spawn Together would receive a tuning pass. Party Frames, the on-screen health bars for teammates seen in PvE, are also likely to arrive.

Overwatch 2 is going to receive some changes designed to make teamwork easier, and to make bad teamwork less frustrating. The latter is more interesting, because one of Blizzard's proposed solution is giving Tank and Damage heroes "a modified, tuned-down version of the Support self-healing passive", which would make them less reliant on Support players to heal everyone.

Diablo 4’s next season begins on January 23rd, with a timer counting down the end of Season of Blood displayed in-game. In the meantime, Blizzard Entertainment has announced its next Developer Update Livestream for January 18th at 9 AM PST. It will provide new details on the Season Journey, quality of life updates and The Gauntlet, a new “competitive leaderboard system.”

After not hearing anything regarding Season 3 of Diablo 4, we finally have some news! Continue reading to know exactly when news about Diablo 4 Season 3 will come!

Following his last round of buffs that resulted in utter dominance, Overwatch 2’s latest balance patch tones down Mauga. His base health has increased from 250 to 300, but his base armor drops from 250 to 200. The ammo from Incendiary and Volatile Chainguns is also reduced from 350 to 300, while Cardiac Overdrive now grants 60 percent lifesteal with a 12-second cooldown.

Diablo 4's next season is now confirmed to go live later this month, despite Blizzard so far providing us all with very little detail on what it will actually contain.

Blizzard has revealed its plans for Season 4 of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. While the expansion won’t be seeing the release of a fourth raid tier, the company has asked the game’s players to vote on the class and specialisation-specific gear sets that will be part of Season 4’s Fated raid series.

Blizzard has updated the splash banner in Diablo 4‘s menus, revealing that the game’s third season is about to start on January 23. The banner, previously displaying “Season of Blood Ends”, now displays “Next Season Begins”, as caught by WoWhead.

Tier sets are all the rave in World of Warcraft and it’s new raids during each major patch. These have evolved throughout Dragonflight, and Blizzard will take a different approach when it comes to Season 4 of the expansion. This time around it’ll let players choose which adventure they want to take.

Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo 4 received a new trailer during Nvidia’s CES 2024 Special Address, confirming that ray tracing support would arrive in March. Check out the latest trailer below to see how it affects the visuals.

With Season 29 already ended, many Diablo 3 players are wondering what’s next, And what’s next is nothing but a good old trip to the past. So, when does Diablo 3 Season 30 release? Let’s find out.

With Midwinter Blight over and Abattoir of Zir ending next week in Diablo 4, Blizzard Entertainment has yet to offer any new details on Season 3. A date for the next Campfire Chat hasn’t been decided, per Adam Fletcher, global community development director on Diablo. However, he added, “Everyone will hear more about it in the coming weeks, along with a stream date.”

Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo 4 had several ups and downs since launching in June 2023. It became the developer’s fastest-selling game of all time shortly after launch but fumbled with its first pre-season patch. Things have improved steadily with Season of Blood, but regardless, players of the action RPG looter have been busy this year.

Blizzard Entertainment’s latest slate of Hero Mastery Courses for Overwatch 2 rolls out this month, with Lucio’s available now. If you haven’t tried them, they’re essentially obstacle courses tailor-made for each hero to test one’s skill.

Microsoft announced that Activision Blizzard CEO is finally stepping down, effective December 29. He is not the only high-profile departure, though Microsoft intends to leave most of the company’s management in place.  

Blizzard have revealed their approximate update plans for the next year of arthouse oddity World Of Warcraft, which if I remember correctly is a "massively multiple-player" experience of some antiquity that involves Orcs - a kind of always-online Baldur's Gate, if you will, or a strictly fantasy-themed Fortnite with dungeons instead of forts. Seems far-fetched, but let's roll with it.

Blizzard has laid out its 2024 roadmap for World of Warcraft, nailing down a launch window for upcoming expansion The War Within, plus other updates and seasonal content.

Along with the return of Winter Wonderland, Blizzard Entertainment’s newest patch for Overwatch 2 is live. It unlocks Mauga for Competitive Play while providing extensive buffs to help with his survival. While his base health has gone from 350 to 250 HP, his base armor is now 250, up from 150, which means more damage resistance.

