Overwatch’s launch day has arrived; here’s our giant roundup

PvP shooter Marvel Rivals gears up for this week’s launch with a new trailer - Can NetEase and Marvel Games break into the coveted Overwatch 2 team shooter market? We're about to find out, as Marvel Rivals is heading toward a December 6th launch this Friday. To boost hype for the…

Overwatch 2 heralds a refined and updated Overwatch Champions Series returning in January - Regular readers know that Overwatch 2 isn't done with esports; it's just done with swollen esports leagues, having replaced the cancelled Overwatch League with the open registration Overwatch Champions Series or OWCS for short. Fans of…

Perfect Ten: Lessons from unsuccessful MMORPGs that I wish designers would learn - I have been writing about this genre for far too long now and seen far too many games with genuinely good elements completely fail to catch on and ultimately sunset and flatline. The upside of this…

Overwatch 2 unveils its newest tank hero Hazard along with a weekend trial for the character - Who's ready for a new tank option in Overwatch 2? And what if that tank option was like Mega Man but big, muscly, and Scottish? That's just what you're getting in the near future as Blizzard…

Overwatch 2 launches Overwatch Classic, Diablo IV says way too many of y’all are playing Spiritborn - Blizzard fans eagerly awaiting the Warcraft Direct showcase later today already have plenty to tide them over thanks to two big drops from the company last night. First, Overwatch 2 rolled out Overwatch Classic last night…

Overwatch Classic comes to Overwatch 2 ‘for a limited time’ starting tomorrow - For Overwatch players still feeling the sting of the forced transition to Overwatch 2 and a heavy sense of longing to return to the good old days of the original version, there's a consolation prize of…

Overwatch 2 tests format changes to 5v5 and 6v6 modes - Your game has producer's letters? Good for you, but Overwatch 2 has director's takes! Which are... kind of the same thing, but they sound all Hollywood-ish. In any case, the latest director's take for the game…

Vague Patch Notes: MMOs rely on other people – but what does that really mean? - Now that we're done with Leveling Month in Vague Patch Notes, is there another topic I can turn into a month-and-change of column topics? Well... maybe. But we're going to have to start with an article…

Overwatch 2 explains the balance tweaks for tanks and DPS alike coming for Season 13 - Whether or not you care about the themes of Overwatch 2's upcoming Season 13, game director Aaron Keller hopes you care about balance changes because there are a lot of them coming with the update, starting…

Overwatch 2 launches Halloween events October 15, Hearthstone opens The Great Dark Beyond November 5 - It's about to get spooky, ookie, and kooky in both Overwatch 2 and Hearthstone over the next few weeks, with the superheroic PvP FPS readying to celebrate the Halloween season and the digital card game bringing…

PSA: Overwatch 2 is clearancing out old Overwatch League skins, get ’em while you can - Remember the Overwatch League? It's OK if that slipped your mind considering the meteoric crash of the marquee esports league Blizzard constructed for Overwatch: It had a powerful start in 2018 but fell prey to COVID-19,…

Overwatch 2 kicks off ‘competitive drive’ event, teases Halloween - With the end of Overwatch 2's Season 12 in sight, it's more than likely that many players are lagging behind in their climb up the competitive ladder. To help make up for this deficiency, Blizzard activated…

StarCraft is reportedly getting a shooter, Hearthstone has a new patch, Overwatch 2 shares anime outfits - Some people don't like it when their food touches on a plate. Others don't care. And others stack food servings on top of one another because they see restaurants doing it constantly. We bring this up…

Jason Schreier’s new book blames Activision – and the Titan MMO’s cancelation – for Blizzard’s degradation - When Blizzard president Mike Morhaime announced he was stepping down from his 27-year-run at the company back in 2018, he didn't give much of a reason, and it didn't seem as if he wanted out of…

Blizzard injects gamers with a double dose of Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 lore - Where do you sit on the spectrum of interest in video game lore? Your answer will determine whether or not you're going to engage with a couple new offerings from Blizzard this week on Diablo IV…

Overwatch 2 joins Xbox Game Pass and launches World of Warcraft collab today - It's a big day for Blizzard shooter Overwatch 2, as it expands its reach into the Xbox ecosystem and leverages its sibling relationship with World of Warcraft for skins. First, Overwatch 2 officially joins Xbox Game…

Overwatch 2 discusses upcoming changes to clash mode, dates World of Warcraft skins for September 17 - Season 12 of Overwatch 2 brought plenty of new things last month, and now that we're in the mid-season point of the update, it's time for Director Aaron Keller to run down reception and adjustments due…

Blizzard teases an Overwatch 2 x World of Warcraft collaboration - In just a few days, Blizzard will reveal what will undoubtedly be an interesting collaboration between two of its most popular properties: Overwatch 2 and World of Warcraft. The studio teased a trailer that's set to…

Marvel Rivals reveals Cap and Winter Soldier, Wakanda map, and December launch date - NetEase really did bring its A-game to Gamescom this year with a ton of new games on deck - including its new team shooter Marvel Rivals. In fact, the company announced a launch date at the…

Overwatch 2 banned 500K cheaters ahead of its season 12 launch today - Overwatch 2's fight against cheaters and bad player behavior continues on, and while it's likely a never-ending war, Blizzard is opening its latest player behavior-focused dev blog with a victorious claim against bad apples: The studio…

Overwatch 2 outlines Season 12’s rank reset, wave respawn, and new drive event coming to competitive play - The Overwatch 2-playing world is close to the launch of Season 12, and when it does arrive, it will bring a host of updates to the shooter's competitive play as detailed in the game's latest Director's…

Overwatch 2 dates Season 12 for August 20, Warcraft Rumble previews content coming in Season 8 - The seasons continue to roll through Overwatch 2 and Warcraft Rumble, with both games readying their next respective seasons that bring new characters and new content, whether you prefer to battle in FPS combat or miniature…

Fight or Kite: Marvel Rivals replaces Overwatch heroes with Marvel flair - I don’t think we’ll ever be certain, but I am pretty sure I can guess exactly how Marvel Rivals was initially created. Someone walked into an executive’s office with a simple elevator pitch that went a…

Microsoft creates a small team to pump out AA titles of Blizzard franchises - Thought that Microsoft was going to drop $72 billion on Activision Blizzard and then allow the studio to continue operation with no interference whatsoever? So this is our "we're not surprised" faces when the news came…

Overwatch 2 is pondering a potential return of the 6v6 format, but only after running some tests - When Overwatch 2 announced it would feature a change in team size from 6v6 to 5v5 in 2021, it was presented as a fundamental shift to gameplay, teamwork, and the shooter's overall design, which in turn…

Activision-Blizzard artists express anxiety and disgust as the studio foists AI tools on existing workers - Like it or not, AI tools are proliferating throughout gamedev, and the human cost is already being showcased. According to reporting from Wired, which sources emails and employee interviews from across the industry - particularly at…

Overwatch 2’s new retro sci-fi support hero, Juno, is playable this weekend - If you're in the mood for an extremely cute retro space-age support hero in Overwatch 2, Blizzard is obliging your very specific tastes with Juno, whom the studio is calling its first Martian hero (in Roman…

Overwatch 2 x TRANSFORMERS collaboration event starts today - I was willing to ignore the fact that Overwatch 2, a sequel that does not even contain the things that justified its initial existence, was crossing over with Transformers. I was not, and am still not,…

Overwatch 2 discusses general plans for addressing the squishiness of tank heroes - If you're a tank player in Overwatch 2, you probably feel less like a heavily armored wall and more like a pile of sponges. According to director Aaron Keller, that's not just a perceptual issue but…

SGF 2024: Hands-on with The First Descendant, plus a chat with the Nexon devs - You thought our Summer Game Fest coverage was over, didn't you? Well, in all fairness, Nexon not only brought The First Descendant to SGF but provided a post-event code to check out the game for roughly a week,…

Overwatch 2 welcomes Season 11 Super Mega Ultrawatch and its community crafted mode - Yesterday started Season 11 in Overwatch 2, but if you're the sort of person who prefers hard facts over a fluffy overview dev blog, then you'll be happy to learn that the season's patch notes have…

Blizzard promises a ‘robust footprint’ at Gamescom for WoW, Diablo, and Overwatch 2 celebrations - During not-E3's Xbox showcase, Blizzard hinted very strongly that it would have more reveals and festivities coming later in the summer, which made sense as the company canceled this year's BlizzCon back in April, saying that…

Overwatch 2 celebrates over 100M players, adds a new Push mode map, and preps a mythic weapon skin - The dawn of a new season is coming in Overwatch 2, bringing with it new rewards, one new map, and a little celebration of a sizeable player milestone when Season 11 launches on Thursday, June 20th.…

SGF 2024: Hands-on with NetEase’s team shooter Marvel Rivals - There are lots of Summer Games Fest embargos still in place and more coming this week, but fortunately NetEase's Marvel Rivals is something I can talk about immediately. I don't want to overhype anything I cover, but…

Former City of Heroes developers talk design chaos, sequels, and the MMO’s enduring legacy - Last night, I happened to log into City of Heroes Homecoming just as the team was posting up the promised mega Q&A with former Paragon devs organized back during the April 20th anniversary of the game.…

Overwatch 2 is killing its Hero Mastery Gauntlet PvE mode at the end of season 10 - Blizzard is apparently taking an axe to yet another PvE-esque mode in Overwatch 2 as it winds down Hero Mastery Gauntlet for good at the end of Season 10, a little less than a month away.…

Overwatch 2 is once again crowdfunding its OWCS esports prize pool with a skin bundle - Blizzard appears to be making another attempt at crowdfunding an esports competition as it's selling a skin bundle to Overwatch 2 players in order to fund the 2024 OWCS Dallas Major international esports series at DreamHack…

Marvel Rivals will revise content creator contract after streamers blast non-disparagement clause - "We'll let you be a supported streamer, but you're not allowed to say bad things about our game." That's effectively what NetEase's Marvel Rivals was demanding streamers who were looking to join the shooter's content creator…

Blizzard laid off prolific World of Warcraft writer and lore queen Christie Golden - Among the many people affected by Blizzard's massive layoffs in 2024 was Christie Golden, the rare games writer whose name a whole lot of MMORPG players will recognize whether or not they play Blizzard games. That's…

WoW Factor: Exit BlizzCon, for good this time? - Back in 2021, we learned that there was not going to be a BlizzCon 2022. This did not surprise me, and I penned a whole column that included speculation that this was the beginning of the…

Overwatch 2 ties its mythic skin shop to monetization as it focuses on the impact of ‘unapproved peripherals’ - When Overwatch 2 launched its 10th season, one of the big ticket features was a mythic skin shop, but it decided not to divulge just how that worked until shortly after the update released. Now we…

Heroes of the Storm is getting its biggest post-maintenance mode patch yet - After causing a stir with some small patches late last year and earlier in 2024, Blizzard's MOBA Heroes of the Storm is back again with its biggest patch yet since entering maintenance mode in 2022. Currently…

Overwatch 2’s Season 10 arrives with spunky archaeologist hero Venture - Not every archaeologist is Indiana Jones; some are actually more destructive and insane as they plunder ruins for trinkets and treasures. One such figure is Venture, the newest hero to arrive in Overwatch 2. Venture is…

Blizzard’s return to China has already counted over two million interested WoW players - After over a year of bad blood following the removal of most all Blizzard's games from China, the World of Warcraft studio is poised to return to the country thanks to a new deal between Blizzard,…

Overwatch 2 premieres a new trailer for its April 16 Season 10 update - For the past several weeks, Overwatch 2 has been highlighting the variety of features that are en route with its April 16th Season 10 release, which has now culminated in the expected summary trailer to bring…

Overwatch 2 talks up ‘wide group’ matchmaking and new leaver penalties, Warcraft Rumble fixes bugs - While Overwatch 2 and Warcraft Rumble don't have any overlap in terms of gameplay styles, they both have gotten some recent headlines that are worth reporting, so we're pulling them together here. Also they're both games…

Overwatch 2 outlines S10 changes for Wrecking Ball, Venture, Tracer, and more - Overwatch 2's latest dev blog is unsurprisingly all about Venture, the new geotech hero who happens to be nonbinary. Players got to run with the character during its trial weekend, and now Blizzard's Aaron Keller is…

NetEase and Blizzard ink deal to revive World of Warcraft, Overwatch 2, and Diablo IV in China - (As of late tonight, Blizzard has officially confirmed the rumors. Our original post follows, and we've updated with the official news at the end.) It's not official yet, but we're getting a fresh round of rumors…

Overwatch 2 announces nonbinary geotech hero Venture, trialing this weekend - It surely goes without saying that Blizzard did not see Riot Games announce a non-binary character this past weekend and then decide to announce one of its own for Overwatch 2 today, right? Right? We all…

Overwatch 2 will fully unlock all heroes, test a new mode, and add a mythic skin shop in Season 10 - If you were annoyed that earning new heroes in Overwatch 2 involved working through a battle pass, game director Aaron Keller has some good news for you: Starting in Season 10 of the shooter, all current…

Former Overwatch 2 devs express concerns that future story missions won’t see the light of day - The PvE offerings out of Overwatch 2 haven't been what one might call impressive: The shooter put out John Cena-endorsed story missions in August, released a May event with limited PvE elements, and most recently stealth-added…

Overwatch 2’s latest patch quietly added a new PvE co-op mode alongside those flashy Cowboy Bebop skins - Overwatch 2, you're being all sorts of surprising these days. First of all, we get this lovely gift of a PvE co-op game mode called Hero Mastery: Gauntlet that pits players in a defensive war against…

Overwatch 2 provides another trailer for its Cowboy Bebop cross-promotion - It's not immediately clear that we needed a second trailer for the Overwatch 2 cross-promotion with Cowboy Bebop. It's five skins, four of which already debuted in the first trailer. There's no PvE or PvP game…

Overwatch 2 previews a new legendary crossover skin mashing up D. Va and… Porsche - Sure, Overwatch 2 may not contain the extensive PvE content that was ostensibly the entire reason for the sequel... or a lot of the gameplay modes that were promised... or even happy players. But what it…

Overwatch 2 is collaborating with Cowboy Bebop on March 12 - There are times when crossover events just seem like a bad idea at first glance. Not because of world inconsistencies, but... well, Overwatch 2 crossing over with Cowboy Bebop is a bad idea because Overwatch 2…

Overwatch 2 heralds more competitive players in Season 9, promises further PvP-focused improvements - The current competitive season of Overwatch 2 has apparently been well received according to the latest missive from game director Aaron Keller, who writes about a shift in activity from quick play to competitive and promises…

Overwatch 2 makes a series of character tuning updates for its latest season - With Overwatch 2 now into its hero-changing ninth season, the devs of the PvP shooter have begun the process of tuning character balance in that old, endless dance. This latest patch touches multiple characters on the…

Overwatch 2’s ninth season adds co-op mission and makes sweeping changes to heroes - You are the champions of the world... of Overwatch 2. That's the message that Blizzard is sending out as Season 9: Champions kicks into effect. Not only does the new season begin, but a Cosmic Crisis…

Overwatch 2 previews Season 9 updates to competitive play and characters - Overwatch 2 has already painted a broad picture of the changes to competitive play due for the shooter's Season 9, but now director Aaron Keller is following up that overview with a more focused dev blog…

Former Overwatch 2 lead vfx artist calls out Blizzard for deceptive promotion and pay behavior - Workers and former workers at the various substudios at Activision-Blizzard have been calling it out as an unpleasant workplace for a while now since the whole scandal with the company began, and Blizzard was not spared…

Overwatch 2’s Season 9 calls to Champions next week - The ninth season of Overwatch 2 is ticking down to launch next week on February 13th with an array of "eldritch horrors" waiting on deck. Season 9: Champions adds the titular rank of competitive play in…

What we knew about Blizzard’s now-dead survival game, Odyssey - The history of Blizzard's game development includes a graveyard full of titles that never made it to launch, including the likes of Starcraft Ghost, Warcraft Adventures, and Project Titan. This week another game was interred in…

Blizzard revives Overwatch 2 esports with the newly announced Overwatch Champions Series - Remember back before Christmas when it became clear that Overwatch League, the bajillion-dollar esports league that embroiled global investors and players and then was left to sort of fizzle out when it became clear Overwatch 2…

Overwatch 2 admits talking about self-healing early was ‘a mistake’ and promises further clarity soon - Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller sent the shooter's community into a bit of a wobble earlier in the week when he discussed several gameplay shifts coming in Season 9, the most notable of which being the…

Overwatch 2 considers adding party frames, tank and DPS passive self-heals, and spawn changes in Season 9 - Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller is apparently looking to shake things up significantly in Season 9 if his latest dev blog is any indication, as he talks about several features that are being considered for the…

Overwatch 2 temporarily removes Illari from competitive play after a bug gave her infinite ammo - As much fun as infinite ammo in Overwatch 2 probably sounds, it would very likely upset some of the sweatier competitive players of the FPS and is most assuredly not intended design, yet that's what happened…

Following Bobby Kotick’s exit, former ABK devs call out his toxic management and Overwatch 2 sabotage - Now that Bobby Kotick has floated away from Activision-Blizzard on a doubtlessly diamond-encrusted platinum parachute, some former developers at Blizzard are feeling confident enough to speak up about his management "style" - a style that we've…

Rumor: With Kotick gone, Blizzard and NetEase might repair year-long rift over China publishing - Readers likely remember that 2023 started off with a tire fire as Blizzard and NetEase had a particularly nasty dissolution of a licensing deal - an event that was pockmarked with corporate venom spitting from both…

Bobby Kotick finally departs Activision-Blizzard next week, but Microsoft will keep some of his execs - Bobby Kotick - a man who somehow hung onto his job even after The Wall Street Journal published the revelation that he'd threatened to have his assistant murdered, a man who pretended to be a union…

Overwatch 2’s Winter Wonderland returns today with holiday content and rewards - Just because Overwatch 2 brings out the competitive spirit in everyone doesn't mean that those same players can't take a day or two to chillax in a Christmas-themed Winter Wonderland. Overwatch 2's seasonal holiday event returns…

First Impressions: Nexon’s THE FINALS blends the best features of Overwatch, Valorant, and Titanfall - As a true gamer through and through, I’ve played my fair share of games. By now I’ve probably played every genre of video game that has ever existed – yes, even those games. but let’s not…

Overwatch 2’s new hero Mauga is ready to wreck faces starting tomorrow - As promised, Blizzard is raising horn to lips to herald Overwatch 2's Call of the Hunt, which is officially on as of tomorrow, December 5th. The most interesting thing about Season 8 is by far the…

Overwatch 2 previews Season 8 balance adjustments and discusses quick play leave penalties - Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller is once again talking about balance in his address to players, as the team vs. team shooter inches ever closer to its eighth season and all of the adjustments that will…

End-of-Year Eleven: The biggest MMO surprises of 2023 - 2023 was definitely a year of surprises for me. Not all of them were pleasant! If you've been watching my columns, you probably have a sense of some of it. But we're not here to talk…

Overwatch 2 digests its PvP-focused BlizzCon reveals, promises more ‘surprise and delight’ events for all - Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller is using his usual Director's Take blog post to take a breath and process the reveals made by the shooter at BlizzCon this year, as he writes about the impact of…

Hearthstone’s Showdown in the Badlands releases, Overwatch 2 patches in a reworked Roadhog - It's another bundle of Blizzard game news tied into one package, and this one is specifically for the digital CCG and team-based shooter fans, as both Hearthstone and Overwatch 2 have some fresh headlines to share.…

Vague Patch Notes: BlizzCon 2023 wasn’t a disaster, but it needed to be better - The last live BlizzCon in 2019 was not a great show, but it was fundamentally a hype festival for Blizzard just like they've all been. At the time, the reputation and general thinking around Blizzard was…

The Overwatch League appears to be dead after six seasons - The Overwatch League appears to have lived up to its nickname, as it's yet another Overwatch L in light of the news that it appears to be dead. Engadget is reporting that it appears even teams…

BlizzCon 2023: Overwatch 2 previews competitive updates, Clash game mode, and upcoming heroes - The "What's Next" panels continue to spill forth from this year's BlizzCon as Overwatch 2 talked up its next several seasons' worth of updates, most of which are focused entirely on the PvP side of things,…

BlizzCon 2023: Overwatch 2’s new hero, Mauga, has goofy guns that were at one point bigger than Tracer - During the Opening Ceremony at BlizzCon this afternoon, Blizzard's Overwatch 2 team was the first game out of the blocks to introduce the new hero Mauga. Readers might remember that the character was originally introduced in…

BlizzCon 2023: WoW, Diablo IV, Overwatch 2, and more at the Opening Ceremony - All the big news is at the end! We're gearing up for the start of BlizzCon - and its freebie virtual stream - as the opening ceremony kicks off at 2 p.m. EDT. As we've noted,…

Here’s how to watch BlizzCon 2023 for free – plus everything to expect from WoW, Diablo IV, Overwatch 2, and more - After several years away - and one goofy BlizzConline in 2021 - BlizzCon is finally back and in person as of today, though of course you can watch the bulk of the events online too, and…

Overwatch 2’s LE SSERAFIM collab event brings new skins, limited-time mode, and dance moves November 1 - Overwatch 2 fans likely already knew about the incoming collaboration with K-pop group LE SSERAFIM, but now there's a whole trailer and half of a landing page to make things nice and official as well as…

BlizzCon’s schedule highlights World of Warcraft but ditches Q&As - With a week to go before this year's BlizzCon, the curiosity, hope, and cynicism are running strong toward the house that Warcraft built. While the specifics of what Blizzard is going to announce are still under…

Overwatch 2 outlines upcoming character balancing, promises more ways to acquire popular skins - Season 7 is well and truly underway in Overwatch 2, which means that the developers are taking a look at player feedback and metrics and readying to turn the balancing knobs, and that leads us to…

Diablo IV has launched on Steam to ‘mixed’ reviews alongside its Season of Blood update - Diablo IV has kicked off the centerpiece of its autumn today with the launch of Season of Blood and the launch of the game on Steam. "Today, Diablo IV’s Season of Blood is live for all…

WoW Factor: No-selling BlizzCon - On May 4th, 2019, tickets for BlizzCon 2019 went on sale. This was not in and of itself a surprise, with the event happening on November 1st of that same year. It was four days later…

Activision-Blizzard’s latest internal town hall meeting was bizarrely helmed by a celebrity host - We appreciate that making a company meeting interesting is a challenge, but we also have to curl an eyebrow upwards at the choice made by Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, whose most recent internal town hall meeting…

Overwatch 2 discusses penalties for leavers and changes to communication between players - What's the biggest problem that Overwatch 2 has at the moment? Wait, sorry, a lot of hands went up with that question. What's the biggest problem that Overwatch 2 has that the developers are actually going…

Overwatch 2 Season 7 adds a Diablo-themed Halloween event, reworks Sombra, and tweaks Route 66 map - We already knew that more information about Season 7 in Overwatch 2 was on the way from Blizzard, and now we have the full skinny, with details about this year's Halloween Terror event as well as…

Overwatch 2 hints at a spook-filled Season 7 release with a teaser trailer - While Overwatch 2 might have already confirmed that a new control map is coming to Season 7, there was already going to be more than just a map launched with the content update on Tuesday, October…

Overwatch 2 unveils its next control map coming in Season 7 - If you missed watching the Overwatch League grand final, you missed out on some news from the shooter itself, as the devs used the esports event to showcase the next control map that's headed for Overwatch…

Blizzard teases BlizzCon’s stage schedule ahead of today’s round of ticket sales - If you really have an earth-shattering need to attend BlizzCon 2023 in person and have $299-$799 to drop on a ticket, you're in luck; the convention is putting a third round of tickets up for purchase…

Overwatch 2 is re-running past content for all three weeks of its first birthday events - Can you believe it's already been almost a year since Blizzard pushed Overwatch 2 out the door without the key thing that set it apart from its predecessor? Then it lost most of its playerbase and…

Overwatch 2 promises regional rollout of moderation features, naming crackdowns, and text chat tweaks - The Defense Matrix posts out of Overwatch 2 are primarily focused on "[quelling] the cheating, disruptive chat, and griefing issues that negatively impact many multiplayer video games, including Overwatch 2," and the latest such post out…

Overwatch 2 outlines quality-of-life features and adjustments for competitive players - Now that Overwatch 2 has arguably thrown the PvE monkey off of its back, the devs behind the shooter can get back to focusing on its competitive PvP players, or at least so it seems gauging…

Overwatch 2 kicks off its single-player Hero Mastery mode with a limited-time event - After a not-at-all-great August, during which Overwatch 2 came out on Steam and was crushed by player reviews and negative publicity, Blizzard is hoping for a turnaround of sorts this month as it debuts a new…

Massively on the Go: Splatoon 3’s revolving Challenges add needed spice - One thing we haven't talked about yet here in Massively on the Go is Splatoon 3's new summer-released mode, Challenges, which is somewhat more akin to Overwatch's Arcade mode than to the League Battles we saw in Splatoon…

WoW Factor: So what is Mike Ybarra teasing for the future of World of Warcraft? - As we are all waiting for Twitter to finish imploding under its current ownership (because nothing is more fun than rich idiots buying things they don't understand just to break them in predictable fashions), we all…

First Impressions: I sat through Wayfinder’s queues so you don’t have to - Over the past few days, I have spent many hours waiting in Wayfinder's seemingly endless queues. But what of the game at the end of that queue? Is Wayfinder worth the Waitfinder? Having managed to play…

Overwatch 2 hopes to ‘move forward’ after Steam review-bombing and Invasion update - It's likely been challenging to be Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller: The hero shooter is still being absolutely browbeaten on Steam, with negative player reviews rising another 30K since last week and a Steam player count that…

Overwatch 2 is (still) getting absolutely pummeled on Steam - There's an old adage that goes, "All publicity is good publicity." It's not an infallible statement, though, because we can't imagine that any company that was once known for pumping out prestige products is enjoying being…

Overwatch 2’s Invasion PvE makes both devs and players regret what could’ve been - Normally, the release of a hefty amount of content would be a cause for celebration and unannounced days off work. But when it comes to Overwatch 2, there's a certain amount of emotional baggage and psychic…

Overwatch 2: Invasion gets a trailer ahead of its release on Thursday - We don't really need to recount the whole saga of how badly Overwatch 2 has bungled things with its PvE content because we've been doing that as it happened in real time, but the part of…

Overwatch 2 enlists John Cena to hawk August’s PvE story missions – and the associated bundle purchase - It would appear as if Overwatch 2 is going to some lengths to promote August 10th's Invasion update. Blizzard decided to introduce a hacker character called The Enigma who interrupted a number of streamers' broadcasts to…

Overwatch 2 releases a Sojourn short and explains plans for hero balance in the next season - It's finally happened! Overwatch 2 has put its story inside the game! By which we mean that the latest cinematic short for Sojourn is available to watch only in-game, not anywhere else. What did you think…

Trion Worlds’ Scott Hartsman ruminates on the tricky business of MMO sequels - As the former lead of EverQuest II, SOE and Trion Worlds' Scott Hartsman knows a thing or two about working on an MMO sequel. Over the weekend, Hartsman wrote about the drawbacks of creating sequels to…

Wow Factor: The future of Blizzard is bleak - So yesterday our Massively Overthinking roundtable asked everyone to sound off on the future of Blizzard because... well, the studio had a plan to weather all of its controversies and basically reclaim the conversation completely, and…

WoW Factor: Overwatch 2’s failure offers a lesson for World of Warcraft - The weird thing about my current position is that for the first time in at least a little while, there isn't a new disaster to talk about when it comes to World of Warcraft. Don't get…

Activision Blizzard is laying off workers in its esports division amidst future uncertainty regarding Overwatch League - Amidst all the other signs of robust health that you can see written across the state of Overwatch 2, you can add the Overwatch League's uncertain future. A number of esports team members working on the…

Overwatch 2 arrives on Steam on August 10 - So things are all going just super for Overwatch 2, as alluded to within the most recent Activision-Blizzard earnings report. So how do you fix that? Why, you put the game on Steam, of course. That'll…

Activision-Blizzard Q2 2023: Diablo IV doubled Blizzard’s revenues as MAUs continue decline - Activision-Blizzard has once again released its Q2 financials early as of this morning, but given the fact that this week was meant to be the original deadline for its merger into Microsoft, you can probably guess…

Overwatch 2 claims that story and lore is ‘incredibly important’ and a ‘key pillar’ of the PvP FPS - How does Overwatch 2 reconcile the culling of most PvE features, confirmation that what remains will be paywalled if you want to play them later, and further confirmation that more PvE content won't come until next…

Overwatch 2’s 2023 Summer Games event introduces volleyball and brings back soccer - The summer season has officially arrived to Overwatch 2 as the 2023 edition of the Summer Games event has officially arrived to the FPS, and this time around it's bringing a new sportsball game to the…

WoW Factor: And now we ruin the Trading Post - Those of you who have read my work in WoW Factor for a while will know that I tend to be very cards-on-the-table about my predictions. I make my guesses, I rate my overall accuracy around…

Overwatch 2 rolls out its first anime short, Genesis – Part One - Most games wouldn't wait some seven years after launch to put out basic story teasers for the game's entire premise, but then, most games also wouldn't launch a sequel and then cancel the supposed central features…

Overwatch 2 dev says new story missions won’t be arriving in its next two seasons - With Overwatch 2 bringing PvE content (such as it is) like story missions in its August 10th update, you might assume that successive seasons will be adding to the story mission pile. However, you may want…

Overwatch 2 recaps Flashpoint, talks balance, and teases next hero - The Invasion update of Overwatch 2 continues to be the topic of conversation for the shooter's director Aaron Keller in his latest dev blog, as he once more calls attention to the Flashpoint PvP mode and…

Overwatch 2 discusses hero mastery mode, progression updates, new missions, and Flashpoint PvP mode - Yesterday saw the Overwatch 2 team come together in a developer broadcast to call attention to the various features scheduled to arrive in the August 10th Invasion update, including progression updates, mission highlights, and its new…

Overwatch 2 talks about Season 5’s upcoming game modes, battle pass tweaks, and correcting ‘stomps’ - Overwatch 2's director Aaron Keller is back once again with another dev blog, and as one might expect, it's primarily focused around the recently launched Season 5, including its new battle pass and upcoming game modes.…

Overwatch 2 discusses the Invasion update’s PvE missions – and the price you’ll have to pay to keep them - PvE is finally coming to Overwatch 2 with the release of the Invasion update on August 10th, but the latest post from the game has unveiled a very large string is attached to the news: If…

Overwatch 2 brings story missions, hero mastery missions, and a new support hero August 10 - While Overwatch 2 has certainly made plenty of gesticulations towards competitive Season 5, a lot of what Blizzard initially claimed as the reason for a sequel - and what had fans interested - was the addition…

Overwatch 2 finally expands Pride content to Poland and Romania following player backlash - When Overwatch 2 decided to launch Pride Month content for the shooter, it did so selectively to accommodate countries the studio claimed had "laws that aren’t tolerant of LGBT content" like Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Lithuania.…

Lawful Neutral: How might the so-called AI revolution affect the MMO genre? - This article has been rolling around in my head since ChatGPT rocketed into the public awareness a few months ago, and just in the last few weeks, there's been slew of developments of AI in gaming…

Perfect Ten: MMOs that ghosted us after talking a big game - There's nothing worse as a fan of games to buy into all of the hype and previews of a promising-looking project only to see that title's studio fold, the project quietly discontinued, or finances suddenly run…

Overwatch 2 discusses Season 5 adjustment plans for crowd control, one-shot abilities, and specific heroes - The fourth season of Overwatch 2 is nearing its end, yet already game director Aaron Keller is plotting changes for Season 5, including some tweaks to Junker Queen and Lifeweaver, a nerfing of certain abilities that…

Overwatch 2 plans Pride Month celebration with player cosmetics, decorated maps, and a short story - Pride Month is nearly here, and Overwatch 2 is seeking to highlight the diverse nature of the shooter's cast and playerbase with several celebratory nods in June in the form of player cosmetics, some decorations across…

Overwatch 2 director attempts to take back control of the narrative over PvE cancellation - It hasn't been a fun week to be Aaron Keller, game director of Overwatch 2 and one of the people taking the brunt of the blame for the cancellation of most of the game's PvE components.…

BlizzCon 2023 has been announced for November 3-4 in Anaheim - Well, here we go. The past couple of years have not featured a celebration of Blizzard as a company because... well, we have a long list of reasons. But this year fans are once again encouraged…

Perfect Ten: Overwatch 2 is peak Blizzard - So in case you missed it yesterday, Overwatch 2 got unceremoniously canceled. Oh, I know, the game is still operating, but someone has already put together an edit of the initial launch trailer cut down to…

Overwatch 2 devs admit team strategy on PvP/PvE development shifted ‘about a year and a half ago’ - So a lot of gamers were not terribly happy that Overwatch 2 director Aaron Keller and executive producer Jared Neuss announced that most of the game's PvE modes promised during the game's development will not be…

Overwatch 2 officially cancels most of its PvE content moving forward - Hey, remember when Overwatch basically went into deep freeze to deliver on all of the awesome content that Overwatch 2 was going to have? Yeah, so it turns out that is not going to happen at…

Overwatch 2 launches interstellar-themed Starwatch Galactic Rescue event with threadbare PvE elements - The world of Overwatch 2 is already couched in sci-fi, but that doesn't mean it can't go deeper. Like, for example, taking several of the game's characters and pitting them against one another in an interstellar…

Overwatch 2’s director Aaron Keller takes a detailed look at Lifeweaver’s current state of balance - So, how is Lifeweaver working out for Overwatch 2 at this point? Well, in terms of kissability, he's still very high on the list. (Yes, that's very important.) In terms of things like performance, though, he's…

Activision-Blizzard Q1 2023: ABK revenues are up as Blizzard MAUs fall back down to reality - Activision blinked: Activision-Blizzard wasn't supposed to release its Q1 2023 financials until tomorrow after the bell, but it's just done it this morning out of the blue, presumably attempting to ward off the sharp stock drop it…

Overwatch 2 is fighting cheaters, fixing matchmaking, and saving Lifeweaver - Overwatch 2 has kicked out multiple dev blogs this week, and they touch on matters that are likely important to a vast swath of players, as they talk up the ongoing fight against cheating, making the…

Overwatch 2 previews Season 4 with a roadmap and trailer - Whatever you're feeling about Overwatch 2's Season 4, hopefully you'll feel happier with the introduction of your new handsome Thai support husbando. Look at Lifeweaver there. He's easily the most handsome Thai healer introduced to an…

Overwatch teases Lifeweaver’s abilities ahead of his addition to the game on April 11 - My therapist: "Prettier Healing Hanzo isn't real in Overwatch 2, he can't hurt you." Me: "No, you don't understand, he's going to be real on April 11th. And he's a support healer, so he's mostly facilitating…

US Department of Justice and Activision-Blizzard reach a settlement over an esports salary lawsuit - It would apparently not be enough for Activision-Blizzard to treat its employees poorly; it also has been found to treat those who compete in its esports leagues poorly as well. The US Department of Justice filed…

Vague Patch Notes: Can anyone really cover games objectively when there’s suffering built-in to them? - In July of 2021, we started a roundup tag in our tag cloud that most of us probably didn't expect to still be using nearly two years later. It's just "blizzard-scandal," but that kind of says…

Overwatch 2’s director discusses balancing, collabs, rewards, and Season 4 competitive play updates - With six months of work on the team vs. team shooter Overwatch 2 now under his belt, director Aaron Keller is taking a moment to take stock and address matters within the game and its community,…

Overwatch 2 launches a cosmetics-filled collab with One Punch Man anime - "Mom, I want to play Fortnite!" "Why is that, Bobby-Sue?" "Because it has all sorts of cool anime characters in it!" Mom holds up a new trailer showcasing a collab between the anime One Punch Man…

WoW Factor: World of Warcraft is just coasting down the mountain - In November 1994, Marvel Comics launched a new comic book spin-off from the main X-Men series. Generation X, written by Scott Lobdell, was in many ways a return to a more foundational point in the franchise,…

Overwatch 2 players question Season 3 balance, find an invincible statue, and beg for a Mei-killing homing grenade - Yes, we appreciate that headline is a melange of weird and disparate pieces of Overwatch 2 news, but some of these things are a bit too fun to not bundle together into one story. Before we…

Design Mockument: In which we do not design World of Warcraft 2 - Over the course of my professional writing career on this site and that site we used to run before AOL screwed us all over, I think I have designed World of Warcraft 2 at least half…

PSA: Overwatch 2’s battlepass is confusing – make sure you understand what you’re buying - So here's an interesting tale of how a subtle change in an interface element can be deceptive, intentionally or otherwise. If you play Overwatch 2, you know that there are a few different currencies at play,…

Overwatch 2 deploys Season 3 and considers arcade adjustments - The third season to Blizzard's popular Overwatch 2 deployed earlier this week with a number of hero balance changes and this weekend's Valentine's Day event. In a short letter to the community, the Game Director Aaron…

WoW Factor: Blizzard’s latest earnings report was mixed news for World of Warcraft - On one level, the most interesting thing that came out of the most recent earnings call for Activision-Blizzard was how much stuff the company stayed silent about. It's perhaps not surprising when you consider that by…

Overwatch 2 brings Season 3 on February 7th, complete with crossover collaborations - Welcome to Overwatch 2's season 3! What are you hoping to get out of it? If your answer to the question is "the PvE that was supposedly the whole animating reason for the sequel," well, we…

Activision-Blizzard Q4 2022: Blizzard revenues, MAUs spike thanks to WoW Dragonflight and Overwatch 2 - Welcome back to our inevitable coverage of Activision-Blizzard's quarterly financials: Today's edition sums up Q4's results, comprising October, November, and December 2022. Let's break it down, first with ABK and then with Blizzard itself. Activision-Blizzard Activision-Blizzard on…

Overwatch 2’s director maps out the future without map pools and less map frequency - Hey there, Overwatch 2 player! Do you like map pools? No, you don't; basically no one did, and so they're being removed according to a new letter from director Aaron Keller. He admits up front that…

Overwatch 2 brings back Overwatch Credits for its third season - In last night's letter to the Overwatch 2 community, Blizzard took some time to evaluate how Season 2 of the team shooter went and give a glimpse of the changes to come with Season 3. One…

The Soapbox: Subscriptions might actually be the next big innovation in digital card games - What started earlier this week as a rant on how bad an idea a subscription model in Hearthstone would be evolved into something more: a Soapbox comparing the economies of traditional TCGs and digital card games…

Overwatch 2 devs address issues with ranked play, reward acquisition, and balance frequency - In an attempt to get ahead of several controversial topics in the Overwatch 2 meta, Blizzard posted a developer update to briefly address a number of ongoing issues and concerns with the multiplayer shooter. The studio…

Overwatch 2 revives three arcade brawls for Lunar New Year - Lunar New Year in Overwatch is not a new concept, largely because Overwatch itself is not a new concept, but 2023 will mark the first time the holiday is celebrated in Overwatch 2 itself. "Head on…

Overwatch 2’s new free-for-all deathmatch Battle for Olympus has begun - Overwatch 2's first big release of 2023 launched last night, sending the intersection of multiplayer gaming and classical studies fans into a frenzy. There are dozens of us. Dozens! "In this free-for-all Deathmatch mode, battle for…

Overwatch 2’s limited-time Battle for Olympus game mode brings a clash of the gods in FFA deathmatch - The characters of Overwatch 2 are already regular humans with some god-like power and strength, but the Battle for Olympus game mode arriving on Thursday, January 5th, is placing several characters into a more literal pantheon…

Overwatch 2 breaks down its MMR and matchmaking systems while hinting at planned updates - A competitive shooter like Overwatch 2 lives and dies by a few different grinding gears, such as those that power player MMR and matchmaking, and if you're the sort who finds those systems are lacking, then…

Overwatch 2 fixes multiple heroes for Season 2 - With the second season of Overwatch 2 in full swing and the competitive scene heating up, Blizzard isn't waiting for the next big patch day to fine-tune characters that need it. The studio pushed out a…

Chris Metzen returns to the World of Warcraft team as a ‘creative advisor’ - Who had this on the "biggest surprise" bingo card? Blizzard has apparently rehired Chris Metzen to work on World of Warcraft and its extended universe. "It is with great joy that I announce Chris Metzen has…

Overwatch 2 launches Winter Wonderland this week - It's time to mark the wintery season in both Hearthstone and Overwatch 2 as both games have lined up their seasonal events for the... uh, the season. It's the winter season as well as the holiday…

Airship Syndicate reveals Wayfinder, a gorgeous multiplayer RPG inspired by MMOs - It almost went unnoticed at this year's TennoCon thanks to the big reveal of Soulframe and Warframe's latest content round, but Digital Extremes actually has yet another multiplayer game on deck - a collab between DE…

The Game Awards 2022: Blue Protocol, Diablo IV, Wayfinder, Nightingale, Dune Awakening - We've updated with all the big news and trailers now - scroll down to the end for the announcements! Original post follows. Gamers who aren't particularly interested in an Oscars-esque awards show for the industry might…

Overwatch 2 highlights Ramattra’s backstory and voice acting in latest video - Did you know that there's a new character coming to Overwatch 2? Did you know his name is Ramattra? Did you know he's an omnic? A revolutionary? A fighter for his people? Even if you've heard…

Overwatch 2 summarizes hero updates, new map, returning events, and battle pass theme for Season 2 - Next week will bring Season 2 to Overwatch 2, and if you haven't been paying attention to the reveals from Blizzard, then you'll be happy to note that there's a recent summary post out there that…

Overwatch 2 showcases Ramattra in a gameplay video and developer blog - There's a new tank rumbling into Overwatch 2 - the omnic leader of Null Sector known as Ramattra - and he's bringing a whole lot of terrorizing toys to the team shooter if this past weekend's…

Overwatch 2 brings back Mei in latest patch, promises tweaks to rewards and support roles in Season 2 - Have you been missing Mei after she was pulled from the roster of Overwatch 2 last month? Then we have some good news: Yesterday's patch brought her back with fixes to her Ice Wall ability, along…

WoW, Overwatch, Diablo, and more to sunset in China following failed Blizzard-Netease licensing deal - Last week, as part of its Q3 2022 investor report, Activision-Blizzard included what we described as an ominous note about its apparent difficulties negotiating a new licensing deal with Chinese counterpart NetEase, specifically in regard to…

Overwatch 2 briefly delays its mid-season cycle patch to Thursday - If you're going to get hit with the news that an expected patch is getting slapped with a delay, the best you can hope for is that said delay is measured in days (or even hours!)…

Blizzard shuts down a major Overwatch 2 cheat software provider - You have to be a special, artisanal, distinct kind of lamesauce to buy software to cheat in a shooter game, but that is regrettably the case for a wide number of online shooters including Overwatch 2.…

Hearthstone applies updates to Battlegrounds and Arenas, Overwatch releases a new novel - We're pulling together the news from Hearthstone and Overwatch together into their own combined story simply because they're kind of teeny on their own while still worth some notice. Just assume that Winston and Junkrat are…

Overwatch 2 promotes its first mythic skin while reducing legacy skin prices for former players - Dressing up your favorite Overwatch 2 character in shiny skins is likely what makes most players spend their money, and Blizzard is hoping that will be the case with the reveal of its first mythic skin…

Activision-Blizzard Q3 2022: Blizzard MAUs and revenues are up as NetEase dispute looms on the horizon - Welcome back to our trimonthly coverage of Activision-Blizzard's quarterly financials. As of this afternoon, we have Q3's results, comprising July, August, and September 2022. Analysts had pointed out that share values for the company are up…

Overwatch 2’s newest tank character Ramattra arrives along with season two on December 6 - During the grand finals event of the Overwatch League, the shooter unveiled the next character that's coming to Overwatch 2: The omnic Ramattra, who will be landing when season two begins on Tuesday, December 6th. So…

Overwatch 2 dev hints at more support heroes as Blizzard sends out a monetization survey to players - Overwatch 2 is continuing its tuning and adjustment efforts, or at least is planning to by all accounts. After the shooter put out an announcement that promised some hero tweaks are arriving November 15th, lead hero…

Overwatch 2 previews character balance adjustments arriving November 15 - If you're finding life in Overwatch 2 to be more than a little hellish and were worried that changes wouldn't be coming until Season Two, a new developer post offers up information about some balance udpates…

Overwatch 2 goes into full Halloween mode with a new co-op mission - Halloween Terror may not be new to the Overwatch franchise, but this week does mark the first time it's appearing in the recently launched Overwatch 2. The event won't be a bland copy-and-paste from last year,…

Overwatch 2’s flawed design and gamer toxicity drive off support players – and drive up queues - It looks like some bad apples in the Overwatch 2 community and some overall poor design are spoiling the bunch for everyone. The game's two queues - open, which lets players create freeform teams without hard…

Overwatch 2 brews up a fresh batch of Halloween terror - With 25 million players flooding in to see Overwatch 2's revamped gameplay, it's left some wondering what Blizzard might do for an encore this month. How about activating the pseudo-sequel's first Halloween event? That should do…

Overwatch 2 counts over 25M players in 10 days, announces double XP weekends to celebrate - Despite all of its launch problems, it would appear that there were a lot of people checking out Overwatch 2 over the past week and a half: 25 million people, in fact, as Blizzard is very…

Blizzard discusses Overwatch 2 launch balance and season two hero adjustments - With the chaos of its launch (hopefully?) now behind it, Overwatch 2 is ready to talk about the future - or at least the immediate future. Blizzard posted a lengthy unsigned dev blog last night discussing…

Overwatch 2 apologizes for launch snafus with spooky skin and charm compensation - Blizzard is not oblivious to the discontent swirling around the launch of Overwatch 2 last week, and it's planning to make some amends. Several amends, in fact. "We apologize for any issues players experienced around the…

Overwatch 2 suffers another DDoS attack, accidentally removes everyone’s earned heroes - The goof parade that is Overwatch 2 keeps marching along, regrettably. The most recent SNAFU suffered by players of the game involved an intended lockdown of a couple of characters ending up in people losing access…

Overwatch 2 ‘makes progress’ on launch issues, but it’s still getting dinged on unlock grinds - The rocky launch week of Overwatch 2 isn't over yet, but the studio says that it's "making progress" on addressing the core issues plaguing the online team shooter. In a status update on the game last…

Overwatch 2’s first big update tackled SMS Protect as Blizzard teases Kiriko animated short - As promised, Blizzard patched Overwatch 2 overnight, effectively nullifying the deeply unpopular "SMS Protect" feature that required all players to link specific types of phones to their accounts. As the studio explained earlier this week, the…

Overwatch 2 partially rolls back SMS requirement, addresses stability and queues - As we've been covering, the Overwatch 2 rollout was a bit of a mess, and it wasn't just a result of first-day technical burps and apparently malicious DDOS attacks that made devs' lives much harder; it…

Overwatch 2’s launch is plagued by multiple DDOS attacks and connection issues - Blizzard brought Overwatch 2 online last night as planned, but what didn't go quite as plan was the technical mess that plagued the team shooter almost immediately. Blizzard's Mike Ybarra was on Twitter about 90 minutes…

Fight or Kite: Forget Overwatch 2 – Gundam Evolution meets your anime FPS needs - As a self diagnosed techie, I’ve always had a soft spot for mech-related games and shows. But I haven’t had too many opportunities in the Fight or Kite column to go off on tangents about my…

Overwatch 2 outlines global release timing and a pre-launch checklist as the original shooter goes offline - A new era of Overwatch is just around the corner. The sequel to the hero shooter - or at least its PvP portion - is set to launch tomorrow, October 4th, and the game has been…

Overwatch League opens up new initiatives to recruit more diverse players and broadcasting talent - You can either look at this as the Overwatch League trying to increase the diversity of its pool of talent, or the league's scrambling to grab a hold of anything to keep itself above water, but…

Overwatch 2 details a host of changes being made to competitive play - An arguably heavy-handed free-to-play setup isn't the only thing that's going to be different in Overwatch 2. The shooter is also looking to use the sequel/replacement for the original as a way to improve its overall…

Overwatch 2 plans to combat player toxicity and secure accounts with a ‘defense matrix’ - Wrath what? Blizzard doesn't have time to think about the immediate past when it has another launch coming right around the corner. Next week, on October 4th, Overwatch 2 is coming to you loud, proud, and…

Theorycraft Games nets $50M and two former Riot devs for a ‘team-based game of adventure, creativity, and high-stakes combat’ - Back in March 2021 we reported on the formation of Theorycraft Games, a game dev studio that was made up of folks who had previously worked on titles such as League of Legends, Halo, Valorant, and…

Overwatch 2 offers backstory and creation details for Kiriko in new videos - Overwatch 2 fans are already generally familiar with the new support hero Kiriko from a mechanical standpoint, but what about her origin? How does someone become a fox spirit-summoning ninja? That's elaborated upon in two new…

WoW Factor: How much does World of Warcraft matter to Blizzard? - My initial plan this week was to write about whether or not World of Warcraft was successfully creating an echo chamber in which everyone still invested in the game was basically complicit in parroting bad arguments…

Overwatch 2 officially reveals its new hero Kiriko along with seasonal content plans - While Blizzard's surprise may have been spoiled thanks to its own mistakes as well as a fan leak, we now all know much more about Overwatch 2's brand-new hero Kiriko as well as the game's Season…

Details of Overwatch 2’s next hero are leaked online by Blizzard and fans - The comedy of errors that is Overwatch 2's inability to keep things quiet continues. Both Blizzard and a fan of the game have combined to offer up details of the shooter's next hero, a ninja-styled support…

Overwatch 2’s Jon Spector confirms that hero unlocks will be on the free track of the battle pass - Blizzard has not been doing a great job of managing its leaks lately, and another one hit last night when a description of Overwatch 2's Watchpoint Pack went up. This included a statement that players who…

Microsoft elaborates on its mobile platform hunger, confirms Overwatch and Diablo’s arrival to Game Pass - The vast majority of our readers made the shocked pikachu face when Microsoft CEO Phil Spencer admitted that his company's buyout of Activision-Blizzard is primarily motivated by wanting a slice of the mobile gaming market pie.…

Perfect Ten: The MMO studios that keep whiffing on new projects - Everyone makes mistakes, and that's all right. That's not necessarily a big deal. Yes, this is true when it comes to MMO studios too. I cannot think of a single MMO studio that has not had…

Overwatch 2 brings cross-progression across multiple platforms - It's kind of unpleasant how if you're enjoying Overwatch on your PC and want to also play on Nintendo Switch, you'll have to start over from scratch there. Sure, the only things you're earning are cosmetics…

The third part of Overwatch’s anniversary goes live, and its departure will mark the end of lockbox sales - The original Overwatch has been celebrating its anniversary for a while in a three part remix that started in April, bringing back brawls from previous events and older cosmetics with new twists. Last week saw that…