Overwatch 2’s Christmas-themed seasonal event, Winter Wonderland, returns on December 19th. It features three Arcade modes – Mei’s Snowball Offensive, Yeti Hunt and Freeze-Flash Elimination – with new challenges to complete. The XP from these will go towards the Season 8 battle pass.

Taming pets is going to be the primary focus of Hunters throughout World of Warcraft, and especially in Classic WoW when some can learn unique abilities compared to others. This is the case within the Elder Ashenvale Bear, and we will run over where to obtain one within WoW.

Blizzard Entertainment’s first seasonal event for Diablo 4, Midwinter Blight, starts on December 12th at 10 AM PST. It’s available to all players in the Seasonal Realm on World Tier 1 until January 2nd, 2024, and sees players battling new threats in the Fractured Peaks. Check out the first trailer below.

Diablo 4’s latest limited-time event and the most challenging end-game activity for players yet is now available with the Abattoir of Zir. After completing the Seasonal Journey for Season of Blood, players will gain access to the new pinnacle dungeon at World Tier 4. They have ten minutes to take down all enemies, including Zir’s Bloodseekers.

Blizzard fixed a severe bug introduced in ’s recent 1.2.3 update. The glitch caused all high-level players’ Glyphs to lose one level the same day Blizzard introduced a punishing new dungeon.

The launch trailer for Call of the Hunt, Overwatch 2’s latest season, is now available. It highlights the new content players can expect when Season 8 goes live tomorrow, December 5th. Check it out below.

A new adventure as a Rogue, and the first rune for you to discover. Here is how to Complete Thrice Stolen Quest in WoW Classic Season of Discovery.

Blizzard Entertainment’s eighth season of Overwatch 2 arrives on December 5th and introduces a new Tank hero, Mauga. Before that, fans can look forward to the launch trailer on December 4th at 8 AM PST. It should outline all the new content and showcase new cosmetics to look forward to.

Along with making Diablo 4 available at a 40 percent discount as part of Steam’s recent Autumn sale, Blizzard is also making all versions of the game available to play for free on all platforms until November 28. This means that players can check out the game with zero commitments for an entire week.

Conveniently timed to coincide with the launch of this year's Steam autumn sale, Blizzard has announced a free trial week for Diablo 4 — plus accompanying discounts across all versions — which is now live and runs until 28th November.

If you ever wanted to know what all these dungeon-crawling and demon-killing action role-playing game phenomena are all about, this might be your lucky week. Continue reading to know everything about Diablo 4 free trial on Steam for a week!

Overwatch 2 recently received a rework to one of its original Tank heroes, Roadhog, adding a new ability and changing how Scrap Gun and Take a Breather work. However, the development team decided that further adjustments were needed and announced a buff to Take a Breather. It’s now available and buffs damage reduction from 30 to 40 percent while the ability is active.

Blizzard Entertainment has announced the return of Mother’s Blessing toDiablo 4, a week of increased XP and Gold. It starts at 10 AM PST today and ends on November 27th. During this time, players will receive a 35 percent multiplicative bonus to XP and Gold.

Roadhog’s long-awaited rework finally went live in Overwatch 2, changing how Take a Breather and his Scrap Gun work while adding a new trap ability, Pig Pen. However, according to lead hero designer Alec Dawson on Twitter, there will be further adjustments.

After months of anticipation, Blizzard Entertainment unveiled its rework for Roadhog in Overwatch 2. The Tank hero has been pretty under-utilized, especially with better options like Reinhardt and Sigma (not to mention the upcoming Mauga). The rework effectively removes the alternate fire on the Scrap Gun and adds a new ability – Pig Pen.

I do not greatly enjoy the playing of Diablo 4, but I do rather enjoy its hellish setting, which I would characterise as a Warhammer table-top diorama dunked in a bucket of frozen offal. As such, I'm tickled gall-bladder-pink to hear that Blizzard consider the action-RPG series "a wonderful platform" for different types of game, now that they've made the leap to an open world format.

Shortly after the announcement for World of Warcraft‘s next expansions—a trilogy referred to as the Worldsoul Saga—the studio had seen quite a bit of criticism for offering 3 days of early access for players to players that would pre-order the Epic Edition of World of Warcraft: The War Within.

World of Warcraft's expansion pack The War Within, out next year, comes in several flavours. There's the standard version of the pack, which includes access to previous expansions, currency for cosmetics and a level 70 character boost. The Heroic edition gives you all that plus a mount, a pet and extra in-game cash. And then there's the most expensive Epic edition, which includes a pet, two toys, 30 days of game time... and three days of early beta access to the game, yours for $89.99 in the states.