Overwatch 2 will not have a third round of beta testing ahead of its launch in October - The saga of Overwatch 2 from launch until present is an interesting one in terms of scope and content throughout the years since its announcement. Initially, the game was promised to be a new game that…

WoW Factor: Dragonflight, Wrath Classic, and trying to stop the bleeding - So if you somehow missed it, Activision-Blizzard posted its most recent earnings report this week. It was not good for the company as a whole, and it was definitely not a good look for Blizzard, which…

Would you buy a mythic skin in Overwatch 2 for $45? Asking for a Blizzard - Players of Overwatch 2 are reportedly being asked some very worrying questions by Blizzard: Fans of the shooter have shared images from a survey on both Twitter and Reddit that are asking if they would shell…

Overwatch esports teams protest a mid-match rules change by not playing each other on-air - Recent action in the Overwatch European Contenders Summer Series was spicy, but not for the reasons one might expect out of an esports competition, as Blizzard reportedly elected to change the rules of a match being…

Hands-on with Multiversus: How WB’s new brawler stacks up against Super Smash Bros. - Like most of the readers of this site, I spend the majority of my gaming time in MMORPGs, or I wouldn't be here. But platform fighters are my second love. The Super Smash Bros. franchise was…

Wallpaper Engine’s rise in popularity is likely thanks to Chinese gamers using it as a porn delivery system - "The Internet is for Porn" as the Avenue Q song goes, which appears to be holding true in the unique case of Wallpaper Engine, a program on Steam that lets users create, distribute, and use unique…

Overwatch 2 has started its second round of closed beta testing - Have you been looking forward to a chance to dip your superheroic shooting toes into the closed beta of Overwatch 2? Then you're probably going to want to keep an eye on your email inbox and…

Overwatch 2 will officially be a replacement for the original shooter when it launches October 4 - A recent AMA held by the devs of Overwatch has officially confirmed what many people perhaps anticipated: When the sequel goes live on October 4th, it will be "a replacement for the current live service." Readers…

Overwatch 2 takes a closer look at Junker Queen’s suite of abilities - Now that the new tank character Junker Queen is confirmed as part of the Overwatch 2 roster, players are likely going to be curious about how she works and just what her abilities are. In that…

Diablo Immortal snagged only 10M players out of its 30M registrations - Blizzard dropped an infographic last night for Diablo Immortal showing... well, some numbers, though probably not the numbers you're most interested in. Most notably, the company confirms "over 10M installs" with over 14M characters created, with…

Overwatch 2 shares seasonal patch plans from its October launch with PvE planned for 2023 - The wait is not yet over for Overwatch 2, but it's getting close to being over... assuming you were mostly waiting for the PvP, anyhow. If it's the PvE you were waiting for, you're going to…

Overwatch 2 launches early access October 4, Diablo IV is slated for 2023 - One of the big news stories of 2021 was the revelation that Blizzard had to delay both Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV. As of today, we're getting a clearer picture of when exactly they're coming. Overwatch…

Overwatch wraps up beta testing for its sequel’s PvP and releases volume 2 of the original’s anniversary event - The devs of Overwatch have called it a wrap for the sequel's PvP beta test round, and game director Aaron Keller would like to thank players for their participation. "Tests like this are a vital part…

Diablo III makes the Echoing Nightmare permanent, Overwatch 2 discusses support hero adjustments - Whether you're a fan of hacking up demons in Diablo III or testing out the new PvP meta in Overwatch 2, there's some news to be had for your very specific interests. We start with D3…

Overwatch 2 designers talk about the game’s first beta test including support buffs and the lack of a ranked queue - The Blizzard team behind Overwatch 2 is doing its best to communicate with players about the state of the game's testing and what changes are incoming. A new dispatch on the official site gives a brief…

Massively on the Go: Nintendo Switch Sports’ post-launch is going smoothly – but to where? - Nintendo Switch Sports is out in the wild now, and while early reviews were limited to offline play, obviously our coverage requires a game to be online. Interestingly, online play is the very first option, making…

Overwatch 2’s first beta officially begins this afternoon – are you playing? - We're just an hour away from the beta launch of Overwatch 2, which ought to please everyone but folks who simply liked Overwatch's meta better. As of this afternoon, "selected players" will see a rollout of…

Activision-Blizzard Q1 2022: Revenues plummet, Blizzard loses another 2M players - Welcome back to our regular coverage of Activision-Blizzard's quarterly financials. As of this morning, we have Q1's results, comprising January, February, and March 2022, a bit earlier than the company usually posts Q1. Activision-Blizzard on the…

Massively Overthinking: The WoW Dragonflight and Wrath Classic roundtable - So this week's Massively Overthinking is going to cautiously stick a paw into the beehive of World of Warcraft, thanks to the reveal of Dragonflight and Wrath Classic on Tuesday. I've asked our writers to weigh…

Overwatch 2 is making Doomfist a tank and making Orisa more aggressive - Hero roles are going to be changing when Overwatch 2 arrives, and the game's upcoming PvP beta is going to shine a spotlight on several such changes. Case in point: Doomfist, who is changing up his balance…

Three years later, Blizzard finally reveals Overwatch 2’s Sojourn - So let's talk about Sojourn. You remember Overwatch's Sojourn, right? She's been hinted at as a playable character for an absurdly long time - at least 2019. That was the same year when Blizzard trotted her…

Blizzard refreshes players on World of Warcraft development and Overwatch 2 map design - The Sepulcher of the First Ones raid continues to release in slow molasses-drip format on World of Warcraft's raid finder, with the third wing of the raid opening up this past week. Good news if you still…

Overwatch alters one of Zarya’s legendary skins to avoid any possible association with the Russian invasion of Ukraine - One of Zarya's legendary skins in Overwatch has received an unannounced but very important change with the game's recent patch: The skin no longer has a Z on it. This is remarkably important. See, if you've somehow…

Overwatch elaborates on the Anniversary Remix vol. 1 event arriving April 5 - The anniversary event of Overwatch is on the horizon, but this time it's going to be a bit different. In fact, it's going to be a r-r-r-r-remix. But what does that mean, exactly? That's the question…

April Fools’ Day around the MMO world, 2022 edition - Whether you love it or dread it, April Fools' Day is happening everywhere, specifically to annoy copyeditors who have to fix that dang apostrophe a hundred times. And nowhere is the day more celebrated than in…

GDC 2022: Control, revenue, scarcity, ethics, and the human challenges of the gaming ‘metaverse’ - While some panels at GDC 2022 have been deeply disappointing, the panel titled "A Brave New (Virtual) World: Ethics and Governance of XR and the Metaverse" was most definitely not among them. While it was a…

Prime Gaming teams up with Blizzard to offer freebies for Overwatch, Hearthstone, WoW, and StarCraft - Amazon Prime members are likely already very familiar with all of the free stuff they can claim for a wide variety of games, but starting today those members can now include a host of Blizzard titles…

Diablo II Resurrected delays update 2.4 due to ‘showstopper’ bugs, Overwatch 2 outlines its new ping system - For those who are looking forward to the class balancing and competitive ladder features of Diablo II: Resurrected's update 2.4, there's some bad news: The devs are once again delaying the update's launch as a result…

Overwatch 2 hypes its April 26 closed PvP beta as the Overwatch League struggles to secure sponsors - If there's anybody out there still interested in what PvP in Overwatch 2 is going to look like, the previously announced spring beta test has now gotten a hard calendar date: Tuesday, April 26th. Those who…

Overwatch 2 opens signups for its spring beta round - Multiple company scandals, falling player counts, and the loss of several team leads won't be stopping Overwatch 2: Blizzard announced today that it's beginning closed alpha for the expanshasequel. "Closed alpha testing for Overwatch 2 PvP…

Overwatch League pins down a May 5 start date for its 2022 season - Overwatch's professional esports league has been a bit quiet of recent in terms of its presumed 2022 season. Readers will recall that there were rumors of the league taking a year off that OWL quashed, followed…

Hearthstone gets a mini-set February 15, Overwatch adds ‘over-the-top’ heroes in Experimental - While a lot of attention is understandably focused on the Eternity's End update, that doesn't mean other Blizzard games aren't seeing updates (unless you're HOTS; sorry MOBA fans). Specifically, Hearthstone and Overwatch have gotten some updates…

Microsoft says that it will keep Activision Blizzard games on Sony’s PlayStation - If you were worried that the sale of Activision Blizzard might leave a good portion of the gaming console community without their Orcs, superheroes, and hellscapes, then let Microsoft lay that fear to rest. The company…

Activision-Blizzard Q4 2021: Blizzard lost another 2M monthly actives as ABK revenue holds steady - Welcome back to our regular coverage of Activision-Blizzard's quarterly financials. As readers are aware, the company, its leadership, and its games have been the subject of much-deserved criticism and scrutiny the last few years following multiple…

Overwatch lights up Lunar New Years, Diablo II expects a testing log jam for Patch 2.4 - The Year of the Tiger roared into Overwatch this week with a multi-week Lunar New Year celebration event. The celebration, which goes until February 15th, is loaded with limited-time rewards to warn. Players can go bounty…

Vague Patch Notes: Unpacking the Riot MMO’s group-centric philosophy - Well! It has been a week, that's for darn sure. And amidst everything else going on this particular week, it would've been easy to miss the time when Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street decided to make some comments…

Activision-Blizzard submits useless Microsoft buyout FAQ for employees - We sure hope you're not tired of hearing about Activision-Blizzard and its labor messes, discrimination and harassment scandal, and pending sale to Microsoft - because there's always more. First, yesterday the company dropped a few documents…

Acti-Blizz buyout, day two: Labor, stock, Kotick, and the reasons behind the sale - The news has been flying fast and furious over the last 24 hours since Microsoft announced it was buying Activision-Blizzard for just under $70B. Here's where we stand since then. The budding labor alliance, A Better…

Microsoft is acquiring Activision-Blizzard, Bobby Kotick is still CEO - Welp, apparently the Activision-Blizzard hot potato is hopping to a new owner: Microsoft just announced that it's acquiring the beleaguered gaming corporation. "With three billion people actively playing games today and fueled by a new generation…

LEGO pauses launch of Overwatch 2 toy set over ongoing Activision-Blizzard scandal - Activision-Blizzard might've thought it could start over after the holidays and put some distance between it and the massive discrimination and harassment scandal it fostered and is still fostering, but if so, it was wrong. The…

Pro Overwatch League esports player Kim ‘Alarm’ Kyeong-bo passes away at age 20 - There's some incredibly tragic news coming out of Overwatch's esports scene. Kim Kyeong-bo aka "Alarm," the flex-support player for the Philadelphia Fusion OWL team, has passed away. No explanation or cause of death was announced at…

Activision-Blizzard Q3 2021: Blizzard MAUs hold steady at 26M as Diablo II Resurrected drives revenues - Welcome back to our quarterly coverage of Activision-Blizzard's quarterly financials, the release day of which has become one of the schadenfreude highlights of each season in the last few years in spite of attempts by the…

Overwatch’s McCree becomes Cole Cassidy on October 26 - We've known since August that Overwatch hero McCree was due for a rename, thanks to the fact that the eponymous Jesse McCree was one of the prominent Blizzard developers outed and ousted as part of the…

Not So Massively Roundup: LoL’s chat test, Overwatch Halloween, and Fortnite acknowledges Among Us - Our not-particularly-massively-multiplayer news has started to pile up, which means it's time for a quick run-down of games in the MMORPG genre's orbit. We've got some real whoppers today. Riot vs. toxicity: Riot Games has always…

Here’s Blizzard’s rationale for changing some of World of Warcraft’s emotes, art, and names - In the wake of the ongoing investigations into and lawsuits over Activision-Blizzard's sexual harassment and discrimination scandal, the teams at Blizzard have said very little about the situation, and the company itself has not publicly acknowledged…

Overwatch invites players to square off for deathmatches in the sunny resort town of Malevento - What do you like in a resort destination? Is it sunny vistas? Lovely shops? Comfortable places to relax? Or maybe you prefer excellent sight lines to your enemies and opportunities to flank the opposing team. Whatever…

Overwatch shares reworkings of Bastion and Sombra coming to Overwatch 2 - This past weekend during the OWL finals, Blizzard's remaining Overwatch team dropped some big reveals for the team-based shooter's sequel. Specifically, it shared planned reworks for the characters Sombra and Bastion, both of whom are getting…

Overwatch League plans an April 2022 start and confirms the use of an ‘early build’ of Overwatch 2 - Are you eager for the next round of Overwatch competition? Then perhaps you'll be happy to note that Jon Spector, the VP of the Overwatch League for Blizzard, has put out a couple of tweets you…

Overwatch’s McCree isn’t the only Blizzard character getting a rename - Yesterday, we reported on Blizzard's announcement that it'll be changing the name of Overwatch's character McCree, who was named after Jesse McCree, one of the developers removed from the studio following the uproar generated by the…

Blizzard is changing the name of Overwatch’s character McCree - Over the course of the last month of the Activision-Blizzard sexual harassment and discrimination scandal, players have wondered aloud whether Blizzard would do anything to address the fact that one of Overwatch's characters, McCree, was named…

Perfect Ten: 10 MMOs that waved goodbye without ever making it to launch - If you've somehow missed this fact, then I hate to be the one to inform you of it, but it's time you learned: MMOs shut down. Yes, sometimes even beloved games that are good and neat…

Brazilian police have arrested a suspect in the murder of an Overwatch voice actress - PC Gamer is reporting the shocking news that Brazilian voice actress Christiane Louise has been murdered and that police have now arrested the suspected killer. Christiane Louise would be best known to our audience for her…

Battle Bards Episode 199: World of Warcraft tavern tunes - At the start and end of a long day of adventurin’, the Battle Bards love to kick back with a frosty mug of (ginger) ale or a stein of (root) beer at their favorite taverns. And…

Overwatch League loses more sponsors as workers expose Activision-Blizzard’s toxic culture - The fallout from the sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuit against Activision-Blizzard just keeps on dropping. Yesterday, more sponsors of the Overwatch League pulled support from the esports giant. Kellogg told Polygon that it "will not be…

Blizzard apparently ousted three more key devs, including Diablo IV’s game director - Kotaku is reporting that Blizzard has parted way with several more high-profile developers this week: Luis Barriga was game director on Diablo IV, while Jonathan LeCraft and Jesse McCree were designers on World of Warcraft. "We…

Blizzard denies rumor that Overwatch League will take year-long hiatus after current season - If you're still a big fan of Overwatch and the competitive Overwatch League, we may have some bad news for you. A rumor being reported now by GGRecon is that sources within the league have stated…

Activision-Blizzard sexism scandal day 17: More esports sponsors consider abandoning Overwatch League - In the course of our reporting on the ongoing Blizzard sexual harassment and sexual discrimination scandal that's now prompted multiple lawsuits, we noted that T-Mobile had apparently pulled out of sponsoring Activision-Blizzard esports leagues, including leagues…

Blizzard’s J. Allen Brack is stepping down ahead of today’s investor call - J. Allen Brack is out at Blizzard today ahead of the investor call this afternoon, replaced by a pair of co-leaders. Activision-Blizzard President and COO Daniel Alegre announced the news to the company this morning. "I…

‘We do not serve Activision Blizzard’: Furious WoW players stage protest against Blizzard - Following yesterday's revelation that the state of California is suing Activision-Blizzard in a 29-page complaint that alleges a serious pattern of sexual harassment and discrimination that led to the death of a Blizzard staffer (among many…

Overwatch launches 2021 Summer Games, the WoW Wrath of the Lich King pandemic boardgame is really happening - As the first Tokyo Olympics events begin today, Overwatch has opened the gates for its own Summer Games, running this year through August 10th. Expect the return of Lucioball and Lucioball Remix as well as the…

Overwatch seeks an entry-level narrative designer, Hearthstone adjusts cards and fixes bugs - We have a fresh little list of smaller news snippets from Blizzard games that aren't WoW, so once again we'll be bundling these smaller stories into one larger one for your reading ease. This bundle, for…

U.S. Department of Justice investigates Overwatch League over salary concerns - While Blizzard wants as many eyes as possible on its Overwatch franchise, the studio could probably do without the recent gaze of the U.S. Department of Justice. According to a Kotaku report, the DOJ is probing…

Overwatch outlines how to get crossplay working across the board - Ready to play Overwatch with everyone who has the game everywhere across the globe? Because the designers are ready to let you very soon with crossplay functionality, allowing users on consoles and PC to play with…

Overwatch announces proper console and PC crossplay with new Battle.net upgrade - Remember when Blizzard was teasing a special announcement for Overwatch? As of this afternoon, we finally know what it is: cross-play. It's a move the company is making in tandem with the big Battle.net update we…

Overwatch 2’s environmental states will ‘create interesting new moods’ for maps - As interest ramps up for the semi-sequel, semi-revamp to Overwatch, there's a lot of curiosity regarding what Overwatch 2 is going to bring to the table. One of the new tricks that Blizzard has up its…

Overwatch 2’s changing team makeup has pro tank players concerned about their esporting futures - With Overwatch 2 completely changing the PvP meta via smaller team sizes and one tank position per team, there are plenty of professional tank players who are now wondering if they'll have a job when the…

New Blizzard analysis chronicles the studio’s five-year decline and developer exodus - The slow decline of Blizzard has been exhaustively covered over the last couple of years, but sometimes, it's more jolting to see it all in print in one place, which is exactly what IGN has done…

Here’s how Blizzard is changing Overwatch 2’s tanks, group size, and meta - So, did we learn anything useful from yesterday's Overwatch 2 stream from the newly minted team leads at Blizzard? We did indeed, though whether it makes you happy or not will depend on what you think…

Blizzard is about to stream some Overwatch 2 PvP gameplay and a Q&A - MMO players are understandably concerned about the state of World of Warcraft after Blizzard's disastrous player losses over the last few years, but Overwatch is in far more trouble. You might not like WoW's updates, but…

Overwatch celebrates five years as Heroes of the Storm finally releases a hero-rework update - Blizzard's had its hands full with WoW Classic this week, but not so full that it hasn't been able to crank out content for some of its other games - including Overwatch and even Heroes of…

Diablo Immortal and World of Warcraft lead artist Glenn Rane leaves Blizzard - Blizzard suffered another high-profile defection this past week, as art lead Glenn Rane departed the studio. Rane joined several of his former Blizzard colleagues (along with some ex-Epic Game Studio ones) at Lightforge Games to be…

Overwatch 2 plans to discuss PvP gameplay in a livestream on May 20 and host an AMA on May 24 - If you've been worried by the abject silence coming out of Overwatch 2, then your worries may be eased starting later next week. The shooter's new game director Aaron Keller has hosted a brief development update…

The Chinese Overwatch League Saebyeolbe boycott is apparently over thanks to OWL intervention - Yesterday, we covered a brewing mess over in the Overwatch fandom, as a South Korean pro esports player, Jong-ryeol "Saebyeolbe" Park, commented on his Twitch livestream that he was feeling censored when streaming for Chinese audiences,…

Chinese Overwatch teams are boycotting a South Korean player who called out Chinese policies - Another year, another furor involving Blizzard, boycotts, China, and livestream remarks. Sounds familiar, eh? Well, the situation is a little bit different this time around, as it's some of the Overwatch league teams themselves that are…

Activision-Blizzard Q1 2021: Blizzard lost almost 29% of its overall active playerbase in three years - Welcome back, my friends: It's time for another Activision-Blizzard investor report, and we're expecting this one to be a ride. Readers will recall that it's been a wild couple of years for the company as 2019…

Not So Massively Roundup: Valorant’s Breeze, Apex’s Olympus, Runeterra’s expansion, and Jeff - Welcome back to another roundup of news for Not-So-Massively and MMO-adjacent games in the MMORPG orbit! Valorant: Riot's Valorant has rolled out the Breeze map this week, set on a "remote island distinguished by its bright,…

Ex-Overwatch lead Jeff Kaplan posts fond farewell to Redditors - After briefly announcing his departure from Blizzard Entertainment earlier this week, Jeff Kaplan is making the rounds to say farewell to the fans who supported him and the Overwatch team during his tenure at the company.…

Jeff Kaplan leaves Blizzard Entertainment and his position as director of Overwatch - Everything is going super great at Blizzard Entertainment, and the proof of this can be found in the newest announcement of employment shakeups. Jeff Kaplan, a veteran of the studio who was until today serving as game…

Blizzard ramps up hiring for its unannounced online game - Blizzard Entertainment is up to something -- something big -- these days behind closed doors. We've known that the World of Warcraft studio was forming a team to work on a Warcraft mobile game and some…

MMO Business Roundup: Theorycraft, My.Games, the FIFA fixing lawsuit, and Roblox’s latest concert - Welcome back to another roundup of MMO and MMO-adjacent industry news. Theorycraft: Could you found a new games studio on $37.5M? Yeah, probably. A bunch of veteran devs are going for it, with a pedigree spanning…

BlizzConline 2021: Overwatch 2 shows off New York City, visceral combat, and PvE content - "Patience" was the word of the day for the BlizzConline Overwatch 2 behind-the-scenes panel tonight at Blizzard's show, but that's to be expected for a game that is so unfinished it barely got a mention during…

Blizzard is collecting BlizzConline Q&A questions for WoW, Diablo, and Hearthstone - BlizzCon is gonna be a little bit different this year. Yes, it's called BlizzConline, which is silly. Yes, it's in February, and that's weird. It's also going to be entirely free to view for the players,…

Here’s the big BlizzConline 2021 schedule, from World of Warcraft to Overwatch 2 - Blizzard's just released its schedule for BlizzConline, and... well it's not going to absolutely shock you, since we had a pretty good idea of what the con was going to focus on already. Notably, following the…

Blizzard plucks your nostalgia strings with a new BlizzConline trailer (and merch) - We're sure that you are all quite aware that BlizzConline is coming on February 19th, but just in case you overslept or something, Blizzard's ratcheting up the hype for this online-only event -- and the studio's…

Blizzard celebrates Lunar New Year in World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Hearthstone - Blizzard is no slouch when it comes to Lunar New Year celebrations: Its largest online titles have all gotten updates for the season. In World of Warcraft, the Lunar Festival has begun as of today, plus…

Massively Overthinking: Do MMO players secretly just want ‘another WoW’? - Last week, there was a provocative discussion on the MMORPG subreddit about the genre. I don't want to get tangled up in the whole argument about failed MMOs and why people play the successful MMOs that…

Blizzard prepares to roll out a major Battle.net upgrade - The biggest upgrade to Battle.net in a long time is on the cusp of coming to players' screens everywhere. For those of you who play World of Warcraft, Overwatch, or one of Blizzard's other games, your…

Overwatch celebrates its new Kanezaka map with a player challenge and community tourney - Overwatch is very keen on letting people know that there's a new deathmatch map added to the game. Just in case it slipped anyone's notice, the new Kanezaka map has been released and players can take…

Blizzard offers a plethora of game discounts with its holiday sale this year - We don't really like advertising sales consistently here on Massively Overpowered because we already have actual advertising on the site and that costs money. But this year's sales from Blizzard are, well... pretty huge for in-game…

Battle Bards Episode 183: Theme parks - This episode is your ticket to the greatest amusement park experience known to gamers! With cotton candy and ride tickets in hand, the Battle Bards rush into the gates of their favorite theme parks — and…

Overwatch’s Winter Wonderland and Hearthstone’s Winter Veil events go live - For those who like to celebrate the season by blowing away enemy teams or playing card games, it is now the most wonderful time of the year as Overwatch and Hearthstone have both begun their holiday-themed…

Ask Mo: The hits and misses of MassivelyOP’s 2020 predictions - Last December, when we sat down to write out our annual MMO predictions for 2020, I don't think anyone had "biggest global pandemic in a century disrupts everything and makes gaming really weird." So nope, we're…

Massively OP’s 2020 Awards: Best MMO Trend of 2020 - MassivelyOP’s end-of-the-year awards for 2020 continue today with our award for Best MMO Trend of 2020, which last year went to the rise of rogue servers. This award is meant to highlight a pervasive trend that…

Npixel reveals stunning ‘space-time’ MMORPG Chrono Odyssey - If you like Gran Saga but want something a bit less cartoony, you're going to want to feast your eyes on the second MMO coming from Npixel. The newly unveiled game is called Chrono Odyssey, and…

Overwatch floats ‘priority passes’ while Hearthstone brings back the Darkmoon Faire - Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan clearly got out of the house this past week, donned his iconic sunglasses, and addressed the community in a new developer update. One of the big reveals that he dropped on…

World of Warcraft: Free BlizzCon, dev swap, and Revendreth preview - Blizzard President J. Allen Brack posted an interesting "fireside chat" yesterday to talk about what's going on with the studio and its games in these final months of 2020. Brack said that "over 95%" of Blizzard…

Activision-Blizzard Q3 2020: Blizzard MAUs fell to 30M as overall ActiBlizz revenues hold steady - It's time for another round of Activision-Blizzard financials as today covers Q3 2020. It's been a weird couple of years for the company as 2019 saw mass layoffs, the Blitzchung boycott, a weak BlizzCon, and plunging…

Overwatch’s Halloween Terror is back once again with new cosmetics and challenge missions - The well-known (and regularly repeated) Halloween event of Overwatch is back once again. It's time for Halloween Terror 2020, bringing along the usual Junkenstein's Revenge content, which will add two challenge missions each week for a…

SuperData August 2020: Fall Guys dethroned League of Legends, pushed WoW to its lowest rank in over a year - SuperData's August global revenue report for the games industry has more than a few eyebrow-raisers this week. On the PC side of things, World of Warcraft West has fallen all the way to 10th place, its…

Overwatch is all about Tracer with a new comic book series and special event - It's certainly arguable that Overwatch poster girl Tracer gets plenty of attention on her own, but that doesn't mean she doesn't deserve a bit more attention. The multiplayer shooter is very much into the high-speed superheroine…

MMO Business Roundup: Gamers have launched a new class action gambling lawsuit against EA - Welcome back to another roundup of MMO and online games industry news. There's a new class action in town, and EA is the target. Plaintiff Kevin Ramirez's suit claims that the Ultima Team Packs in the…

Check out Sims 4 builds for living in Dalaran or Darnassus… or in a world of Overwatch - You probably do not want to live in Darnassus in World of Warcraft. For one thing, it's on fire. For another, even when it isn't on fire it's a world perpetually being invaded by demons or…

Blizzard staffers confirm ‘honor point system,’ further exposing the company’s wage disparities - This week we've been following Bloomberg's reports on Blizzard employees' attempts to secure pay and equitable pay for the gaming industry. Early in the week, staff were circulating a spreadsheet of their wages and raises, telling…

‘Our mentors are leaving in droves’: Blizzard staff are organizing to demand better compensation - Yesterday, we covered Bloomberg's report on how Blizzard employees were circulating a spreadsheet of their wages and raises in an effort to determine whether Blizzard had gone far enough with its promises to dispense fair pay,…

Overwatch’s Summer Games have returned with a new twist on Lucioball - Sportsball is pretty strange in pandemic times, as the professional leagues and kiddie teams alike are struggling to find safe ways to return to group sports. The same isn't true in Overwatch, where the shooter's version…

Activision-Blizzard Q2 2020: Year-over-year revenues are up for the first time in six quarters - We're back with another dip into Activision-Blizzard's financials, this one Q2 2020, the first report since shareholders lambasted the company for excessive executive pay and the first report since BlizzCon 2020 was outright canceled. MMO readers…

Blizzard staffers agitate against poor worker pay as Activision-Blizzard rakes in billions - Blizzard's labor practices have been under scrutiny over the last couple of years, propelled in large part due to mass-layoffs at the top of 2019 that coincided with Blizzard's "historic" $7.5B revenue haul. Apparently, those who…

Massively Uplifting: Good deeds don’t take the summer off for Bungie, Niantic, and Trolls in WoW - When summer comes, some lucky folks get to take the season off. Even those who continue on their regular labors often head out on real life adventures and vacations. Conventions, family reunions, fairs and amusement parks…

Overwatch hosts an AMA, Hearthstone adds a playable kitty hero - You can play as a kitty in Hearthstone. Yes, there's been some patch notes for update 18.0 which sets the table for the arrival of Scholomance Academy as well as some adjustments to Battlegrounds, new minions,…

Sigma takes center stage in Overwatch’s new Maestro Challenge mini-event - Overwatch is feeling rather cultured, apparently, as the multiplayer shooter has taken to appreciating classical music and the character Sigma all at once as it introduces Sigma's Maestro Challenge, a mini-event running between now and Monday,…

Competitive Season 23 of Overwatch adds an open queue option - The meat and potatoes of Overwatch for most players is officially underway with the launch of Competitive Season 23, and this time around players can look forward to the addition of an open queue mode that…

Overwatch nixes hero pools from competitive play - Freedom! That's the shout of Overwatch players this week as they heard the news that Blizzard is removing hero pools from the competitive play side of the game. Previously, hero pools served to keep the meta…

There are multiple heroes planned for Heroes of the Storm this year, and there’s snow falling now - It's been a quiet first half of the year in Heroes of the Storm, but players have been promised that there are multiple new heroes currently in development and planned for this year, even if there…

Overwatch’s anniversary theme goes into the woods to grandmother’s house - Hope you weren't planning on sleeping much over the next few weeks, because you are going to need those extra hours to milk every last drop of content and goodies out of Overwatch during its anniversary…

Hearthstone kicks out some balance updates while Overwatch starts previewing anniversary skins - Blizzard's not-WoW games Hearthstone and Overwatch are in the news together today, mostly because each update is sort of like two halves of a sandwich. So let's slap these parts together and take a big honkin'…

Amazon’s Crucible delivers a five-minute overview - Amazon Game Studios hopes you aren't too busy next week -- perhaps even staying home for the duration. And if you're just hanging around, why not check out Crucible, its online shooter? Crucible is launching on…

Overwatch confirms the return of the competitive open queue in June and July - Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan is back once more with another developer update video that's all about the competitive open queue, confirming that it will be making its way back to the shooter in the next…

Rumor: Diablo II is getting a remaster at the end of the year - While many fans are perhaps looking to Diablo IV to save the franchise (aka rehash Diablo II), there are some rumors stirring that Blizzard will... well... straight-up remake Diablo II, at least if anonymous sources are…

Destiny’s got an official cookbook now, so now you know what to get the fam for Christmas - Why not turn your looter shooter into a fancy feast? Because nothing about gaming has to make sense any more, Bungie collaborated with Victoria Rosenthral to make Destiny: The Official Cookbook. Coming this August, the cookbook…

Overwatch League team Vancouver Titans loses its entire roster amidst controversy - There has been some talk that the third season of the Overwatch League is kind of crucial for attracting viewers and convincing fans to actually tune in for the game, as that's been a standing problem…

Activision-Blizzard Q1 2020: Blizzard MAUs flat at 32M, but revenue jumps ahead of Shadowlands - It won't surprise you, given the current global health crisis, that a large portion of Activision-Blizzard's first quarter revenue report and conference call focused on the impact and response to COVID-19, which seems almost surreal, given…

Fight or Kite: Valorant’s place in an MMO player’s rotation - The new hotness from Riot Games, developer of League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics, delivers twitchy, intense FPS action in Valorant. The game has been described as a Counter-Strike clone blended with the unique heroes style…

No, the Valorant influencers running all those stream giveaways aren’t being paid by Riot - We've talked before about how Valorant has been making big numbers on Twitch spurred mostly by beta keys being dished out for watching streams, but an Engadget interview with Valorant's head of marketing Nikki Lewis has…

Overwatch previews updates to queue times, the Workshop, and the communication wheel - While the Overwatch team has to work from home, that doesn't mean they don't have things planned for the multiplayer hero shooter, and director Jeff Kaplan has put out yet another dev update video talking all…

Overwatch honors a fan on the medical front lines of the COVID-19 outbreak - Overwatch esports has many fans, but the devs felt that some special mention should go towards one fan in particular, a woman by the name of Weiwei. At 27, Weiwei is the youngest doctor who was…

Overwatch’s Echo is officially live today – here’s the new trailer - We first caught site of Overwatch's Echo waaaaay back in 2018, when she appeared in the Ashe-and-McCree short and was said to be “one of the next six heroes planned out” at the time. As of today, this…

Overwatch’s Echo and unified hero pool update arrive next week - A new playable hero is always a massive deal in Overwatch, so it's no surprise to hear that the game's legion of followers have been anxiously awaiting word when the next one would arrive. While we…

Overwatch tests Echo while Heroes of the Storm preps ancient Greece event - It's been a homecoming long in the making, but finally Echo is arriving in Overwatch. The game's 32nd hero is currently on the test servers in preparation for its arrival into the game proper. Echo specializes…

Overwatch drops origin story video for its next playable hero, Echo - Blizzard's been teasing a new Overwatch character for a while now - in fact, we first heard of this one way back in 2018, when she appeared in the Ashe-and-McCree short and was said to be…

Overwatch brings the Archives out again with new challenges and rewards - It's going to be a while before the co-op PvE of Overwatch 2 is playable, but there are still some good old-fashioned Overwatch PvE events, aren't there? Yes indeed! And now they're getting dusted off and given a…

Blizzard roundup: Michael Chu leaves Overwatch, Acti-Blizz gets a new COO, and WoW Classic drops a banhammer - Blizzard's been on a tear this week with staffing shifts and patches and cancellations, so let's dig in. First, probably the saddest part of this post is the fact that Michael Chu, the much-loved head writer…

Coronavirus roundup: Virtual GDC, Overwatch League suspended, Crowfall and Funcom work-from-home - As the novel coronavirus pandemic's impact is felt across the globe, shutting down everything from international travel to the NBA to markets, it continues to encroach on gaming as well. Here's what we're looking at this…

Desert Arena: First impressions of Shadow Arena, the Diet Black Desert of battle royales - Did someone just cast Arcane Echo? Because this'll be our second piece on Shadow Arena this week, following its deep-dive by our PvP columnist Sam earlier this week in Fight or Kite. But I just have…

Overwatch kicks off competitive season 21 with its new hero pools feature - The time is now for the competitive players of Overwatch to hop in to the pool. The hero pool, that is! Season 21 is now underway, and it brings along with it the much-vaunted hero pools…

Riot Games’ multiplayer FPS Valorant is officially unveiled with new screens, details, and gameplay footage - Looks like the cat has been officially released from the bag. Valorant, the CSGO-like multiplayer FPS that was hitherto known as Project A, has been officially unveiled with some new details shared by the devs. Information…

Overwatch previews its new triple damage composition experimental mode - As fine-tuned as Overwatch tries to be (you leave your own opinions about how successful that's been), sometimes you have to try some radical things just to see what happens. Enter Experimental mode, the mode that's…

EA becomes the latest studio to back out of a con over coronavirus concerns - This week's Boston-based PAX East has already felt the effects of multiple companies, from Sony to Square Enix, backing out over coronavirus fears - whether that's fears of employees catching it, inadvertently spreading it, or just…

A LinkedIn profile adds more fuel to the Diablo animated series fire - The rumor about a Diablo animated series has been running for ages now, and the latest bit of evidence that this is a real thing comes in the form of co-president of Activision Blizzard Studios Nick van Dyk's…

Activision-Blizzard has apparently yanked its games from GeForce NOW - If you were subbing to NVIDIA GeForce Now for your streamed games, we genuinely hope it wasn't for Activision-Blizzard's games. That's because yesterday Activision-Blizzard surreptitiously removed all its games from the platform, with no announcement, leaving…

Activision-Blizzard Q4 2019: Revenues are down YoY for the fourth straight quarter - So here we are in 2020, looking back at the last quarter of 2019 for Blizzard. Nothing big happened or anything, just a massive political scandal that saw a widespread boycott of the company, a terrible…

Overwatch’s new hero pools hit the PTS as Blizzard gift-wraps new goodies for workshop modders - I'm going to tentatively say here that this might be the best (or at least most smooth) thing Blizzard has done in a month - but that's a pretty low bar, admittedly. I'm talking about the…

Overwatch details competitive hero pools and experimental test modes - Your friend Jeff from the Overwatch team is here with a new video on the game's development - the current game, not just the future Overwatch 2 - and it's all about balance. Kaplan says that…

Blizzard’s Overwatch League matches in China are on hold for two months for the coronavirus - For whatever other issues Blizzard is having right now, it can't be said that the studio isn't paying close attention to potential viral outbreaks when it comes to Overwatch esports. The company has officially cancelled upcoming Overwatch League…

MMO Business Roundup: Guild Wars’ art book, Day of Dragons drama, Red Dead hackers, FogBank layoffs, and more - Welcome back to another roundup of MMO (and MMO-adjacent) industry news! Guild Wars' art book: If you happened to read our swag guide ahead of the holiday season at the end of 2019, you already knew…

Jeff Kaplan explains why Overwatch matches are not getting a ban phase - Some competitive-minded PvP games have a phase where each team decides which characters are banned from joining in, and there appears to be a large contingent of Overwatch fans who believe adding this feature to the…

Hearthstone previews Galakrond’s Awakening adventures, Overwatch brings on the Year of the Rat event - It's time for Blizzard game news that doesn't involve WoW! No, I'm not writing about anything new from Diablo III. That'd just be silly. No, this is regarding Hearthstone and Overwatch. Specifically, a closer look at…

Massively Uplifting: Gaming studios and communities support kids, trees, cats, STEM, and gaming grandparents - While there are understandably many reasons folks may not want to look back on 2019 fondly, the year wasn't all bad. Massively Uplifting has found and focused on a plethora of inspiring stories happening in our…

Leaderboard: Are you onboard with the online gaming industry’s new take on sequels? - Overwatch 2 and Path of Exile 2 being announced in such close proximity, plus rumors of an Anthem reboot in the weeks and the re-announcement of Mortal Online 2, are starting to make for a trend…

The most popular MMORPG conversations of 2019 - I feel like a broken record saying this, but the success of a blog is not just about page views or ad impressions or click-through or conversions or all those boring things. It's also about comments…

Perfect Ten: The biggest MMO news stories of 2019 - When we sit back to look at the biggest headlines of the year, we don't have to look far. These are the stories that dominated the news, spurred the most discussion, and triggered the greatest fallout…

Mortal Online devs announce Mortal Online 2 (again) – check out the trailer! - Way back in February, Mortal Online developer Star Vault announced it was following up that first MMORPG and its 2018 battle royale spinoff with another sequel: Mortal Online 2. At the time, the studio not only…

Hearthstone’s Descent of Dragons expansions launches while Overwatch gets Christmasy - With a name like Blizzard, you gotta know that this studio loves its winter season. It's a busy week for the company, starting with the fact that Hearthstone just pushed its latest expansion, Descent of Dragons,…

Overwatch 2 promises to deliver a ‘complete story with beginning, middle, and end’ - The sequel-cum-expansion Overwatch 2 has a number of things for players to look forward to, especially those who are more eager to try out the PvE side of things, but just what can we expect from…

MassivelyOP’s 2019 MMO swag gift guide - The Black Friday is upon us! (Angels and ministers of grace defend us!) Outside there are winter storms, flu viruses, and holiday traffic. But if you're looking for an MMO-themed gift for yourself or some special…

MMO Business Roundup: Amazon, gaming toxicity research, Blizzard’s court victory, and why people love Mike Morhaime - Business business business! We're back for another speedy Friday afternoon roundup of some MMO and games industry business news. Amazon's next big thing We're not sure why why anyone would look at the way the Stadia…

Overwatch’s latest PTR build brings an overall buff to armor and nerfs to shields - The latest PTR patch for Overwatch is bringing some pretty big changes to the tanking game. The latest patch notes outline some tweaks to armor and shields that appears to be making some waves for the…

J. Allen Brack says the Blitzchung incident ‘exposed some immaturity’ in Blizzard - It's a bit long in the tooth now with BlizzCon well behind us, but the Esports Observer published an interview with Blizzard's J. Allen Brack this week, and yes it touches on that "tough Hearthstone esports…

First impressions: Overwatch on the Switch is mostly just Overwatch Mobile - Before Blizzard's bit of October unpleasantness, I was genuinely excited for the Switch release of Overwatch, though somewhat confused since it's clearly so late in the game's lifespan. While some folks are still torn about the…

New Overwatch short story details what brought Mercy back into the field - The original Overwatch still has a bunch of heroes who never got a whole lot of further exploration, such as the almost ubiquitous healer Mercy. What brought her out of quiet retirement and back into Overwatch? Well,…

Overwatch’s Jeff Kaplan thinks Blizzard’s Blitzchung punishment was too harsh - Last week, it was players, game industry leaders, and congress against Blizzard in the matter of Hearthstone player Blitzchung's sentencing over pro-Hong Kong statements. Now, it's Blizz v. Blizz, as Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan is…

Overwatch’s ‘stagnation’ is the direct result of Blizzard working on Overwatch 2 - If it's seemed to you like Overwatch just hasn't gotten as many fun seasonal events or unusual updates for a while, that's because it's true. According to Jeff Kaplan, the reason for that is pretty predictable to…

China is really adding that youth gaming curfew and block on sex and gore in games - Sometimes it's easy to forget that gamers over in China have it very different than we do in the west. If you need a reminder to this effect, then how about new guidelines that the Chinese…

BlizzCon protesters remain unmoved by Blizzard apology as industry groups propose unified esports principles - If anyone was curious, no, many of the folks who protested BlizzCon live and in the flesh were not swayed by Blizzard President J. Allen Brack's live apology. According to a report from VG247, there are…

Blizzard says Sojourn was left out of Overwatch for so long for ‘story reasons’ - There is no story in Overwatch. Even if you didn't know this before somehow, you probably picked up on this fact because the addition of a story is one of the main features advertised for Overwatch 2. However, game…

Overwatch 2’s Jeff Kaplan opines about the demoralizing effect leaks have on a development team - All of your leaks around Overwatch 2 made Jeff Kaplan very sad. You probably already know that, since he made a point out of it during the opening ceremonies at BlizzCon 2019, but Kaplan went into…

BlizzCon 2019: Jeff Kaplan hopes Overwatch 2 will change how game sequels work - If you're thinking of Overwatch 2 as basically DLC with new PvE modes and some tweaked character models, that's understandable; while the sequel has no release date or pricing announced yet, it's a known fact that the…

Fight or Kite: PvP games to play if you’re still boycotting Blizzard - The past couple of weeks in the land of Blizzard have made for a wild ride. Some of us have extremely strong feelings and emotions regarding Blizzard and its handling of the whole Blitzchung situation (if…

BlizzCon 2019: When Blizzard prayed for rain and got a drizzle - So we all knew that this year's BlizzCon needed to be bigger than last year's BlizzCon. That was, on one level, not a high bar to clear; accomplishing that in absolute terms just meant having more…

BlizzCon 2019: Why World of Warcraft: Shadowlands isn’t adding a new class - If you were wondering why World of Warcraft wasn't adding a new class with its upcoming Shadowlands expansion, you are definitely not alone. After all, it feels like time for one, especially seeing as the last…

BlizzCon 2019: Diablo 4 promises no real money auction house and regular content updates - In the minds of many, Diablo III got a lot of things wrong. Whether it's the anemic update cadence, the decision to use colors other than brown in its palette, or the real money auction house,…

BlizzCon 2019: World of Warcraft Q&A liveblog - The thing about World of Warcraft Q&As at BlizzCon is that they're always some flavor of a mess, even when there are no political protesters standing outside the gates. We always get people asking some of…

BlizzCon 2019: Here’s how World of Warcraft is streamlining its leveling process - At BlizzCon today, the World of Warcraft team beat loud and often on the drum of choice during the Shadowlands panel, promising that players will have a greater leeway in compelling choices for their game experience.…

BlizzCon 2019: World of Warcraft Shadowlands deep-dive panel liveblog - Updates! Improvements! Theoretically making people less upset about still being knee-deep in Battle for Azeroth! The World of Warcraft update panel at BlizzCon day two is one of the things we knew was happening even before the opening…

BlizzCon 2019: Overwatch 2’s progression system allows for customizable playstyles - Don't fall too much in love with the new PvE story missions that are coming with Overwatch 2 because then you'd miss out on something equally innovative for this growing franchise: character progression. During Friday afternoon's BlizzCon…

BlizzCon 2019: World of Warcraft Shadowlands’ Covenants explained - World of Warcraft's Shadowlands expansion might not have been a total surprise when it was announced, but some of its features (as listed in the official trailer) have sure mystified fans. One word in particular seems…

BlizzCon 2019: Overwatch 2 panel liveblog - We're liveblogging from BlizzCon once again! Starting at 4:30 p.m. EDT, we're getting the second of a total of six "coming soon" panels for this show, this one on Overwatch 2. Watch the stream on Blizzard's…

BlizzCon 2019: Overwatch 2 angles toward PvE with co-op missions and hero leveling - It's the next evolution of Overwatch, and it's going to rock your trigger-happy world. At BlizzCon, the rumored Overwatch 2 was confirmed as a huge expansion upon the current game, adding PvE elements (such as replayable…

BlizzCon 2019: Diablo 4 reveal panel liveblog - We're liveblogging from BlizzCon once again! Starting at 3:30 p.m. EDT, we're getting the first of a total of six "coming soon" panels for this show, and this one's on Diablo 4. Watch the stream on…

BlizzCon 2019: Opening ceremonies liveblog - All right, here we go, just like before. It's time to kick off BlizzCon 2019, and we're kicking it off the best way we know how: with liveblogging. And we don't really know exactly what to…

Our complete BlizzCon 2019 coverage - BlizzCon 2019 is upon us, set against the backdrop of a boycott over the Hearthstone mess, but we're covering Blizzard's annual fan convention just the same, with liveblogs and analysis of World of Warcraft, Diablo III,…

Guild Wars 2’s analytics boss on why he hates having to create a ‘fun score’ for games - We all know that what's fun is pretty subjective, but it's the job of folks like ArenaNet's John Hopson to produce a "fun score" when performing user research. And he hates it. In a GI.biz op-ed…

Blizzard previews WoW’s BlizzCon esports as more Overwatch 2 leaks surface - Those of you who aren't concerned about esports for World of Warcraft will likely remain unconcerned with the announcement of the precise schedule for the Arena World Championship and Mythic Dungeon International at this year's BlizzCon. Those…

Rumor: Overwatch 2 to graft PvE gameplay onto the original - Is Blizzard preparing to pivot to PvE in Overwatch? It looks like this will happen, at least in part, with Overwatch 2. Rumors are flying fast and furious about the successor to the team-based shooter, which…

Overwatch now has a Tetris version thanks to the player workshop - Yes, that headline really is what it looks like. Reddit user Ochotonida decided to take the multiplayer shooter that is Overwatch and use it to simply recreate Tetris from the ground up. It's not some variant on Tetris in…

Leaderboard: Will Blizzard announce Overwatch 2 at BlizzCon? - Among the many rumors being kicked around about BlizzCon is the rumor that the company is gearing up to announce a sequel to its popular team shooter Overwatch. (Cue my husband making sad faces at me, since…

US politicians chastise Activision-Blizzard for its handling of the Hong Kong fiasco - If Blizzard thought its Hong Kong liberation fiasco couldn't possibly get worse than international headlines, a wide-ranging boycott, Riot Games' public pity, and a pile of canceled events, it was sorely mistaken. A bipartisan list of…

Blizzard finally decides to ban the college Hearthstone team that called for a Blizzard boycott too - Did it bother you that Blizzard had punished Blitzchung over his Hong Kong liberation stunt but planned to permit American University players who similarly protested the Hong Kong situation as well as Blizzard itself to keep…

Overwatch brings back Halloween today but cancels the Nintendo Switch launch event - For those who have not joined in the Blizzard boycott and are still playing Overwatch, the next few hours are going to be mighty interesting. Today will mark the return of the game's Halloween Terror event…

Blizzard solves its ‘one company, two policies’ problem by hiding pro players and canceling an event - While many gamers are now looking ahead to BlizzCon for its reveals after the Hearthstone Hong Kong esports fiasco, I'm far more curious about how Blizzard handles the inevitable backlash in person. What will matter to…

Players, pros, and politicians join in protest over Blizzard’s censorship of Hong Kong Hearthstone pro - The furor over Blizzard's ban of a Hong Kong Hearthstone pro player and apparent firing of two Taiwanese commentators has only increased since its widespread coverage yesterday. As we've covered at length, Ng "blitzchung" Wai Chung…

Overwatch is getting a young adult novel focused on Orisa’s creator, Efi Oladele - Those of you who know your Overwatch lore no doubt recognize the name Efi Oladele, the creator of robotic hero Orisa in the wake of Doomfist's attack on Numbani. She's getting to take center stage with…

San Francisco Shock wins the 2019 Overwatch League Grand Finals and $1.1M in a clean sweep - The 2019 season of the Overwatch League came to a close with yesterday's grand finals, which saw the #1-ranked Vancouver Titans square off against the #3-seeded San Francisco Shock. It would turn out to be a…

Overwatch makes small tweaks to a large number of heroes in the latest PTR patch - Just under half of the Overwatch roster is seeing at least some sort of individual tweak in the shooter's most recent PTR patch, and while the changes aren't exactly sweeping on a character-to-character basis, the sheer…

Australian police are investigating crimes linked to an Overwatch esports team - The obvious old joke to be made was that if esports were real sports, they'd be linked to organized crime. Alas, the joke no longer can be made, because it turns out that Australia's police force had…

Hearthstone’s Tombs of Terror, Overwatch’s Brick Challenge, and Blizzard’s Pencils of Promise charity sale - Even outside of World of Warcraft, Blizzard's been busy busy busy this week. First, take a peek at Hearthstone: The MMOTCG opened the Tombs of Terror last night, with its free first chapter for all comers…

Blizzard confirms Overwatch is launching on the Nintendo Switch on October 15 - The rumors were true: Blizzard is indeed porting Overwatch to the Switch in the form of the Overwatch Legendary Edition. The game will run $39.99 and include 15 bonus skins plus three months of the Nintendo…

A retailer release list doubles down on rumors for an Overwatch release on the Switch - With the next Nintendo Direct event for fans in the very near future, the rumors of Overwatch arriving on the Nintendo Switch are flying even faster. We already saw the branded case that accidentally went up on…

Today in bizarre gaming promos: Roblox and the NFL, Overwatch and Cheez-Its - Step aside, bubble tea and video game candles: We've got new weird cross promotions for you today. First, Roblox announced a partnership with the NFL. At first I wondered why the NFL would partner with a…

Amazon listing hints at Overwatch on Nintendo Switch - This is probably not how Blizzard wanted to reveal the latest destination for its hit team shooter Overwatch. An otherwise innocuous Amazon listing for a Nintendo Switch carrying case lit up the internet yesterday. What was…

Perfect Ten: Creating the worst MMO ever - Here at Massively Overpowered, we learn about some games, folks. We learn a whole lot about a whole lot of games! We know MMOs. And a lot of them make some missteps in the design phases…