World of Warcraft director Ion Hazzikostas has confirmed there's «no long-term advantage» for players willing to pay for early access to the next expansion.

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer recently told a reporter that he considers PlayStation 5 and Switch users as part of the Xbox community. He made this remark in reference to Activision Blizzard games on non-Microsoft platforms.

World of Warcraft will be celebrating its 20th anniversary in November next year, and just in case you were wondering, Blizzard Entertainment plans to keep the massively successful MMORPG around for plenty more time.

During BlizzCon 2023, Blizzard Entertainment finally revealed its first paid expansion for Diablo 4 – Vessel of Hatred, which ventures to Torjang. As rumored, Mephisto will be the focus this time, and players can expect a new class unlike anything seen in the series. While the expansion is a ways off, we won’t have to wait too long for more information.

Two Diablo 4 developers have dropped a big hint about a previously-denied secret cow level in the game fans have been searching for.

With Activision Blizzard now officially owned by Microsoft, some pretty major franchises have come under Xbox ownership, and though Call of Duty is obviously getting a great deal of attention in those conversations, one cannot downplay the significance of Xbox now owning major Blizzard properties like Warcraft, StarCraft, Overwatch, and Diablo.

Recently, at BlizzCon, Blizzard Entertainment revealed big new plans for the long-running MMORPG World of Warcraft with the announcement of The War Within, an upcoming expansion that’s set to be the first part of a trilogy, which has been dubbed the Worldsoul Saga. But one questions regarding the game’s future that has been asked for as long as anyone can remember and still continues to be asked is- is World of Warcraft going to launch for consoles anytime soon?

Overwatch 2's next hero is Mauga, a chaingun-loving tank that seems reminiscent of Team Fortress 2's Heavy. He's due to join the free-to-player shooter in Season 8 on December 5th, but you can also give him a go right now until November 5th in a limited-time trial.

Diablo 4's first expansion will arrive sometime late in spaceyear 2024, but it's also a throwback to Diablo 2. That's because Vessel Of Hatred is all about one of the Prime Evils, Mephisto, who auld players would have slain in that most-beloved of hack-and-slashers. It's also going to add a new character class "never before seen in the Diablo universe."

Many World Of Warcraft expansions add a new continent, but The War Within, announced at Blizzcon this weekend, is a little different. It's set in a new subterranean world beneath Azeroth - and it kicks off a three-expansion story arc Blizzard are caling The Worldsoul Saga.

During BlizzCon 2023, Blizzard announced three new expansions for World of Warcraft. Starting with the next expansion dubbed World of Warcraft: The War Within, the trilogy of expansions has been referred to as the start of The Worldsoul Saga.

BlizzCon is back — as an in-person event for the first time in four years — and Blizzard kicked off its opening ceremony with a bit of an Overwatch 2 blowout, including a reveal for the series' 39th hero, chaingun-wielding tank Mauga.

Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo 4 will receive its first paid expansion in late 2024 with Vessel of Hatred, as announced at BlizzCon 2023. However, in the short term, the first seasonal event for the action RPG looter, Midwinter Blight, will go live on December 12th. It will last three weeks and see players exploring the Fractured Peaks in search of “a mysterious, red-cloaked terror.”

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At BlizzCon 2023, Blizzard Entertainment revealed a new playable character that will be added to Overwatch 2 a little over a month from now. Called Mauga, the new hero looks like a cheerful yet destructive force of nature. Check him out in action in the trailer below.

Next month will see the launch of Season 8 for Overwatch 2, which will add a new hero to the multiplayer shooter, but what else does Blizzard Entertainment have planned for the game beyond that? Recently, at BlizzCon 2023, the developer revealed some of those plans.

Blizzard Entertainment has stressed on no few occasions that it has big plans for Diablo 4 where post-launch content is concerned, with the company planning on releasing annual expansions, of which two were confirmed to be in development earlier this year. Recently, at BlizzCon 2023, the company formally unveiled the first of those.

With this year's BlizzCon now firmly underway, Blizzard has been whipping up the crowds with a bunch of announcements during its Opening Ceremony, including initial details on Diablo 4's first expansion. It's called Vessel of Hatred and it's due «late» next year.