Overwatch’s latest patch adds Sigma and a (briefly bugged) role queue - Another Overwatch patch has arrived, bringing with it a brand-new hero for players to fling at enemy teams. Or, perhaps more accurately, fling things back at enemy teams, since Sigma's whole thing is controlling gravity and…

Activision-Blizzard Q2 2019: Revenues dip again, WoW subs rise, expanded teams en route for Blizz - Remember in February when Activision-Blizzard posted record high financials but followed it up with a devastating round of layoffs? And then remember when the first quarter numbers arrived in May, showing that the company had seen…

MMO Business Roundup: Video game gambling, toxicity, post-lawsuit reconciliation, and successful UX design - Welcome back to another mish-mash roundup of MMO-business-related happenings that just don't fit in anywhere else. To wit: On game gambling: Remember the bizarrely bad optics of Rockstar putting a glitzy casino in GTAO in the…

SuperData June 2019: WoW’s back in the top 10 as Overwatch players have spent $1B on in-game content - There's good news for MMOs in the June SuperData video games global revenue charts, most notably the fact that a "real" MMORPG has finally returned to the top 10. We're talking about World of Warcraft -…

Overwatch’s next hero is an astrophysicist gone rogue - We have all known for years that the greatest threat to life as we know it are mild-mannered and well-intentioned scientists who trample in God's domain one too many times and then go sky-bonkers-cray-cray. So it…

Overwatch’s new role queue matchmaking system goes live on the PTS - In Overwatch, getting stuck with an imbalanced team can be rough, and good team composition can often make the difference between a hard-won victory and a crushing defeat. That's why the game is implementing the new…

Overwatch’s 2019 Summer Games kicked off today with Lucioball and new weekly events - Although we aren't slated for another Summer Olympic Games until next year here in meatspace, Overwatch players can prove their own virtual athletic prowess in the 2019 Summer Games, which kicked off today. In addition to…

Cheating cheaters and the online video game companies that fight them - I'm so tired of cheaters in video games. Well, I mean, also cheaters at life, but we're on a video game website, so today, my side-eyes are for those asshats who just keep ruining it for…

Overwatch’s latest development update promises summer games sooner and the next hero later - If you think you can predict what Overwatch will do next with its updates, the latest development update from Jeff Kaplan is here to puncture that image. Guess what? Summer games is coming out, but it's…

More eyeballs lingered on League of Legends than Fortnite this year – so far - So, battle royale - was it just a fad? Probably not, or at least, if it is, it's not even close to being over. But maybe it's not king. While we've been tracking Fortnite's revenue ever…

Mike Morhaime waxes nostalgic about the crunch of early Blizzard - Do you miss Mike Morhaime? The former Blizzard president stepped off the main stage last fall as he handed the reins of the studio to J. Allen Brack. Yet Morhaime hasn't gone into full retirement with…

Mike Morhaime on why Project Titan became Overwatch: ‘It sort of never really came together’ - We have a whole stack of these by now: these retrospectives from former Blizzard folks on what Project Titan could've been, had the MMO not been canned internally and then turned into Overwatch years ago. But…

Rumor: Diablo 4 and a new Overwatch game are seemingly confirmed by Blizzard Versailles employees - We've had persistent rumors about development on Diablo 4 for a long time now, thanks to Blizzard job postings and teases and leaks. And now, a French newspaper might have just confirmed that the game is…

Overwatch shares Baptiste short story and a dev video on its replay system - While players of Overwatch have likely gotten their heads around Baptiste as a playable character, and we've all gotten a little bit of backstory about him, there's perhaps some blanks to fill in for the combat…

World of Warcraft releases details for its upcoming Arena World Championship esports season - For those of us who dare enjoy esports events, the summer has a lot to look forward to, what with The International, DreamHack, the Capcom Pro Tour, and the continuation of the Overwatch League among other…

Blizzard cans another secret game after two years of development, this one a StarCraft shooter - Add another game to Blizzard's development graveyard. According to Gamespot, the World of Warcraft studio decided to cancel an unannounced game project that has been in the works for two years now. One of the project's…

Fight or Kite: First impressions of Nexon’s new multiplayer shooter Rocket Arena - Nexon's new crossplatform multiplayer shooter Rocket Arena came out of nowhere last month and surprised everyone with a closed beta this past week. It's a twitchy 3v3 FPS arena game - sounds familiar, right? But the…

Rumor: More high-profile esports figures are leaving Blizzard within the next two weeks - Remember just last week when the commissioner of Overwatch's premiere and eponymous league left his position? That alone was a bit of a surprise, but it in and of itself didn't indicate some sort of sea change.…

Overwatch League commissioner jumps ship for Fortnite esports - There's probably not a lot of lines to read in-between here, but then again, the commissioner and founder of Overwatch's premier esports league leaving to go to an entirely different venture is certainly intriguing food for…

Analyze your Overwatch games with the new replay feature - Overwatch players looking to step up their games now have another tool in their repertoires thanks to the addition of the new replay feature, which allows players to review their previous games and analyze their plays…

Overwatch third anniversary is live with new skins, free-play weekend, and new match modes - Overwatch's third anniversary is upon us, and you know what that means: a whole bunch of inappropriate or weird skins for your favorite heroes, and an anniversary-themed lockbox to dispense them. The game is also free…

Overwatch kicks off its third anniversary celebration on May 21 - It's almost time for another Overwatch anniversary celebration after a year of new heroes, new maps, and about five minutes of forward motion in the game's narrative. Starting on May 21st, the game is kicking off its…

Overwatch brings its new Havana escort map online - If you didn't get enough of the location during the Storm Rising event in Overwatch, then you're in luck. The new Havana escort map is officially live in-game as of last night, giving players a sunny…

Activision-Blizzard Q1 2019: Revenue has dropped by nearly a quarter since last quarter - It's now pretty clear that Activision-Blizzard's days of limitless growth and endless record-setting are over, at least for now, as the company's now-released financials indicate revenues down slightly (about 7%) compared to this same quarter last…

Vague Patch Notes: MMOs are not the same as your single-player games with servers - Recently, I've been trying to get into Bloodborne. This isn't a result of my disliking the Souls franchise as a whole, just that it's never quite overlapped with my particular interests. But I'm giving Bloodborne a solid…

Blizzard decides to skip Gamescom 2019 as part of cost-cutting efforts - The con circuit has always been a sort of expected course for games companies to run, like the Tour de France except with less bicycles and more people trying to get you good and hyped to…

BlizzCon 2019 announced for the start of November - It's almost time! All right, it's nowhere near time, but it will be time when November 1st rolls around for BlizzCon. The convention dates have been announced for November 1st and 2nd, complete with new pass options…

Overwatch introduces the Workshop to build truly custom game modes - Historically, one of the best parts of Blizzard's various single-player games has been building custom maps; it worked out well for Warcraft III, clearly, and people have long enjoyed producing what amounts to entirely different games in…

Overwatch’s next hero is not Sojourn, but a lot of people wish she were - You all remember how people were a little bit miffed about the introduction of Wrecking Ball/Hammond into the Overwatch lineup, right? To summarize very quickly, some players were a bit miffed that the game still doesn't feature…

Overwatch teases Havana map, breaks down Storm Rising event - Earlier this week, Overwatch cracked open the vault and let players dive in to the Storm Rising mission. In typical form, game director Jeff Kaplan has put up a developer's video talking all about the event.…

Overwatch assigns a new co-op mission today, code-named Storm Rising - Despite what you may think, Overwatch's heroes aren't always at each other's throats while endangering the populace around them. Not always. Once in a while, a co-op mission emerges that points everyone in the same direction:…

Overwatch announces its upcoming Archives event, Storm Rising, with new lore teasers - (We've updated the end of this piece with the formal announcement.) The folks at Blizzard have dropped a pair of mysterious Overwatch lore teasers, serving as an announcement of the 2019 Archives event and perhaps even…

MMO Business Roundup: Philly’s Overwatch arena, the PUBG Netease settlement, and GDC’s record showing - Welcome back to the MMO Business Roundup! Remember about a year ago when the battle royale industry started trying to sue everyone into oblivion? PUBG Corp. sued Netease, accusing it of cloning PUBG in its Knives…

The player endorsement system in Overwatch has actually cut down on toxic behavior - It turns out that when you reward players for being decent human beings in Overwatch, there's incentive for people to continue being decent human beings. In other news, scientists expect the sun to continue the same "east…

Overwatch’s 30th hero, Baptiste, has officially joined the fray - The doctor will see you now -- you better hope you're on his good side, though. Overwatch's 30th hero, the combat medic Baptiste, is live this week, and he can give life just as quickly as…

Overwatch explores the lore and mechanics behind Baptiste before his live release - Good news, Baptiste fans, the new healer is going to be deployed to Overwatch's live servers within the next couple of weeks according to the most recent Q&A session. There will also be a one-week delay before…

MMO Business Roundup: Skyrim’s multiplayer mod mess, Neural MMO, and the rise of Overwatch League - Welcome back to another roundup of stuff happening in the gaming business world relevant to MMOers. Remember Skyrim Together, the multiplayer Skyrim mod that hit closed beta earlier this year and is raising gobs of cash…

Blizzard Roundup: NetEase on Diablo Immortal’s launch, plus news on HOTS, Hearthstone, and Overwatch - MMO Culture has an interesting translated bit from the NetEase conference call last week that homes in on Diablo Immortal, the game that was everyone's punchline for a few weeks back before games industry layoffs stole…

Blizzard deep-dives Overwatch’s new hero Baptiste as he enters public testing - Earlier this week, Blizzard unveiled Overwatch's 30th hero, the Haitian combat medic Baptiste who after being orphaned in the Omnic Crisis joined up with the villainous mercenary company Talon until a crisis of conscience led him…

Overwatch’s newest hero is Baptiste, a combat medic with a shameful past - Following a cryptic tease last week, Blizzard has officially unveiled the newest member of the Overwatch roster, Baptiste, by way of an origin story cinematic last night. Baptiste, like many others, was orphaned by the devastation…

SuperData January 2019: Digital gaming revenue is down across the board as Fortnite has ‘increasingly lumpy revenue profile’ - Hey so can we just get a do-over on January and maybe February? No? Sigh. SuperData's released its January 2019 report, and surprising no one, digital games revenue is once again down on PC, console, and…

Guns blaze in the City of Lights as Overwatch’s new Paris map goes live - What could be more romantic than a whirlwind getaway to gay Paris -- la Ville Lumière, the very epicenter of art, history, and culture? If your answer to that question involves the addition of gunfights between…

Battle Bards Episode 138: Wild wild westerns - Boy howdy, is it time for another highfalutin Battle Bards episode? Shucks, looks like! In this week’s show, the trio saddle up for a ride through the tumbleweeds and mesas of western MMO tunes. It may…

Activision Blizzard expected to slash jobs after flat sales, loss of Destiny 2 - Storm clouds are gathering above Activision Blizzard, a portent of bad sales and dire predictions: The publisher is expected to cut "hundreds" of jobs this week in an attempt to turn the company's fortunes around. Activision Blizzard, which…

Overwatch’s new Paris map is live on the PTR - The city of lights will soon be lit up in an entirely different sense as Overwatch players take to the streets of the new Paris map, which is now live on the game's PTR. The new…

EA cuts sale of FIFA currency in Belgium in ongoing lootbox legal conflict - Remember back in 2018 when Belgium cracked down on gambleboxes in video games, zeroing in on Overwatch, FIFA 18, and CSGO and ordering them to come into compliance with its gambling laws or face prison and…

Overwatch’s Lunar New Year event welcomes old maps, new skins, and plenty of nerfs as box price falls - Overwatch has officially joined the roster of games splashing out for the Lunar New Year. "From now until Feb. 18, you can ring in the Year of the Pig in Overwatch style," Blizzard says. "Collect hundreds of…

SuperData December 2018: World of Warcraft returns to the rankings, Fortnite takes the year - Back in December, hearts skipped beats over the realization that not a single Blizzard game made it into SuperData's top global revenue rankings for gaming in the month of November. It came at a remarkably bad…

Blizzard and Netease will be cranking out games together at least until 2023 - Chinese gaming giant Netease has popped up in the news over and over this past year. It poured money into SpatialOS and is building a VR MMO called Nostos. It's working with CCP on EVE China…

Overwatch releases a new short story and confirms that yes, Soldier 76 is gay - Poor Ana, she got a bit short-sold on her own short story. Yes, Overwatch's healing sniper gets her own bit of short fiction, but the biggest takeaway from the story for many fans has been the…

Blizzard is investigating Overwatch team’s ‘social experiment’ hoax [Updated] - The first female member of an Overwatch Contenders team is now also the first female player to leave an Overwatch Contenders team. Ellie had joined the team Second Wind, but after a barrage of comments regarding the legitimacy…

Overwatch semi-pro finals will require chat participants to link their Battle.net accounts - Gosh, it's really hard to get people to stop being screaming monsters on Twitch chat, huh? Blizzard has been dealing with this problem with Overwatch for a long while, and seeing as how that's the game…

Blizzard details new HOTS cadence, shames toxic Overwatch pros, and pays over 100 Irish staff to leave - Despite the recent news from Blizzard that Heroes of the Storm's development cadence is being scaled back, with some of its developers being shifted to work on other projects, the latest update from Production Director Kaéo…

There are no Blizzard games in the November 2018 SuperData games revenue ranking, not even WoW - I did a little double-take when I read SuperData's November 2018 games industry revenue ranking piece today, and not because the title and intro makes the industry look grim. No, it's because there are no Blizzard…

Overwatch’s Winter Wonderland is out, but Blizzard World is struggling - Holiday Blizzard World is live in Overwatch! Oops, nevermind! Well, it was live earlier this week briefly as the Winter Wonderland rolled out to the online team shooter, along with the Yeti Hunter brawl (five Meis…

South Korea now has a law criminalizing the act of boosting in online games - Let's say you really care about your competitive rank in a video game, but you don't have the time to actually practice and get good at the game to improve your rank. This is where boosting…

Overwatch’s Winter Wonderland will return on December 11 - The true meaning of Christmas is something you can use for any number of jokes, but the true meaning of winter is hunting yetis with superheroes who also have guns. Overwatch recognizes this, and so it's bring…

Blizzard sources dish on Warcraft Go, Diablo IV, Diablo Immortal, China, and Activision’s culture shift - Kotaku has a wild article up today ahead of the holiday with input from nearly a dozen anonymous current and former Blizzard employees spilling tea on Diablo, Warcraft, Titan, and... well, if you can imagine it,…

SuperData: Red Dead Redemption 2 and Call of Duty dominate October as Blizzard titles slip - Surprising absolutely no one, Red Dead Redemption 2 killed it (and the horse it rode in on) in October. According to SuperData's digital games revenue report for the month, the wild west game barreled into the…

The US Army is fielding esports teams for Fortnite, Overwatch, and more - In an apparent effort to connect with America's youth and drive up recruitment numbers, the United States Army has announced that it will be fielding its own esports team. The announcement comes in the wake of…

Shoot, shoot, shoot, bullet, bullet, gun! Ashe – and B.O.B. – are live in Overwatch - As I type this article, my husband's in Overwatch playing Ashe. In fact, he's in an arcade mode where literally everyone is playing Ashe, which is pretty funny from my vantage anyway - it's nothing but…

Overwatch’s new character Ashe sparks discussion on the roster’s diversity - There's been plenty of excitement over the announcement of new Overwatch character Ashe at BlizzCon 2018, but the new arrival has also sparked a bit of controversy around the subject of Blizzard's dedication to diversity in…

Blizzard talks Overwatch’s Echo character, big-screen ambitions, and crossplay potential - Most of the buzz coming out of BlizzCon's Overwatch reveals centered on the new playable bad-girl Ashe, who is totally not just McCree but a girl. Eurogamer's interview with Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan, however, covers much more…

BlizzCon 2018: What the heck happened? - Every year, I cover BlizzCon for Massively Overpowered. This is not new information; you've all seen my liveblogs running every year for quite some time. And the reception of any given year as well as my…

BlizzCon 2018: Diablo Immortal lore, zone, class, and Q&A recap - Blizzard's Wyatt Cheng and Matthew Burger took the stage for the Diablo Immortal Q&A panel at BlizzCon tonight, clearly aware of the drama swirling around the internet in regard to the game's announcement last night. "We…

BlizzCon 2018: Overwatch’s new anti-hero Ashe is super into doing crimes and voiced by Jennifer Hale - I happen to live with a relatively serious Overwatch player, and let me tell you, he was not remotely concerned about the fact that Blizzard flat out said it wasn't announcing a new map today at BlizzCon.…

BlizzCon 2018: Opening ceremonies liveblog - It's that time again, dear readers, a time of listening to staff members from Blizzard talk about the company on stage at the newest annual BlizzCon! And because everyone seems to enjoy it when we liveblog…

BlizzCon 2018: Get yourself ready with BlizzCon Bingo - Yes, it's time for another BlizzCon, and as always that means a lot of panels, a lot of nonsense, and... well, let's face it, a lot of repetition. Sure, every year is a little bit different,…

Blizzard’s esports mobile app is available now on Android and iOS - If you're a fan of Blizzard games and esports who wants to make sure you're always up-to-date on the latest news and events, then Blizzard has got the app for you. The straightforwardly titled Blizzard Esports…

Overwatch PTR changes suggest there may be a new hero inbound - Although Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan confirmed earlier this week that Blizzard will not be unveiling a new map at this year's BlizzCon, the latest PTR build of the game seems to contain some hints that…

Overwatch is not announcing a new map at this year’s BlizzCon - In a new developer update video posted yesterday, Overwatch Game Director Jeff "Jeff from the Overwatch team" Kaplan talks about some of the new content coming up for Blizzard's popular FPS title and gives players an…

Here’s how Overwatch’s Pink Mercy charity donations help fight breast cancer - It seems fitting to have used Overwatch's Mercy as the face of a charity for a medical cause, which happened earlier this year with the release of the pink Mercy skin sold to fund breast cancer…

MMO Business Roundup: Bethsoft Moscow, A:IR publishing, OSU esports, SpatialOS, and Square-Enix - Business business business numbers, is this working?! Let's dip into some of the scattered online gaming business tidbits of the week that might otherwise slip through the cracks. Bethsoft Moscow According to a press release issued…

Overwatch’s Halloween Terror 2018 event is now live on all platforms - It's already Halloween in Overwatch: Blizzard barfed pumpkins, skins, and creepy crawlies all over its team shooter this afternoon. "Welcome back to Overwatch Halloween Terror 2018! Overwatch Halloween Terror is live right now on PC, PlayStation…

Blizzard is apparently taking measures to foster diversity and inclusion at BlizzCon 2018 - Diversity and inclusion have been hot topics in the gaming industry for some time now, and it's one that Blizzard plans to put front-and-center at BlizzCon 2018. In an article recently published by Polygon, Blizzard's Diversity…

Overwatch teases its upcoming LEGO sets, players decry Pharah’s nerfs - She's weathered a lot of updates without being significantly changed, but Pharah is finally getting some big changes with the next Overwatch patch... and it looks like it's going to be a pretty big nerf. It's…

BlizzCon 2018: Blizzard reveals key panels for Diablo, WoW Classic - We're just a month away from BlizzCon now, and as it's the biggest last gaming con of the year that we focus on, we're as excited as you that Blizzard dropped the schedule of events last…

Overwatch’s Halloween Terror begins October 9, but don’t expect ‘dramatic new game modes’ - Overwatch has joined the short list of online games prepping their Halloween events nearly a month in advance: Blizzard announced this morning that Halloween Terror begins on October 9th, which means three weeks of terror. Six…

Blizzard targets third-party Overwatch apps, deep-dives Torbjörn rework - Blizzard is putting its foot down on the use of "unauthorized third-party applications" in its popular competitive shooter Overwatch, according to a recent post on GamesIndustry.biz. Announced in an official post by Overwatch Community Manager Tom…

Vague Patch Notes: Trickle-down metagames in MMORPGs - A while back, there was an interesting set of data coming out of a discussion about Overwatch. The discussion was about the concept of trickle-down meta, and the takeaway was just the most popular heroes in…

International regulators co-sign declaration to investigate lockboxes and skin gambling - If you thought Belgium and The Netherlands were going to keep on standing alone in the fight against lootboxes, you were very much mistaken, as the pile of new lockbox stories flooding my RSS feeds in…

South Korean legislation would make online sexual harassment a criminal offense - According to a recent report from PCGamesN, South Korean legislators are considering a bill that would make sexual harassment in online games a crime punishable by law. The bill, which was introduced by the Ministry of…

UK researchers identify link between lootboxes and problem gambling - Are lockboxes just another form of gambling? That depends on which government entity, scientist, lawyer, or doctor you ask. But maybe the question we ought to be asking is not whether they're legally gambling but whether…

Blizzard job postings reveal new unannounced project - Some new job postings on Blizzard's careers site seem to suggest that the World of Warcraft and Overwatch creator has something big in the works. Rock Paper Shotgun reports that the studio's careers site has recently…

BlizzCon reveals the first digital freebie and prepares for more pre-show build-a-panel fun - Begun, the BlizzCon has. Sort of. Yesterday's video reveal of what promises to be the first of several virtual freebies from the Virtual Ticket (an Overwatch skin dressing Sombra up as a Diablo III Demon Hunter)…

Check out the BlizzCon attendee swag before you catch the pre-show kickoff - Like Christmas, BlizzCon is arriving earlier every year. Yes, the actual convention doesn't start until late October, but there's a pre-show kickoff event taking place today, during which you can find out the in-game Overwatch skin…

Overwatch’s latest map, Busan, goes live today - Overwatch's latest map, Busan, is live as of today. The new map, which is located on D.Va's home turf of South Korea, may be familiar to players as the setting of the Shooting Star animated short…

Overwatch is headlining this month’s Humble Monthly Bundle - All right, where's the one person on the planet who does not yet have Overwatch? Who is it? Is it you, the person reading this right now? Well, you can get in on it on the…

Belgium begins criminal investigation into EA’s noncompliance with gambling laws as lockboxes remain in FIFA - Activision-Blizzard and Valve may have cooperated with European nations' lockbox demands, but apparently EA won't be playing ball. You'll recall that at the end of last year, Belgium's and The Netherlands' gaming regulatory bodies began in-depth…

Overwatch League signs on six more teams for its 2019 season - If Blizzard were to stop adding new things to Overwatch, it would die, like some sort of new content shark. That's already a known truism when it comes to characters and maps, but it's also true…

Esports in the Olympics isn’t happening any time soon thanks to ‘killer games’ - Over the last year or so, the idea of bringing esports to the Olympics has begun to sound more plausible. In 2017, the co-president of the Paris Olympic bid committee said it was considering video gaming for the…

Blizzard is disabling Overwatch and HOTS lockbox purchases for Belgian players - Earlier this year, Belgium took up the anti-lootbox cause, becoming one of the first countries to investigate lockboxes in online games and ultimately threatening to ban multiple games that it deemed in violation of its federal…

Gamescom 2018: World of Warcraft dives into Azshara’s backstory and hosts a concert - It turns out that Blizzard was saving something special for Gamescom 2018 after all. At the show, the World of Warcraft studio unveiled the third and final video for its Battle for Azeroth "Warbringers" series, this…

SuperData July 2018: Fortnite is peaking, League of Legends is bested, Overwatch is slipping - "Fortnite’s peak may be behind us," SuperData asserts in its report on July 2018's global video game revenues. "Fortnite revenue is up only 2% from June. Growth was modest despite Epic releasing Season 5 of the…

Gamescom 2018: Blizzard’s Overwatch D.Va animated short and Busan map, Diablo comic, and Hearthstone Puzzle Lab - Blizzard's been busy at Gamescom this year. As promised, the studio delivered the Overwatch goods bright and early this morning for the Cologne audience: It revealed both the new Shooting Star animated short, which focuses on…

Overwatch teases LEGO crossover with half a dozen minifigs, animated short coming tomorrow - Blizzard dropped a fun teaser in the middle of Gamescom this week that seems to imply an Overwatch LEGO crossover. The brief video appears to show the outlines of Widowmaker, Reinhardt, Genji, Soldier 76, Mercy, and…

There’s a free Overwatch weekend in your future later this month - As a buy-to-play game, Overwatch has always had that financial barrier that's kept some potentially interested players at bay. For those who haven't taken the plunge yet, Blizzard is planning to tempt them with an extended…

The Overwatch Summer Games are back - You've been training for this moment all year long, and by "training" we mean "aggressively burping while sitting in your comfortable office chair." You're ready. You have the makings of a champion, so get out on…

Overwatch is bringing back another round of Summer Games in August - The Summer Games are back in Overwatch starting next week on August 9th and running through the 30th, according to a teaser tweet Blizzard shot out last night. It looks like Lucioball is returning too, given…

Activision-Blizzard Q2 2018: Acti-Blizz sees revenue jump, massive engagement without big releases - [AL:Hearth]Even in a quarter that didn't see a single major product or expansion release, Activision Blizzard made even more money than it did the year previous. The company's Q2 2018 earnings report showed that the mega-publisher…

Overwatch League finals did not draw eyes on ESPN - The Overwatch League finals were broadcast on ESPN, but odds are that if you watched them you did so on Twitch or other streaming services. And the numbers bear that out, too; it turns out that…

London Spitfire topped this weekend’s Overwatch League world championship as second season franchise buy-ins climb - The Overwatch League's first season grand finals have wrapped up, and the London Spitfire has emerged as the world victor. The Spitfire shut out the Philadelphia Fusion by the end of the second match with a…

Blizzard and Riot attended the International Olympic Committee’s e-sports summit this past weekend - Over the last year, we've seen a ramp-up of high-level chatter about bringing e-sports to the Olympics. Last summer the co-president of the Paris Olympic bid committee told the AP that it was considering video gaming for…

Overwatch’s Wrecking Ball is already kicking ass and taking names - When my husband logged off Overwatch last night, he put down his headset and said, "Yeah, Wrecking Ball is amazing, and I can't wait to see how good people get at him. Other people, not me."…

SuperData suggests Fortnite is ‘cannibalizing’ top online games as Epic’s value reaches $14B - Last week, SuperData released a thinkpiece on how Fortnite isn't necessarily destroying the rest of the gaming industry, but hold up because this week it's focusing on games that are indeed floundering in Epic's wake. "Despite…

Overwatch is performing a little surgery on its healers and planning another free PC weekend - Healers are important in Overwatch, but they also have the potential to get out of hand. Sure, it's good to be able to patch up your teammates, but it's not fun to play a match where…

World of Warcraft’s pre-expansion patch has a rough start as Blizzard levies bans and grants past content to subbers - The rollout of yesterday's pre-expansion patch for World of Warcraft could have gone smoother. Much, much smoother. During the day, many players were completely unable to log in, and the problem reportedly popped up on Overwatch's…

Overwatch’s Hamster hero hits next week - We're going to bet that a literal hamster ball (albeit a well-armed ball) as a hero is going to divide the Overwatch community. That's to be expected, but if you're on board with Wrecking Ball --…

Ubisoft is not here for Rainbow Six Siege players’ toxic behavior - Remember last spring when Ubisoft said it was getting serious about cracking down on toxicity in Rainbow Six Siege? The company said it was improving upon its existing chat monitoring system to "ban players that use…

Overwatch League gets ESPN and Disney XD television contract - Count this as a huge victory for Blizzard's attempt to legitimize and popularize its fledgling Overwatch League. The studio announced this week that it has signed a deal with both ESPN and Disney XD to exclusively…

Overwatch’s new looking for group system is a huge hit - Who would have ever imagined that a Blizzard game's looking for group tool would be a big hit with players? Overwatch only recently expanded its mindset to include LFG with the late June update, and so…

Overwatch players raised almost $13M to fight breast cancer in ‘Pink Mercy’ campaign - Remember last spring when Blizzard ran that big "Pink Mercy" charity campaign in Overwatch? The company's run the numbers, and it turns out Overwatch players are really generous, really pissed off about cancer, or really like…

Online games are avenues for hate group recruitment, according to former white supremacist leader - Playing a game of linking awful online activities to white supremacist movements is like the worst possible variant of the old Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game, but it's important to note. You know that guy…

Overwatch’s next hero is a… hamster ball? - Remember Blizzard's tease from earlier this week, the one that set the internet to speculating on whether a wrecking ball might be Overwatch's next hero? Blizzard is adding more fuel to the fire today with a…

Overwatch adds positive player endorsements and the looking for group tool - Who's a good-tempered Overwatch player? You! Yes, you are! And you know this because you just got an endorsement from some other player in the game. Wait, what are endorsements? These come from a new system…

SuperData’s May 2018 revenue report shows Fortnite slowing down, Pokemon Go picking up for summer - May 2018 was good to Fortnite, again, SuperData's latest global revenue report shows, but its growth rate may be coming to a middle. "Fortnite hits a new high but growth is slowing down," the research firm…

Overwatch: Another hacker sentenced, a new hero teased, and an algorithm patent sought - Way back in January, Blizzard Korea announced that it was working with Korea's National Policy Agency cyber crime unit to track and arrest the perpetrators of Overwatch hacking and cheating crimes, following an investigation that lasted…

Overwatch explains how the new group finder shouldn’t affect win chances - Absolutely no one likes to start a match in Overwatch and then immediately feel outmatched. It's easy to look at the game's upcoming group finder feature as something tailor-made to produce just that; suddenly it'll be…

Overwatch is adding LFG functions, player endorsements (plus a major Symmetra rework) - Acknowledging players who do well in Overwatch is a big part of what keeps players in the game, and to that end the latest developer update reveals that more tools will arrive to facilitate doing just…

Overwatch climbs to 40 million players on its second birthday but won’t comment on a sequel - Blizzard isn't being shy about touting Overwatch on its second birthday. Not one bit. And you know what birthdays call for in the games industry? That's right: One big honking infographic loaded with huge numbers! According…

Blizzard roundup: World of Warcraft lore, Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm balance, and Overwatch LEGO sets - Who's ready for some news about Blizzard? Because boy, there's a lot of it! Want some new World of Warcraft lore about Jaina? There's a new comic out to explain why she is the way she…

Overwatch’s second anniversary event, new FFA Deathmatch map, and new lootboxes are live - As promised, Blizzard is dropping a big anniversary event for Overwatch starting today as the game turns two, complete with sales and new loot. And yes, new lootboxes. The first one's free! "What better way to…

Overwatch unveils ancient Petra map, has fun with stop-motion animation for its anniversary - It's the start of an exciting run of Overwatch with the team shooter moving into an anniversary period. First up? A brand-new match called Petra that looks like it was recently the subject of an Indiana…

Paladins Strike admits to unwittingly using Overwatch art assets for promo - Someone done goofed up over at Hi-Rez. Players noticed that background artwork for the studio's mobile title Paladins Strike bears a striking resemblance to Overwatch's Lijiang Tower. And when we say "striking resemblance," we mean "it's…

Overwatch is getting official Nerf guns next year - It may be that your biggest irritation is that there are times in the day when you cannot play Overwatch and thus have no way to shoot people with Overwatch firearms. Fortunately, that shan't be a…

Overwatch plans second anniversary festivities, legendary edition, and freebie weekend - Dang, can you believe Overwatch is almost two years old? Actually, I can - I've definitely been listening to my husband gripe about Blizzard's algorithms while continuing to play, and it definitely feels like longer than…

Belgian Gaming Commission releases full report barring gambleboxes in video games - Back in 2017, at the height of mainstream outrage over lockbox shenanigans, Belgium became one of the very first countries to take the problem seriously (instead of just passing the buck). The Belgian committee assigned to investigate concluded…

Tamriel Infinium: Deep-diving the mechanics of Elder Scrolls Online Summerset’s Psijic Order skill line - [AL:ESO]Many MMO gamers - including me - are a bit underwhelmed by the next chapter of the Elder Scrolls Online. Although Summerset is not a bad bit of content, I have concerns about the amount of…

Overwatch fights breast cancer with a pink Mercy - I hope that we can agree that pink is, hands down, an awesome color. It's saucy, it's edgy, and it goes so well with black. Pink is also the color that represents the fight against breast…

Overwatch hackers see jail time in South Korea while competitive season 10 begins and Rialto goes live - If there was any remaining question, let's make sure you know that you really do not want to be an Overwatch hacker in South Korea. A group of 13 suspected hackers were investigated and arrested in…

Activision-Blizzard Q1 2018: WoW is actually outperforming expectations – time for a fourth yacht or no? - Reporting on Activision-Blizzard's endless piles of money is about as much fun as reporting on how fifty-bajillion-zillion people are playing fork knife. No, I said that wrong; it's about as much fun as taking a fork…

Massively OP Interview: Dual Universe demo shows off advances in city building, space travel - When you work in video games, you often get asked what new titles you are looking forward to. While experience has been teaching me to temper my enthusiasm, I do have one that I'm excited to…

Chinese authorities arrest 15 more accused PUBG hackers, fining them over $5M - Bluehole and PUBG Corp are apparently continuing their government-backed crackdown on PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds cheaters. Last week, PUBG Corp told Steam players that it takes cheating seriously and has upgraded its security measures. "In the meantime, we’ve…

Blizzard’s latest job listing suggests at a PvP focus in its unannounced game - If you love trying to speculate about the next title coming from Blizzard based on vague job postings, you'll be happy to know that another one is there, asking for a director with a passion for…

Belgium orders Overwatch, CSGO, and FIFA 18 to remove lockboxes or face criminal penalties - Back in 2017, at the height of mainstream outrage over lockbox shenanigans, Belgium became one of the very first countries to take the problem seriously (instead of just passing the buck). The Belgian committee assigned to…

Ohio college begins Fortnite e-sports team and scholarship - E-sports programs and scholarships at universities stopped being newsworthy years ago once they were a dime a dozen, but a new one from Ohio's Ashland University has caught the mainstream media's eye because it's reportedly the…

Overwatch inadvertently reveals lunar colony revamp for future patch - The relatively new(ish) Horizons Lunar Colony map in Overwatch is getting a revamp -- but don't tell anyone else because it's supposed to be hush-hush. Or it should have been, except that a version of the…

SuperData examines the lootbox controversy’s effect on EA and the gaming industry - How big a deal with the lootbox controversy that finally hit the mainstream last year? Pretty big, SuperData argues. In a new blog post, the analytics firm argues that "the loot box controversy hampered Star Wars…

Overwatch’s Archives event is live - It's time to move along the story of Overwatch in the game itself, which apparently means playing events that took place many years ago. "Forward" is a relative concept. "Blackwatch," however, is a rather firm concept…

The war on toxicity: Overwatch League and Rainbow Six Siege crack down - Are studios starting to wake up and take action against particularly odious instances of gaming toxicity in their products? Blizzard, at least, is working to police its precious Overwatch League, which certainly does not need more…

Overwatch examines ‘defining moment’ with Retribution event - It was one of the "defining moments" in Overwatch's history, and now Blizzard is going to take fans back to the past with its new Retribution event. From April 10th through the 30th, players can fight…

Overwatch devs consider harnessing machine learning to fight toxicity - According to a new Blizzard interview on Kotaku this week, Overwatch toxicity has a new enemy: AI. Jeff Kaplan says that Blizzard has "been experimenting with machine learning" in order to teach its "games what toxic…

Overwatch downplays battle royale potential, introduces Overwatch Archives events - Is Overwatch getting a battle royale mode? Probably not. Blizzard Game Director Jeff Kaplan told Kotaku that the team has actually seriously considered wedging a battle royale effort into the game, both because gamers constantly request…

Overwatch is bringing back the Kings Row Uprising event with new hints of story - Last year, players were treated to a hefty event in Overwatch with the Kings Row Uprising. It was a PvE mode, it featured hints about the events back when the organization was still in existence, and…

SuperData’s February 2018 revenue summary shows Fortnite’s dominance - Fortnite isn't just a hit for Epic: It's a hit for the whole industry. That's according to SuperData's latest report, which ranks PC, console, and mobile games according to their global revenues in the month of…

GDC 2018: Ready Player One Now, billion person gaming, and mitigating abuse - It's no surprise that Ready Player One was constantly being referenced at GDC 2018, especially in VR, AR, and MMO panels. It's not just because of the movie's release but because the tech involved is seeing a surge…

Overwatch is finally letting you block toxic jerks from your matches - There's very little more infuriating about reporting someone for being toxic, putting him on your mute list, and then finding that same jerk in your very next match. Blizzard's very likely going to let you fix…

Brigitte smashes into Overwatch - She's buff, she's beautiful, and she's bringing her modern-day squire style into the realm of Overwatch. She's Brigitte, the goddaughter of Reinhardt Wilhelm who fancies herself a squire. She's a heavily armored fighter who uses a rocket…

Blizzard teases decks in Hearthstone and characters in Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm - It's time for a whole lot of new characters to smash into the fray in Blizzard's various multiplayer offerings. Hearthstone doesn't have characters, per se, but it does have deck types, and the game's next expansion…

Blizzard’s Overwatch League addresses toxicity with fines and suspensions, while the Dallas Fuel drops a toxic player - Last week, we covered an ESPN piece in which the author called out Blizzard for sitting on its hands after an Overwatch League player signed to the Dallas Fuel, Timo "Taimou" Kettunen, was caught openly using…

Overwatch lists the most popular heroes in all of its various rankings - If you're unfamiliar with the term "trickle-down meta," the topic of this Overwatch thread likely won't make much sense to you. (In brief, it's the idea that if the top end players play a lot of…

StarCraft celebrates its 20 year anniversary with celebrations across other games - It's been 20 years since StarCraft was first released to the world, and as a result, Blizzard is taking the time to celebrate the anniversary. Where? Everywhere. Basically every single title has some sort of anniversary…

Ubisoft addresses Rainbow Six Siege toxicity, ESPN slams toxicity in Overwatch League - Ubisoft is sick of toxicity in its games, and to combat it, it's whipping out the banhammer as a "first step" in getting the playerbase under control. "Starting next week, we will be implementing an improvement…

Overwatch’s Jeff Kaplan explains Brigitte’s design, while Hi-Rez implies she’s a Paladins ripoff - If you're the analytical type, you probably started formulating a playstyle for Overwatch's upcoming hero Brigitte as soon as you read about her abilities yesterday. But you needn't just speculate, as the latest development video features…

Overwatch gives love to old heroes and reveals Brigitte in new origin video - Yesterday's Overwatch patch was all about the love -- at least, if you care about Mei, Sombra, and Doomfist. The three characters each got a buff to an ability or two, with Mei's freeze extending by…

Overwatch posts an in-universe letter hinting at its next hero - So, who's the next hero for Overwatch? We don't know yet, but there's plenty of room for speculation... and there's a little more food for that speculation with the latest lore release. Of course, it doesn't…

Massively Overthinking: Why doesn’t video game marketing reflect our demographics? - This week's Massively Overthinking topic comes to us from Steve, and it's a frustration for our team as well, I promise. "If the following statistics industry execs and analysts put out are true - that online…

Twitch pushes the Overwatch League through viewer promotions - Superheroes and streaming make for interesting bedfellows, but for fans who are used to watching a ton of Overwatch on Twitch, it's perhaps not that surprising. The two entities are teaming up for a series of…

Overwatch is hiring a creative writer for… reasons - Here is a riddle for you: What would Overwatch, a game that's so far featured far more backstory than actual ongoing story, want with a creative writer? That head-scratcher has many fans speculating this week. A…

Overwatch’s Kaplan discusses upcoming hero changes and the subsequent plans - The next round of hero changes for Overwatch is currently on the test server, so you can feel free to try them out if you're so inclined. What's not on the test server are changes to…

It’s getting more expensive to join the Overwatch League - If you didn't get in on the ground floor of the Overwatch League with a professional team of your own, just know that it's going to cost you greatly to join up in the future. This…

Overwatch invites you to a free play weekend - Forget roses and chocolates; the best way to tell a friend that you love them is a masterfully executed kill shot. So for this Valentine week, why not take a loved one into Overwatch for a…

Overwatch sets off fireworks and fun for the Lunar New Year - The Lunar New Year kicked off in Overwatch yesterday, ringing in the game's Year of the Dog. Above and beyond the celebratory atmosphere, Blizzard has plenty of activities for players to enjoy and loot to gain.…

Activision-Blizzard Q4 2017: Activision Blizzard boasts ‘record quarter, record year’ - With revenues and net bookings up, Activision Blizzard is riding high going into 2018. CEO Bobby Kotick introduced the Q4 2017 report by saying that it was "a record quarter to cap off a record year…

Overwatch’s lunar new year patch includes new capture-the-flag Thai map called Ayutthaya - Overwatch is once again taking its place among the small selection of online games in the west that honor the lunar new year, and in fact, this year's event in Blizzard's shooter is getting a brand-new…

Rumor: An Overwatch League team may have finally picked up Geguri [Updated: Yep] - E-sports blog Dbltap is reporting that Kim "Geguri" Se-yeon told her Twitch following that she has accepted an offer to play on a foreign team - the assumption being that it's an Overwatch League team as…

Guild Wars 2 makes SuperData’s top 10 list of ‘premium PC games by revenue for 2017’ - If you want SuperData's complete 2017 Digital Games & Interactive Media market brief, you're... not going to have to pay for it. It's free, or at least the "executive summary" is, assuming you're willing to put…

Best not be toxic on YouTube, Overwatch players, because Blizzard is watching you - Back in 2013, when Linda "Brasse" Carlson still fronted SOE's community branch, she made headlines for making SOE's anti-toxicity policies very clear. "If we know who you are and you're abusing somebody on Twitter, we will…

SuperData December 2017: Fortnite and PUBG kick butt, while Destiny 2 slumps - SuperData's December 2017 global revenue chart is out, and it's good news for the industry on the whole, as holiday spending was up by almost a fifth over 2016. On the PC side, we're seeing quite…

Overwatch’s BlizzardWorld map and skin bonanza are live - As I type this, my husband is sitting in an Overwatch queue grumbling over "unexpected server error occurred": Yep, it's a Blizzard patch day! Assuming you folks can defeat the login server boss, you'll eventually be…

Trademarks, copyrights, and patents: What they mean for you and for video games - Has the pace of news moved so quickly that we've already forgotten about Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene's statement that video games lack any IP copyright protection? Because that was really ridiculous. Especially since what he was referring…

Blizzard Korea helps Seoul cyber crime police arrest 13 Overwatch hackers and cheaters - The MOP comment crew was understandably creeped out by last week's news that Tencent was going after PlayerUnknown's Battleground cheaters by working with the Chinese police, leading to the arrest of 120 people in 30 cases.…

Riot partners with the Peach Belt Conference, Blizzard takes OWL toxicity seriously with suspension and fine - E-sports is continuing its rise in respectability: ESPN reports that Riot Games has partnered with the Peach Belt Conference, known to "real" sports fans as a creditable NCAA division II lineup. Teams from the dozen universities…

Overwatch heads off to Blizzard World on January 23 - Haven't you ever wished that you could bring your favorite Overwatch characters on a grand tour of every Blizzard game? Because... well, you sort of can in the upcoming Blizzard World map when it launches on…

Gamers argue Overwatch League has a representation problem - No matter what you're seeing up on the screen in this inaugural season of the Overwatch League, chances are really good that the people controlling (and almost all of the casters, it seems) are guys. This…

Blizzard’s Battle.net app gets an upgrade - The next iteration for Blizzard's launch application is here, and no, it doesn't include yet another name change. The changes mostly come in the form of quality-of-life improvements to the Battle.net application, such as being able…

Overwatch’s Mercy is shown none by Blizzard, plus news on Overwatch League - Mercy just can't catch a break. The Overwatch healer is due for another round of brutal nerfs, the latest in a long, long line of downward adjustments to the character by Blizzard. This time, her resurrect…

Lockbox roundup: MMO studios on ‘elegant’ lockboxes, legal issues, and the ‘cosmetics only’ angle - You know the lockbox thing is reaching saturation when there are so many things to cover we have to resort to a roundup. Nevertheless, for those of you who want to stay on top of developments…

Overwatch’s 2018 includes new heroes, maps, and better competitive play - Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan barely has recovered from his marathon chair-sitting session over the holidays, but the scruffy-looking nerfherder is back in front of the camera to talk about what's coming to the team shooter…

Overwatch plants Jeff Kaplan in front of a fire for 10 hours and hands out free loot boxes - Overwatch made a bid for players' attention this busy holiday weekend, and in some ways, it succeeded. For starters, Blizzard decided to gift all players with five free lootboxes (worth about $5 total). All you have…

Massively OP’s 2017 Blooper Awards: The best article joke that almost nobody got - Massively OP's not-so-serious end-of-the-year awards continue today with our blooper award for The best article joke that almost nobody got. And the winner is... A broken payload fuels Overwatch speculation about Doomfist Sometimes our writers will ask me…

Heroes of the Storm gets into a snowball fight and teases Blaze while Overwatch breaks out the comics - Enjoying your yeti hunts in Overwatch this holiday season? You can get a little more of the "backstory" of this event, such as it is, by reading a new animated comic book starring Mei and Mr.…

Blizzard throws a holiday sale for World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo III, and more - Have a few extra bucks that Santa and his corporate elves haven't pried from your wallet this month? Blizzard would like to tempt you to pick up one of its titles that are on sale from…

Rumor: Blizzard’s next title involves vehicles and may be an Overwatch spinoff - There's a title under development at Blizzard that's been hiring for a while now, but no one actually knows what it is. So when a new job opening goes up looking for people familiar in working…

Overwatch deals with trolls and smurfs - The complex and often times toxic environment of Overwatch continues to make the popular team shooter a source of controversy and attention. Even Game Director Jeff Kaplan seems fed up with it, publicly calling out a…

Massively OP’s Best of 2017 Awards: Best Not-So-Massively Game of 2017 - Massively Overpowered's end-of-the-year 2017 awards continue today with our award for Best Not-So-Massively Game, which was awarded to Overwatch last year. As you might surmise, the games eligible for this category are online games that generally aren’t considered…

World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm get into the seasonal spirit - [AL:Hearth]'Tis the season for so many Christmas events that you'll have to forsake all family and tins of popcorn to get around to them all. Blizzard isn't making it any easier on you, since pretty much…

Christmas happenings in DCUO, Overwatch, Worlds Adrift, and Neverwinter - [AL:NW]Faster than the snow can come down and the heating bills go up are all of the holiday events that are streaming into, well, pretty much every online game out there. While we're still a week…

SuperData says the e-sports industry grew to $1.5B this year alone - SuperData has a new report out this week that suggests e-sports haters will not be getting what they want for Christmas. "The esports market has finally hit the mainstream," the gaming analysis firm declares, echoing the…

Overwatch’s Tracer spotted in Ready Player One trailer - The official trailer is now out for Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One, and Overwatch fans may be pleasantly surprised to see a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo from Tracer herself. The sci-fi movie, based on the hit book of…

Ask Mo: Counting the hits and misses of our 2017 predictions - As we do every year, today we’re going to peer back into the depths of last year's staff predictions for the genre and the games within it to determine just how we fared. After all, what would be…

Overwatch snags two Game Awards while Destiny 2 is honored by six nominations - Did you catch last night's Game Awards from LA? If not, you probably didn't miss anything super-groundbreaking, although Overwatch did quite well for itself amid a crowd of mostly single-player titles. Blizzard's team shooter won two…

Overwatch teases new Winter Wonderland skins and Mei’s Yeti Hunt - Winter Wonderland is indeed returning to Overwatch next week on December 12th, and Game Director Jeff Kaplan is not doing anything to quell the anticipation for snowy antics. If anything, he's stoking the fire at the…

Overwatch League begins as Philadelphia Fusion pulls out - It's a less-than-ideal way for Blizzard's long-awaited esports league to begin. The Overwatch League preseason began this week, although not with all of the expected players. Philadelphia Fusion had to withdraw from the league at the…

Superdata’s October 2017 revenue report: Destiny 2’s and PUBG’s dominance - [AL:D2]Destiny 2 may be fudging up left and right, but it still sold a truckton of copies. That's according to Superdata, whose most recent revenue report shows Bungie's new baby holding the #4 spot for PC…

The Soapbox: The long tail of game development isn’t an excuse for gouging - Don't be too mad at Star Wars: Battlefront II. It's a symptom of a problem, not the cause. I mean, be mad at people dumb enough to put the blame for negative reactions on the press,…

MassivelyOP’s 2017 gift guide for the Blizzard fanatic - With the new expansion, official vanilla servers, and all of the other news from BlizzCon this year, it's a great time to be a World of Warcraft fan. But Blizzard has other games too! This year,…

Massively Overthinking: Are modern games too cheap? - This week's Massively Overthinking topic is a submission from reader and commenter camelotcrusade, who takes the industry's current fight over monetization in a different direction from lockboxes. "Are modern games too cheap?" he asks, probably slowly…

Overwatch kicks off a free play weekend across all platforms - Destiny 2 who? Overwatch is aiming to lure in as many of Blizzard's players as possible with another free weekend. The best part? It's already here, complete with the newest character Moira, so if you've never…

Blizzard considers an Overwatch movie - One of the persistent complaints about Overwatch is that for all of the animated shorts, comics, and CGI trailers that Blizzard has released, the story has been in arrested development pretty much since the minute it…

Blizzard’s Jeff Kaplan on WoW Classic and the Overwatch toxicity ‘strike team’ - Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan gave an interview on Reddit this week that provides an interesting perspective from an original World of Warcraft developer who defected to Overwatch. "I think classic is a great idea," he says. "I have…

Overwatch brings Moira to the test server - Fans of certain Blizzard games are going to be waiting a while - possibly even a year - to start playing the cool stuff revealed at BlizzCon. Others will have less time to wait. Overwatch fans,…

BlizzCon gamers react to, reflect on Overwatch toxicity - Toxicity in online gaming is easily one of the biggest stories of the year, particularly in Overwatch, where Blizzard has been focusing its anti-toxicity efforts with such persistence that it's almost become silly. And yet here…

BlizzCon 2017: Check out Overwatch’s rejected heroes - A cat sporting a rocket-powered backpack. A hang gliding alligator. A flamethrower-sporting monkey. A decked-out hockey player. A bowler. A flaming head. These were among some of the (thankfully) rejected ideas for Overwatch heroes. At BlizzCon…

BlizzCon 2017: World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth expansion live Q&A liveblog - Ah, here we go again. It's time for our final liveblog of BlizzCon 2017, and it's the World of Warcraft Q&A. And they're live questions, which means that there are going to be several questions about…

BlizzCon 2017: World of Warcraft art panel liveblog - Remember how last year, we got an enormous amount of art discussion during a panel that really should have been about systems? Or was it the year before? These things blur together sometimes. If you spend…

BlizzCon 2017: World of Warcraft gameplay and systems panel liveblog - The gameplay and systems panel is always very important to World of Warcraft. You found out long ago (well, a few hours ago) about the existence of World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, and now you…

BlizzCon 2017: Everything you need to know about World of Warcraft’s Battle for Azeroth expansion - Blizzard made several major announcements for World of Warcraft today that you probably need to know about if you're a current or even a former player who's been trying to decide whether or not to go…

BlizzCon 2017: Overwatch’s new BlizzardWorld map, support toon Moira - During this afternoon's BlizzCon 2017 opening ceremonies, Blizzard announced an epic update for Overwatch that you may not have seen coming, given the paltry number of Overwatch panels on the docket this year. For starters, the…

BlizzCon 2017: World of Warcraft what’s next panel liveblog - So let's be honest with you, folks: We are writing this before we actually know what happened in the BlizzCon 2017 opening ceremony. We know that in all likelihood, this panel is going to be all…

BlizzCon 2017: Opening ceremonies liveblog - True confession time: The original version of this post was just the lyrics to Lindsey Buckingham's "Holiday Road" with a poor phonetic transcription of the song's guitar riffs. But apparently this post should actually talk about…

BlizzCon 2017: Massively OP’s complete coverage - Check out all of our coverage of this year's BlizzCon, before, during, and after! We'll be liveblogging five of the larger World of Warcraft-related panels: On Friday, we'll be liveblogging the opening ceremony at 2 p.m. EDT,…

Activision-Blizzard Q3 2017: Destiny 2 tops console charts, WoW monthly users are ‘stable’ - If you were expecting big news out of Activision-Blizzard's Q3 2017 financial report... sorry to disappoint you, but you've probably heard the big news before, and that's the news that Destiny 2 is doing pretty well.…

Overwatch competitive season 7 begins, PTR sees more Mercy nerfs - If you missed it in between all the releases about the many e-sports teams vying for the top of the heap in Overwatch's e-sports league, season seven of the actual game's competitive mode began this week,…

Economist argues that the ESRB is wilfully promoting gambling to children - If you've been following the lockbox/lootbox controversy over the last couple of weeks (or last multiple years, ahem), then you know that opponents of the practice in online games seldom actually argue "for the children" since…

BlizzCon 2017 is almost here, and the lineup is set - Guess what, folks: It's almost that time again. BlizzCon 2017 is almost here, featuring all the stuff Blizzard has to discuss about World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, and... Dabble III and Stay-caff…

Overwatch reveals its plans to improve its e-sports viewing experience - Are you a lurker, a spectator, a lookie-loo when it comes to Overwatch? For fans of the game who love to watch matches yet have a hard time following the frantic fighting, Blizzard has a few…

SuperData says PUBG has now topped both WoW and Crossfire in global revenue - [AL:PUBG]SuperData announced this morning that PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds continues to work its way up the revenue charts, now passing up even Crossfire. We presume the tweet is a sneak-peek at the company's September report, as it traditionally releases…

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds passes up League of Legends in Korean PC bangs - [AL:PUBG]If you are not at least keeping an eye on PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and how it's currently disrupting the entire online gaming market, you probably should be. Or at least let us do it for you. Today's…

Overwatch dings up to 35M players ahead of quarterly financial report - Blizzard just announced that it's just counted 35 million Overwatch players - not too shabby for a buy-to-play team shooter that started out by tossing half a dozen MMORPG development dev years down a drain. That…

Blizzard sues alleged Overwatch clone, bans World of Warcraft cheaters - Gone are the days when Chinese companies could get away with ripping off games left and right: Blizzard is going after another one of these alleged copyright-violating piles of crap. The game in question is mobile…

SuperData: ‘The esports market has finally hit the mainstream’ - In promotional materials associated with its new paid "Esports Scoreboard," gaming anaylsis firm SuperData - known best to our audience for its monthly revenue charts - has declared that "the esports market has finally hit the…

Daybreak is launching a pro league for H1Z1 e-sports - If you were wondering what Daybreak is up to as we have been, wonder no more: It's been putting together a pro league for H1Z1, which it is now characterizing as a "groundbreaking survival battle royale…

Overwatch kicks off Halloween, hires for a new game possibly set in the Overwatch universe - Halloween - sorry, "Halloween Terror 2017" - is live for Overwatch players this week and runs through November. After all, come November 1st, spooky stuff is just weird, right? That's Christmas season. Everyone knows that. Shut…

Junkrat is exploding into Heroes of the Storm - The parade of Overwatch characters porting straight over to Heroes of the Storm continues with the latest addition to the game, Junkrat. How does he play? Like Junkrat, that's how. He throws around lots of bombs…

Here’s the in-game swag you’re getting with a BlizzCon virtual ticket (including WoW mounts!) - How many of you buy the BlizzCon virtual ticket as much for the in-game swag as for the actual streams? Even if not, you're still getting the loot, and Blizz has just dished out just what…

Overwatch and Pokemon Go bring back Halloween terror - "The nights grow cold and monsters appear. A great evil gathers and Halloween draws near..." Oh yes, it's that time of year again. The sheer evil and dark spirits of pumpkin spice permeate everything, from breakfast…

The BlizzCon schedule is out, and it sure has some World of Warcraft panels - Again, we caution our readers, as we did yesterday, that there is not any official announcement of an announcement regarding the next World of Warcraft expansion, except that you can expect one next month. But boy,…

Overwatch’s Jeff Kaplan on how toxic gamers try to intimidate Blizzard devs - As the discussion and response to Overwatch's legendary toxicity problem continues, even the development team isn't spared from the impact of this, ahem, "passionate" community. Game Director Jeff Kaplan wrote a somewhat raw essay to tell…

Overwatch deals with ‘ban bug,’ publishes Zarya comic - Here is a fun bug indeed: Overwatch has a glitch that's been accidentally slinging seasonal bans at players who did not deserve them. It's not a particularly widespread issue, having only impacted about 200 accounts, but…

Blizzard releases a proper Battle.net mobile app for Android and iOS - What is going on with Battle.net these days -- if it is still being called that this week, that is? (It is.) It turns out that Blizzard's game platform is growing legs and strutting out into…

SuperData August 2017 revenue report: PUBG bumps WoW, disrupting PC market - SuperData's August 2017 global revenue report confirms what anybody even casually watching PUBG already knows: The upstart game that's kicking butt on Steam is the literal definition of industry disruptor. Over on the PC side, PlayerUnknown's…

EVE Valkyrie’s Warzone overhaul nukes VR requirement, adds capture-the-flag mode - EVE Valkyrie's Warzone overhaul is live today for those with $29.99 rattling around in their space piggybanks, unless you already own the game, in which case the update is freeeeeee. The new headline feature is an Overwatch-esque…

Permateam aims to reduce toxicity by avoiding random grouping in games like Overwatch and League of Legends - Players feeling the frustration and sting of random grouping in Overwatch and other e-sports games might have a new ally in the form of a permanent teaming service. Permateam, as the name implies, connects players with desired…

Overwatch: Fan designs an awesome Thai character, competitive bans start soon - Overwatch's next great character isn't a product of Blizzard's labs at all but the imagination of a masters student who whipped up a Thai hero named Tara as part of a school project. The result is…

Overwatch League adds Philly and Texas teams, will play at new Blizzard Arena - Blizzard continues raking in the big bucks for its grand vision of Overwatch League, adding three new teams to its roster this week: one from Philly and two from Texas. They'll bring the final total to…

Overwatch escorts players to the dusty and dangerous Junkertown - From the moon to Mad Max, Overwatch is keeping its playerbase on its toes as to the next destination for its endless battles. This week, Blizzard's team shooter opened up the new Junkertown map for brutal…

Overwatch is running a free weekend starting September 22 - Are you mollified by the latest statements that Blizzard is going to fix toxicity in Overwatch for real, we mean it this time, seriously? Perhaps you'd like to try the game out as a result? Then…

Overwatch’s Jeff Kaplan on how needing to babysit toxic turds slows down game dev for everyone - "I'm Jeff from the Overwatch team," the outrageously famous Blizzard game director Jeff Kaplan says in this week's Overwatch developer video. I get a kick out of it when he does that. In fact, he's back again…

Perfect Ten: The 10 tiers of MMORPG lore - In which we discuss varying levels of MMO lore effort and Eliot admits he doesn't remember the names of Pac-Man's ghosties.

WoW sells charity pet for hurricane relief, plus more on Overwatch’s Junkertown & Hearthstone’s Oktoberbrawl - [AL:Hearth]We've got a fun roundup of Blizzard's doings, so let's get started! The studio is selling a new "Shadow" fox pet with adorably huge ears for $10 in World of Warcraft's cash shop. So why is…

Here’s what is in this year’s BlizzCon goody box - Whether you're attending BlizzCon or not, you can be the proud owner of this year's BlizzCon goody box. Physical attendees get $10 off a box at the convention (which makes it $25 total), while everyone else…

Blizzard to open an e-sports arena this fall - Everybody knows that if you are truly serious about being a legitimate force in the e-sports industry, you have to own your own arena. It's just common sense. And soon enough you can marvel at Blizzard's…

Overwatch: Behind the scenes of the Mei short, 14th comic ‘Wasted Land’ - Everyone loves Mei; she's funny, cute, smart, soft, and just all-around cool. But she's different from the focus of previous Overwatch animated shorts because unlike her companions, she's also a scientist. We've seen shorts about soldiers,…

Underage Overwatch player lands six-figure e-sports contract - He may not be old enough to vote, but 17-year-old Jay Won is already making more money than you. Probably. Won, an Overwatch player who goes by the handle "sinatraa," just landed an $150,000-per-year contract with…

Overwatch opens up Junkertown and major changes to heroes on the test realm - The test realm for Overwatch is going to get trashed. The latest test realm patch is bringing players to Junkertown for a new escort mission as well as introducing major balance changes for Mercy and D.…

Overwatch is overhauling Mercy’s Resurrect to fix counterintuitive mechanics - Blizzard's latest Overwatch dev video suggests big changes for everybody's favorite pocket healer Mercy. For starters, her ultimate -- Resurrect -- will move down to the common tier and be replaced by a sweet new Valkyrie flying…

Gamescom 2017: Overwatch’s Mei-centric Rise and Shine animated short - Blizzard brought the goods to Gamescom this year, with trailers and announcements for almost every game in its stable, including -- and perhaps especially -- Overwatch. The team just revealed the game's latest animated short, Rise and…

Overwatch retools competitive mode, apologizes to Aussie fans - Overwatch is gearing up to tinker with competitive play once again, according to a new dev video from Blizzard game director Jeff Kaplan. He explains that the biggest change in season six will be that it's…

Drink in 20 glorious minutes of Blizzard Gamescom previews - [AL:Hearth]While it's no BlizzCon, Gamescom has become an increasingly important platform for Blizzard to share exciting news about its roster of games. And we're guessing that since you're sitting at home instead of strutting about in…

Overwatch goes all apocalyptic with its new Junkertown map - It's time to lock and load and do what video gamers do best: escort! Today, Blizzard announced a brand-new map for Overwatch called Junkertown that takes place in a Mad Max-style city. "Junkertown is an escort…

Overwatch promises that console reporting is (still) on its way - Remember how Blizzard said that a bad behavior reporting function was on its way to Overwatch's console edition? While the studio promised this week that the feature was being internally tested, the community finds itself more…

Ubisoft on Skull and Bones’ business model, ‘treasure chest’ lootboxes, and live events - If you thought that Ubisoft's Skull and Bones pirate MMO wasn't going to have lootboxes, seriously, what rock are you living under? (And is it comfy? And can you maybe scoot over and make room for…

Overwatch finally incorporates a deathmatch mode - While resistant for a long time about adding the game mode, Blizzard has finally acquiesced to bringing deathmatch to Overwatch. Game Director Jeff Kaplan explained in the announcement video that this became possible thanks to the…

Overwatch League expands again with teams from London and LA - Blizzard continues raking in the big bucks for its fledgling Overwatch League, adding two new teams to its roster: a London team purchased by Cloud9 founder Jack Etienne and a Los Angeles team picked up by…

Overwatch kicks off the 2017 Summer Games - Let the games begin! The Summer Games returns to Overwatch this week with a whole new twist and new rewards. Players can now travel to Sydney, where a special arena awaits for their fierce competition. The event begins today…

Activision-Blizzard Q2 2017: Destiny 2 outperforms Destiny, WoW ‘time spent’ improves over 2016 - We could practically copypasta last quarter's Activision-Blizzard report to this one and nobody would notice. That's because once again, it's the Blizzard segment of the company driving the revenue flow; Blizz's incomes rose 4% year-over-year to account…

Overwatch brings back the summer games with competitive Lucioball - After all of that Doomfist drama, it's good to see the colorful and crazy summer games return to Overwatch. The big addition this year is a new Sydney studio for Lucioball. The popular game is getting…

MMO researcher Nick Yee is ‘dispeling myths about female gamers’ - Quantic Foundry researcher and long-time MMO academic Nick Yee has an intriguing blog post out this week titled Dispelling Myths about Female Gamers in which he purports to do just that. Yee has been shuffling the data…

First Impressions: Splatoon 2 is a lobby shooter for socializers - After my hands-on at E3 and experience with the first Splatfest demo, I was a little concerned about Splatoon 2. I loved Splatoon 1, but something about the E3 Salmon Run fell flat, and after having experienced the full…

Overwatch’s Doomfist is finally here - Hear that, Overwatch players? That is the sound... of your doom! Fist! Bad introductory puns past us, it is true: Doomfist is now playable in Overwatch. The villain character has been anticipated by fans ever since…

The Soapbox: Getting to the heart of toxicity in MMOs - So we've gotten another post from a developer saying that they're going to really 100% be better about rooting out toxic players from their games. Seriously, we mean it this time. The latest one is from…

You are an Overwatch League free agent, starting now - Here's some news that should make you feel special. As of right now, as long as you're over 18 years old and play Overwatch, Blizzard considers you a "free agent" who can be signed on to…

Overwatch gets serious about bad behavior yet again – for real this time, they swear - Even Mercy can't save you from Blizzard's wrath for being a cranky player. The studio sat its playerbase down for a talk this week, saying that it was getting serious about bad behavior that is running…

Terry Crews just didn’t fit as Doomfist according to Blizzard’s team - Fans had an image in their heads about what Overwatch's Doomfist would sound like. It included Terry Crews, and it probably included him hollering about Old Spice while punching people despite the litany of trademark issues…

RuneScape is a massive hit on Twitch - Time and again, we here at Massively OP have noted how RuneScape seems to be incredibly underestimated by the larger MMO community. For how popular it is, it never seems to get the respect and attention…

SuperData June 2017: ROBLOX, GTAV, and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds are making bank - SuperData's global digital games revenue summary for June 2017 is out, and it's a strange melange of huge shifts and no changes at all. On the PC front, there's been movement at the bottom of the list,…

Blizzard adds a Diablo III senior designer, lays off audio director, and ends XP and Vista support - From zombies to demons, game designer Harrison G. Pink is no stranger to bizarre apocalypses. Pink formerly worked on Telltale Games' hit Walking Dead and Tales from the Borderlands titles, but nowadays he has a new…

Analyst Michael Pachter’s Overwatch League skepticism and other business tidbits - Everyone's favorite gaming industry analyst Michael Pachter announced that his firm Wedbush is "skeptical that the Overwatch League will achieve much success," noting that Blizzard's multiplayer online shooter is "difficult to watch," too expensive to buy,…

Overwatch’s Doomfist was born from a mere name - "From the very moment we announced Overwatch, Doomfist was part of the story," Game Director Jeff Kaplain said in a new hero preview video. "It immediately raised questions in everybody's mind: Who is this Doomfist guy?"…

NetEase and Kabam join Blizzard’s star-studded global Overwatch League - The ESPN report earlier this week suggesting that Blizzard has several agreements from big-name sports-affiliated venture capitalists to host Overwatch League teams across the US and East Asia has now been confirmed and embellished by Blizzard itself, with the addition…

Major sports VC companies invest in Overwatch League, Blizzard addresses meta balance - If you thought Blizzard's ask for its Overwatch League was absurdly high for your typical pro e-sports team sponsors, rest assured that they weren't the target market. Blizzard is after far bigger fish, and it's getting…

Doomfist punches his way onto Overwatch’s test servers - It makes sense that if you're expanding your popular team-based shooter, you'll want to introduce a character who punches really, really hard. Actually, it doesn't make that much sense, but Overwatch is a game with giant…

Overwatch teases Doomfist, lays out ambitious plans for e-sports league - Try not to act too surprised when Overwatch eventually announces Doomfist, as the studio isn't exactly being subtle in its leadup to the team shooter's next playable character. To wit, Overwatch posted a fake news report…

Warframe posts drop rates for all its loot, hoping to ‘start a trend’ - [AL:WarF]Warframe's Digital Extremes is joining the very small list of online game developers being transparent about just what's in their lockboxes, lootboxes, gambleboxes, lootcrates, or whatever you want to call them. In fact, the data dump…

Overwatch reveals design mysteries, sends out League surveys, and struggles with e-sports - A world as intricate and fanatically followed as Overwatch is bound to spark a question or two about its mysteries and secrets. In a new Ars Technica video, the dev team tackled over 11 minutes of…

Overwatch promises to reduce duplicate item rewards in lockboxes - Since the only real form of progress in Overwatch involves skins, there's nothing more frustrating than opening a few dozen lockboxes and seeing every rare skin be the same one... for a character you don't even…

Blizzard partners with Twitch for tourney coverage, gives away free Overwatch loot boxes - Two of gaming's forces are partnering up, at least for the next year or so, and players might come out on top of the whole deal. Twitch announced that it has signed a deal to be…

Overwatch is ‘go’ for moon landing with today’s patch - Super-intelligent apes and moon combat: What's not to love about today's Overwatch update? The Horizon Lunar Colony, Overwatch's newest map, is officially open for business. Players can enjoy the environmental storytelling while they fight through this…

E3 2017: Hands-on with Destiny 2 - [AL:D2]Like many readers, I was originally disappointed when Destiny wasn't released for PC. I'm not even a Halo fan but could see that the title had promise. Release, though, sounded just OK. I fed my sci-fi MMO-ish need with…

Overwatch begins booking trips to the moon on June 20 - Next week Joe and Jane Gamer can secure their own ticket to the moon itself -- granted that they are playing Overwatch. Blizzard is opening the airlock to its Horizon Lunar Colony on June 20th, and…

Blizzard has been ‘doing a lot of research’ to thwart Overwatch toxicity - You can easily count me among those who've been historically unimpressed at the way toxicity is managed in Blizzard games; the studio has a public history of insensitivity, and I doubt I'm alone in having a…

Rumor: Is Blizzard working on another shooter game – or an Overwatch expansion? - Strange as it is be to consider, but Blizzard might not be solely satisfied with the rampant success of Overwatch in the shooter market. VG247 notes that several job listings on Blizzard's site points to the…

Blizzard is using a loophole to keep selling Overwatch lockboxes in China - There's a law on the books in China that states you can't sell random loot boxes in an online game without disclosing the odds of each reward from said boxes. It seems that Blizzard has found…

Overwatch is about to propel you into a double XP weekend - Strap on those jet boots and wiggle into your spandex because Overwatch is about to send you careening on a course toward double experience. Starting tomorrow and running through Monday, June 12th, players will earn twice…

Overwatch reveals Horizons Lunar Colony map - One of these days, Overwatch -- bang, zoom, to the moon! And that day is coming very soon, as Blizzard just announced a brand new map, Horizons Lunar Colony. "Horizon Lunar Colony is an Assault map…

Overwatch teases new character, shuts down hope of solo campaign - There has been a development in the world of Overwatch that may point to the debut of a brand-new hero. Blizzard posted a lore update today in the form of fictional emails and blueprints regarding the fate…

SuperData April 2017: Smooth sailing for World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Hearthstone - SuperData's April worldwide digital video games market summary has arrived, and with it we get a glimpse into the top gaming studios. And only the tippy top. Irritatingly, World of Warcraft has once again been split…

How Overwatch was born in the ashes of Blizzard’s Project Titan MMO - A new piece out on the PlayStation blog is picking at MMO players' Project Titan scar. Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan explains that after the seven-year Project Titan MMO collapsed, its dev team was partially scattered, the remainder tasked…

Overwatch kicks off its anniversary event and slashes game prices - It's been a year since Overwatch launched, and in that time the game has added new heroes, new maps, and several limited-time events of varying popularity. So naturally, the best way to celebrate the anniversary is…

Blizzard announces Overwatch Contenders e-sports ‘development league’ - Blizzard has just announced "Overwatch Contenders," what it's calling a "development league for aspiring Overwatch League professionals." "Over the first year of organized Overwatch competition, we’ve seen an incredible exhibition of skill at Overwatch APEX in…

Overwatch looks forward to anniversary skin and more diverse story focus over the next year - To the surprise of basically no one, Overwatch has succeeded through its first year, and it should also come as no surprise that Blizzard is celebrating with new skins. After all, new skins get added to…

Overwatch celebrates first birthday with free-play weekend and GOTY edition - Overwatch is turning one year this month, so bust out your hipster camera and baby confections for a cake smash! Just kidding. Actually Blizzard is kicking off a huge promotion next week starting with a free…

Overwatch’s D.Va lands in Heroes of the Storm - D.Va fans now have a choice of two games to get their cute girl-in-a-mech fix. The Overwatch fan favorite made her way over to Heroes of the Storm yesterday, becoming the fifth import from the team shooter…

Overwatch launches several pricey art books this October - It's apparently not official yet as Blizzard hasn't sent out a press blurby, but Overwatch is getting a pair of massive art books this coming October 24th. According to the entries on Amazon, the $49.99 hardcover…

Overwatch League allegedly has a $20 million price tag to enter - Remember how Blizzard started to focus MLG in on Overwatch as an e-sports venue at the same time well-known teams started fleeing the scene? What was all that about? It seems it might be as simple…

Overwatch players rack up 145.5M Uprising matches - Now that Overwatch has wrapped up its two-month Uprising campaign, how did it fare? Quite well, as probably anyone could have told you. The lore-heavy event racked up over 145.5 million matches before all was said…

Blizzard focuses MLG on Overwatch as e-sports teams flee the game - Remember back when Blizzard bought Major League Gaming? This week, the studio announced it's putting MLG to use as the conduit for its Overwatch e-sports ambitions. "The new division, which will retain the MLG name, will…

Heroes of the Storm starts testing Overwatch’s D.Va - At this point, Heroes of the Storm really should stop pretending and just rename itself Heroes of Overwatch. Blizzard's underperforming MOBA is certainly capitalizing hard on the roaring success of Overwatch these days. Shortly after introducing Genji…

Overwatch: Hero leaks, lockbox probabilities, and Korean political humor - As Asian countries are cracking down on online games with lockbox gambling, gaming companies are complying with transparency. To wit: Blizzard's Chinese Overwatch website has published lockbox probability parameters. Here's the paraphrase of the translation: "Each…

Activision-Blizzard Q1 2017: Blizzard’s online games drove Activision-Blizzard profits last quarter - Activision-Blizzard can't claim "biggest quarter ever" for the quarter ending March 2017, but it continues to rake in huge sums of money, enough to at least claim "biggest first quarter ever" on multiple counts with the $1.73…

Fan-made Overwatch short explores Mercy’s backstory - If you've played a single Overwatch game with Mercy as your support hero, you've heard her rallying shout at least once - "Heroes never die!" That serves as both the title and the central theme behind…

Overwatch players get one extra day of Uprising - While Overwatch's most recent event, Uprising, was scheduled to conclude yesterday, it got a brief, second lease on life with a one-day extension. So what happened? Apparently, Blizzard mistakenly shut down the event earlier than planned yesterday,…

Superdata report shows Overwatch slipping, Hearthstone rebounding - Looking back at March's digital sales, the industry was up 15% year-over-year from 2016, Superdata Research reports. Mobile was the largest area of growth, while PC revenues remained "relatively flat." The report noted that Blizzard is…

Overwatch hits 30M players, makes Chinese free-to-play test plans - Blizzard has just announced that Overwatch has just counted 30 million players. That's buyers, mind you, as the game is buy-to-play. However, a limited free-to-play Overwatch is actually happening, albeit with two caveats: It's only going to be…

Heroes of the Storm overhauls game, adds Overwatch’s Genji, and gives away 20 free heroes - It is an absolutely massive week for Blizzard's Heroes of the Storm, so let's dig into all of the news. Yesterday, the game launched its Patch 2.0 overhaul, which contains an improved progression and rewards system,…

Overwatch pro player sees career ended over racist diatribe - It's probably not the best idea to start shouting racial abuse in the middle of a live stream if you're public figure with a pro gaming career. That's the lesson to learn from Toronto Esports player Matt…

A new job listing for Blizzard suggests another mobile title is in the works - Is there a Blizzard franchise you want to carry around in your pocket? Obviously, you can already play Hearthstone on your phone, but perhaps you'd like to play a version of Overwatch where you're tracking down…

Overwatch adjusts competitive win conditions for Assault maps - When both teams lose, who wins? That might sound like an oxymoron, but the latest Overwatch adjustment to competitive play is aimed at exactly that scenario. It's possible when playing on maps with an Assault component…

Overwatch’s Genji and Hanamura map leap into Heroes of the Storm - A fourth Overwatch toon is coming to Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard revealed today: The assassin Genji will join Lucio, Tracer, and Zarya in the MOBA, confirming earlier leaks. "Genji is an augmented cyborg ninja whose…

SuperData CEO discusses the money problem of e-sports - Whether you're a big fan of the e-sports scene or you would be quite happy never hearing about it ever again, you are no doubt aware that a lot of companies are sinking quite a bit…

Overwatch Uprising event is live today - So it's not called Insurrection. It's called Uprising. English has a lot of words that mean the same thing, so we'll forgive the leakers. Yep, Blizzard's just confirmed that Overwatch's new event, Uprising, is here. It's a…

Rumor: Overwatch leak reveals Insurrection PvE event launching tomorrow - Who had "PvE event" in the Overwatch teaser rumor pool? Oh, everyone? OK then, you all win, because that is indeed what appears to be happening. And we know this because the French PlayStation YouTube channel…

Overwatch releases a comic about the past; next hero is far along in development - The backstory of Overwatch could probably be a game in and of itself, considering that the game takes place after the eponymous organization formed, made waves, disbanded, and is almost somewhat reforming now. The latest comic…

Blizzard awarded $8.5M in Bossland WoW and Overwatch bot lawsuit - German bot company Bossland has lost another battle in its war with Blizzard, though that's to be expected since it didn't even show up for the fight. Bossland creates, distributes, and sells bots for World of…

Blizzard has opened an e-sports stadium in Taiwan - Blizzard already has an unlicensed amusement park -- so why not a licensed stadium? That's indeed exactly what the company has built in Taiwan. The so-called Blizzard eStadium (seriously, I thought this was an April Fools'…

Overwatch teases new content hinging on the King’s Row Uprising - Blizzard has begin teasing its next... something... for Overwatch both on social media and in cryptic messages to press. Reddit's current theories include everything from a PvE mode and outright civil war to a new map…

SuperData examines gambling practices across the online gaming industry - Gambling in video games has been a huge topic for devoted MMORPG players over the last year or so, as core MMOs like Guild Wars 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Elder Scrolls Online have…

Analysts peg Overwatch League at a potential $100 million in its first year - One of the big announcements from last year's BlizzCon was the addition of the new Overwatch League, a project Blizzard is using to help push competitive gaming and branding with a dedicated e-sports organization. It's still…

SuperData February 2017: World of Tanks perks up, Hearthstone is sinking - Happy SuperData day! That's the monthly holiday when we pore over the market analysis report, freak out over something doing well, freak over something doing poorly, and then fight over definitions, the evils of trusting paywalled…

Battlenet’s slow retirement, Overwatch toxicity, and Blizzard’s legal history with ‘modding’ - Last night's update saw the end of the Battle.net branding on the Blizzard launcher. You probably shed your tears back in September, when the company first announced it was retiring the Battle.net name and replacing it…

Overwatch’s Orisa is live today, Blizzard considers map editor - Tankbot Orisa is live in Overwatch today for those of you not too busy jacking into Andromeda. While she'll be accessible on all three platforms from the get-go, she won't be live in competitive play for a…

League of Legends on LGBT representation and pro team mistreatment allegations - [AL:LOL]League of Legends will probably introduce non-straight characters eventually, a new interview on Polygon with Riot Games' Greg Street suggests. The publication asked Street questions about LGBT representation during GDC 2017, noting that Blizzard's Overwatch (particularly Tracer)…

Blizzard seeks $8.5M from cheat software company Bossland - It's all fun and games... until you start selling software to help players cheat, then it's all lawsuits and court dates. Blizzard is asking the California district court to pronounce a judgment upon Bossland, the maker…

Overwatch previews Orisa, is unlikely to port to the Nintendo Switch - Overwatch is probably not coming to the Nintendo Switch, or so suggests Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan. He told Reddit last night that while he loves the platform, getting Overwatch Switch-ready would be "very challenging," but the studio…

See the origin of everyone’s favorite turret robot in the latest Overwatch comic - Who's afraid of a robot in Overwatch? Other than just about everyone, seeing as how an enormous robot war is pretty close to everyone's immediate memories. So when a random Bastion unit shows up, pretty much…

Jeff Kaplan chimes in on the power of Overwatch’s bird-watching robot and metagame balance - Do you think Overwatch has made Bastion too powerful? The good news is that yes, Jeff Kaplan agrees with you, as he's outright said that the team balanced him to be a bit too powerful right…

Overwatch announces new hero Orisa - At an art panel at GDC this morning, Blizzard confirmed that Overwatch's next hero is Orisa, a OR15 protector robot rebuilt and reinvented by robotics prodigy Efi Oladele. "Orisa serves as the central anchor of her…

Overwatch’s new season patch says it’s OK to change the rules - When Overwatch says that it has released its new game browser with its latest patch, that may sound like the most dull patch note in the galaxy. But what those milquetoast words hide is that this patch…

ARK: Survival Evolved rockets up Superdata’s January revenue rankings - The latest Superdata Research report is in for the month of January 2017, and in addition to an increase of 9.8% of digital game sales, several online titles are sitting comfortably in the top 10. One…

The Doomfist has been stolen on Overwatch’s test server - There have been hints of it flying around for quite some time from Overwatch datamining, but now it's happened. A Twitter update first posted that there had been an attack in Numbani, with several guard robots…

Hi-Rez addresses the Paladins pay-to-win uproar - The Paladins community has been flipping tables this week over the game's new Legendary cards and Essence currency, which players argue are blatantly pay-to-win. Hi Rez's latest patch essentially nerfed gold grinding -- and therefore, the…

World of Warcraft hatches hippogryphs, expands Nighthold, and continues token madness - The expansion of World of Warcraft's token utility continues to ripple across the entire Blizzard ecosystem, as prices remain high and supply occasionally runs out. Polygon has gone so far to posit that grinding out gold…

We may have already known about Overwatch’s next hero… for months - The next Overwatch hero is a quadraped Omnic named Anchora, and she appears to be a tank. This isn't a new announcement, though; it's from a leak that's months old. The question is whether or not…

Overwatch drops a hint about its next hero - The speculation about Overwatch's next hero is going to keep running for a while, but there are some signs that we may have more going on than we thought. For starters, fans were told that the…

Blizzard is changing Battle.net accounts in Korea to combat Overwatch cheating - The business model for Overwatch in Korea is very different than it is here in the USA, which means that there will be at least one person looking at it with longing. After all, there's something…

Blizzard launcher beefs up Facebook integration - Blizzard really, really wants its game launcher to be best friends with your Facebook account. The studio has introduced a new version of the beta launcher that beefs up and adds several features that interface with your…

Activision-Blizzard Q4 2016: Record quarter for Blizzard thanks to World of Warcraft and Overwatch - Activision-Blizzard's quarterly financial reports have gotten boring since the companies decided to stop reporting World of Warcraft subscribers in 2015, am I right? But in this case, boring is good. ActiBlizz's net revenues for Q4 2016…

A broken payload fuels Overwatch speculation about Doomfist - IS TERRY CREWS VOICING A NEW CHARACTER NAMED DOOMFIST IN OVERWATCH? WE DON'T KNOW! WE AREN'T THE CASTING DIRECTORS! BUT WE DO KNOW THAT THE LATEST PUBLIC TEST BUILD IS FUELING PLAYER SPECULATION THAT DOOMFIST IS…

Overwatch hypes its upcoming server browser - If you're an Overwatch player who enjoys creating and jumping into custom games, then you are probably salivating over the news that Blizzard is preparing a server browser to facilitate these matches. "There are a lot…

Heroes of the Storm shows off Lucio and new mounts/skins - At the rate Heroes of the Storm is currently going, we'll soon wind up with every Overwatch cast member in the game. Lucio is the latest character to make the leap, skating his way into the…

Overwatch team lobbies against using a mouse and keyboard on its console versions - If everyone can't have it, no one should. That's the stance that Blizzard is taking when it comes to using a mouse and keyboard to play Overwatch on consoles, as those players presumably have a huge…

Overwatch’s Lúcio joins the Heroes of the Storm cast - Who's the best character in Overwatch? Trick question; it's always Lúcio because bards are the best. Fans of this Brazilian master of all things sonic will be thrilled to know, then, that he's been confirmed for…

Overwatch celebrates 25 million players to date - Blizzard is popping the bubbly this week, as the studio is celebrating Overwatch reaching the impressive milestone of 25 million players. The team shooter crossed 10 million in June 2016, a number which climbed to 20…

SuperData: Pokemon Go sinks during record-setting December sales season - The analysts at SuperData have released to the public part of a report on December 2016's gaming industry today, calling December a "weak month for retail software sales in the United States" following its "worst December…

Mei’s slim waistline is a bug, Overwatch team says - If you're a big fan of Overwatch's Mei, you might have noticed that following yesterday's big Lunar New Year patch, Mei's Chinese New Year-themed skins didn't quite match her regular body. Blizzard, however, has said this…

Overwatch’s Year of the Rooster update is expected today - The downside of Blizzard's Overwatch teases is that they tell dataminers right where to look and leakers right when to strike. So it goes with the online shooter's Year of the Rooster content, which according to…

Blizzard defeats Bossland bot-maker in German supreme court ruling - Score one for Blizzard: The gaming giant managed a win in its long struggle against German bot-maker and plague-on-honest-gaming Bossland GmbH. The German Federal Court of Justice this week overturned earlier lower court rulings to determine that…

Overwatch heralds the Year of the Rooster event - In a pair of short teasers, Blizzard announced its next in-game event for Overwatch: Year of the Rooster. This Chinese New Year-themed event is kicking off next week on January 24th. "Good luck and great fortune…

Transformers Online is Overwatch with robots - In a perfect world, we'd already be playing a true Transformers MMORPG and enjoying every minute of customizable robots, on-the-go transformations, and roleplaying as slow-witted mechanical dinosaurs. Alas, our faulty world has yet to cough up…

Overwatch explains the goal of the PTR to players, and it’s not about balance - D. Va has taken a bit of a drubbing in the most recent Overwatch patch on the test server. Her guns do less damage and her armor is decreased; she's shooting more bullets and has more…

Overwatch’s test realm sports voice clips that hint at a relationship between Mercy and Genji - A new game mode has been added to Overwatch, and it's called Sinking Ships. The first round was when Blizzard established Tracer's relationship status with someone who heretofore had not been introduced, thus sinking both the…

Overwatch targets Mei cheaters - Overwatch players who have been tearing their hair out at a widespread exploit in matches will be happy to know that Blizzard has taken action to crack down on the cheat and those using it. Apparently…

Diablo III’s Darkening of Tristram ‘retrovision’ anniversary event is live - Classic ARPG Diablo has made its presence known across Blizzard's many franchises this week as it celebrates its 20th birthday, from a new cow level mini-event in World of Warcraft to Overwatch's Diablo-themed sprays. But the biggest celebration…

Overwatch activates its Oasis map - Welcome to Oasis: tropical paradise, Arabian aesthetic, and home to high-tech research skyscrapers. Oasis is also the newest map in Overwatch, which means that what used to be a peaceful city will now be invaded by…

The most popular MMORPG conversations of 2016 - Last week, we posted a rundown of the most popular MMORPG articles of 2016, calculated strictly by the number of pageviews they got. Today, we're going to take a look at the most popular articles of 2016 as…

Check out the bosses of World of Warcraft’s revamped Brawler’s Guild - The fate of Azeroth is on the line, and every single person in World of Warcraft is fighting to ensure that the world will survive for another day. Except, of course, for the players who are…

Diablo anniversary fever spreads across Blizzard’s library - Did you know that it was 20 years ago this week that the original Diablo released? Well, if you're playing any Blizzard game at all, you will be made well aware of this fact soon enough.…

MMO Year in Review: Carebear tears of Elyria (May 2016) - This year, we’re taking a time-machine back through our MMO coverage, month by month, to hit the highlights and frame our journey before we head into 2017. Overwatch may have captured the attention of the mainstream…

Jukebox Heroes: MMO music for the holidays - I absolutely adore Christmas music -- in moderation and in season. I keep to strict personal rules not to listen to it before Black Friday or after New Year's Eve, which for me keeps it special…

Massively OP’s Best of 2016 Awards: Best Popcorn MMO of 2016 - Massively Overpowered's end-of-the-year 2016 awards continue today with our award for Best Popcorn MMO of 2016, which is a brand-new award on MOP this year and was pitched by reader Agemyth. We're defining "popcorn game" akin to the way Mark…

League of Legends, Dungeon Fighter Online top digital sales charts for November - [AL:LOL]The latest edition of Superdata's digital games market research is out for November 2016, and while there are no great surprises here, it's always interesting to see which titles cling to the top 10 in PC…

Overwatch introduces its first canon queer character with a holiday comic - Everyone knows the pain of struggling desperately to get that one last gift for someone you care about. Even if you're Overwatch's super-speedster Tracer, as demonstrated in a new official comic, you can still find yourself…

World of Warcraft unwraps Winter Veil - Ugly sweaters and rumblings of the Abominable Greench are signs that World of Warcraft's Feast of the Winter Veil is back. From now through January 2nd, players can partake in the usual holiday festivities while enjoying merry…

Massively OP’s Best of 2016 Awards: The Pseudo-MMO of the Year - Massively Overpowered's end-of-the-year 2016 awards continue today with our award for Best Pseudo-MMO of 2016, which was awarded to ARK: Survival Evolved last year. As you might surmise, the games eligible for this category are online games that generally aren't…

World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Heroes of the Storm ring in the holidays - The holiday season is rolling out in many of Blizzard's games (although that Diablo guy is being a real Grinch about it), so as you peruse the launcher, here's a handy guide to what to expect…

Overwatch players use the 3v3 format to create hide-and-seek; holidays arrive Dec 13 - If you've ever played Monopoly with a child who doesn't care about anything beyond getting to play as the hat rather than getting everyone's money, you have learned the simple truth that games require the consent…

South Korea outlaws creation and distribution of game hacking programs - Think the worst thing that can happen to you for helping gamers cheat in a video game is a ban? Think again, at least if you're in South Korea. According to PvPLive, the South Korean parliament…

Blizzard cracks down on Overwatch aimbot cheaters - OK, cheaters, listen up. You're jerks, you're ruining the game for everyone, you're wasting developer time, which means you're wasting everyone's money, you're not as slick as you think you are, and eventually, you're gonna get…

Overwatch has traffic on its newest map, and it will kill you - Up until now, all of Overwatch's various shooty maps have taken place without traffic beyond the payload and the armored gaggle of freaks shooting at one another. That makes sense, since most traffic services would probably…

Overwatch player is the first to hit the level cap on his own - Fancy yourself a pretty good Overwatch player? You probably don't hold a candle to TaZzeRK, a player who has achieved a rather interesting world first: the first player in the game to hit the level cap, at…

The Game Archaeologist: EA’s Majestic - "This is not a game. Or is it?" Conspiracy theories and paranoia were hot with pop culture in the 1990s, largely thanks to movies like The Net and TV shows like the X-Files, which had the…

Overwatch strives to rebalance Symmetra - Overwatch players who avoid Symmetra like the plague might find themselves gravitating to her with an upcoming patch. Lead Designer Jeff Kaplan sat down with the community to announce a full-scale revamp of the playable character.…

Massively OP’s 2016 gift guide for the Blizzard fanatic - The holidays are almost here! Seriously, they're rushing forward at a rate of two seconds per second, or something. Which means that it's time to start buying gifts for the Blizzard fan in your life, and…

Overwatch frags its First Strike comic - Overwatch's "expanded media universe" just shrunk a bit this week as the team announced that it has canceled development of the First Strike graphic novel. Lead Writer Michael Chu broke the bad news to the community:…

How Project Titan and Overwatch prompted Chris Metzen to leave Blizzard - Months later, the World of Warcraft community is still coming to grips with the absence of Chris Metzen, who decided to retire from Blizzard at the age of 42. From the perspective of fans, his departure…

Overwatch content update adds Sombra and Antarctica - Are things cooling down or heating up? If you're playing Overwatch this week, the answer is "both, baby!" Yesterday's content patch went live for all of Overwatch's platforms, bringing a trio of welcome additions to the…

Overwatch hosts a free play weekend starting November 18 - All the talk about new playstyles and new heroes in Overwatch doesn't mean much if you never play the game. Are you tempted to jump in but unwilling to do so without a chance to try…

Blizzard discusses the failings of the Sombra ARG for Overwatch - The ARG surrounding Sombra's reveal in Overwatch was a bit dicey, even if you overlook stuff like players hacking other player accounts out of certainty that this was part of the game. (Note: It will never…

BlizzCon 2016: WoW’s Tomb of Sargeras and beyond to Argus - World of Warcraft's "What's Next" panel this evening more than made up for the game's lackluster mention during the BlizzCon opening ceremonies earlier in the day. Newly minted Game Director Ion Hazzikostas took the stage to…

BlizzCon 2016: Play Heroes of the Storm for Overwatch loot - Part of Blizzard's cross-promotional pitch at this year's BlizzCon has been dubbed "The Nexus Challenge," and let's be honest: It is a plain attempt to convince Overwatch players to give Heroes of the Storm a try.…

BlizzCon 2016: Diablo III’s Necromancer class and classic Diablo experience - If you missed the BlizzCon liveblog (or fell asleep before the ending), you missed the best part and the biggest cheers: Blizzard announced big stuff for Diablo III, including what amounts to an expansion (though it's…

BlizzCon 2016: You’ll never see Overwatch’s Sombra coming - It's time to get past the faux-surprise over Sombra's official announcement at BlizzCon to start getting prepped for her arrival. The newest Overwatch hero will take neon-tinted hacking and stealthy infiltration into the already-competitive battlefield. While Sombra will…

BlizzCon 2016: Opening ceremony liveblog - Here we go again, one and all: It's time for Massively Overpowered's BlizzCon 2016 liveblogs! It's a time-honored tradition, by which I mean to say liveblogs about BlizzCon are a time-honored tradition. It would have been…

Buy a Massively OP ‘MoCree’ Overwatch parody tee in honor of BlizzCon - If Massively Overpowered's Mo and the Sword & Bored comic crew went to BlizzCon, whom would they cosplay? "Over"watch characters, of course. Introducing the official MoCree tee! Designed by MOP's Larry Everett, our Mo-themed Overwatch parody t-shirt…

Activision-Blizzard Q3 2016: Blizzard claims ‘biggest quarterly online player community in its history’ - Activision-Blizzard's Q3 2016 financial report PR just released, surprising no one with record-setting piles of money and success. "The Activision and Blizzard segments had record combined third-quarter performance with $1.10B in net revenues, a 15% increase…

Overwatch ARG keeps teasing the game’s worst-kept secret - Unless you're a deep conspiracy theorist who has a hunch that Blizzard is preparing to spring the biggest mind-screw of all time, then it's hard to deny that Sombra is coming to Overwatch. At this point,…

Rumor: Diablo III’s Necromancer, Overwatch’s Sombra - As we barrel toward BlizzCon this week, speculation is running high over what reveals Blizzard might make at the show. Two of these are starting to come into focus, as sharp-eyed players have spotted a couple…

Here’s everything you can expect from BlizzCon 2016 next week - Every year, BlizzCon arrives. And every year, Bree and I sit down and liveblog about the most pertinent event for our readers to follow along at home because we love you. We just don't love you…

Superdata’s September report shows Destiny, WoW, GW2, SWTOR, and TERA doing well - Superdata's September games market report is up, and the console revenue rankings have a new old king: Destiny. Yes, Destiny has returned to the top of the pile. "Destiny highlights the importance of additional content releases…

Going to BlizzCon? Grab the mobile app today - Navigating the labyrinth of next week's BlizzCon activities, panels, and games requires some strategy if you're going to get the most out of your visit. If you're heading to Anaheim for the two-day event on November…

Jeff Kaplan discusses the future of hero balance in Overwatch - Are all of the heroes in Overwatch balanced? Probably not. Some heroes are a bit more powerful than others. But is that actually a goal? Director Jeff Kaplan weighed in on the future of balancing characters…

Blizzard releases free voice chat functionality for Battle.net - The Battle.net launcher -- while we're still calling it Battle.net -- now has a new way for friends to pester and poke each other. Friends can use the new Blizzard Voice function to set up voice…

Overwatch tops 20 million players in five months of live play - Even if World of Warcraft is back up to 10.1 million subscribers, that's far short of what its studio brother Overwatch has accomplished. The multiplayer team shooter recently crossed its 20 millionth player barrier, a feat…

Overwatch introduces the Halloween Terror event with PvE brawling and new item packs - It's time to get into the spirit of ghoulish glee in Overwatch with the new Halloween Terror event, and it's bringing more than just new skins and items. It's bringing that too, of course, so anyone…

Overeager Overwatch researchers hack actual accounts to find a fictional character - Account hacks happen. They're unpleasant, but they happen, and you can at least usually point to them happening for logical reasons. Your account got hacked because you bought gold? Understandable. Someone you used to trust hacked…

Rumor: Overwatch’s Sombra and a new PvE mode have been uncovered - Who is Sombra in Overwatch? In a way, you could say that we're all Sombra, but that statement wouldn't make any sense. A more accurate answer would be that Sombra is an upcoming hero who has…

Overwatch has two new heroes in development and more character adjustments planned - What's next for Overwatch? Well, not a version of Symmetra that heals, that's for darn sure. The latest video featuring director Jeff Kaplan covers a variety of topics and includes an enthusiastic statement that Symmetra will…

Paladins touts one million early access players, starts console beta sign-ups - Is Hi-Rez Studios' Paladins having a good week or a bad one? It's... kind of hard to tell, to be honest. It probably didn't help matters that the game's had to fend off accusations of being…

Superdata: WoW now charges a full monthly sub in China - Superdata's digital games market report for August 2016 landed in our inbox today. Those of you who've been consistently frustrated and confused over the way Superdata bins games might be happy to know that the research…

Battle Bards Episode 83: Triumphant Victory! - Triumph and victory — are they the same thing? Sometimes, but not always. On today’s breathtaking episode of Battle Bards, the team tackles triumphant (and victorious!) themes from MMORPGs, trying to nail down what, exactly, makes…

Jukebox Heroes: Great music tracks from MOBAs - If you were ever to go to Vegas and place a bet that I would one day become a dedicated, passionate MOBA player, any bookie would probably give you 1:6,000,000,000 odds against. So go ahead and take…

Paladins expands e-sport tourney after early access ‘Steam success’ - Hi-Rez is touting Paladins' successful early access open beta launch in a press release out earlier this morning. The studio says that "within the first week of Early Access Paladins rocketed into Steam’s Top 10 Games…

Overwatch puts its next patch up on the test server - Want to play with the next Overwatch patch before it's live? The game's next patch is currently up on the test server for PC players, so you can test out all of the changes for yourself.…

Heroes of the Storm goes full StarCraft with Machines of War - These days, it might feel as if Blizzard is all about one very specific game that involves worlds, wars, and angry things on fire. But Heroes of the Storm is going in a very different direction…

Paladins’ Todd Harris rebuts ‘Overwatch clone’ allegations - A lot of folks who'd never paid Hi-Rez's new shooter/MOBA Paladins any mind started paying attention to it last week when it soared into open beta. And a lot of folks suddenly realized the game looks pretty…

Chronicles of Elyria teases online store, taiga biome - Chronicles of Elyria's weekly update to Kickstarter watchers is brief, but it heralds the 2.1 release of the website, which now includes a private messaging system, better moderation tools, improved mobile support, and aesthetic enhancements. Soulbound…

Here are the virtual goodies BlizzCon attendees will take home in November - If you're headed to BlizzCon this year -- virtually or in the flesh -- you're surely anticipating the swag, much of which comes in digital form. I know I use my old murloc portrait border in…

Mercy gets less love in the latest Overwatch patch - Are you tired of seeing Mercy's Resurrection use as a Play of the Game in Overwatch? Because dedicated support players were probably pretty tired of seeing Torbjorn get Play of the Game highlights whilst he got…

Fan finishes up Blizzard’s Warcraft Adventures and releases it to the public - Video game history buffs know well that not every Blizzard project resulted in a launched game. Starcraft Ghost and Project Titan, anyone? Of particular interest to World of Warcraft fans is the cancelled 1998 title, Warcraft…

Overwatch’s Jeff Kaplan on team size and development time - There are around 100 developers working on Overwatch right now. That number comes from director Jeff Kaplan directly in a thread on the game's official forum, where he answers two big questions about the game's development…

Overwatch’s Eichenwalde map and Season 2 are live (gg ez) - Last night's Overwatch patch was hard to miss: It introduces a brand-new map, Eichenwalde, and implemented competitive play season 2 -- almost a week early, at least for PC and Xbox One (PS4 was delayed a…

Overwatch plans freebie weekend on console starting September 9th - Overwatch has a free-play weekend coming up for those five gamers out there who don't yet own the game -- at least if they're willing to play on console. Yes, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players…

Riders of Icarus has dungeons galore incoming - Give the Riders of Icarus team credit: It seems to be very gung-ho in pumping out more content for the relatively new MMO. So what's coming down the pike for the game? A new dev blog…

New report says South Korean MMORPG companies are ‘facing a crisis’ - The Financial Times blog has a doom-and-gloom report out this week on the gaming market of South Korea, specifically the MMO genre. "The country’s online game makers have long dominated the global market for massively multiplayer…

Superdata’s July 2016 data show Guild Wars 2 surging, Pokemon Go on top - [AL:GW2]Superdata's July report on online gaming revenues is in, and there are some predictable bits and some surprises. On the P2P MMO front, the lineup is exactly the same as last month, with World of Warcraft…

Overwatch spawns a mysterious ARG teasing Sombra - Overwatch fans have been chasing clues this month in what appears to be a Blizzard-backed viral ARG revolving around Sombra, the character teased earlier this month. The Overwatch forums played host to a big clue: the posting…

Gamescom 2016: Overwatch’s Last Bastion short - Live at Gamescom today, Blizzard pushed out another animated short for Overwatch as promised. Called The Last Bastion, it covers... well... Bastion. Or uncovers him, as the case may be. Watch on to see what we mean.…

Gamescom 2016: Blizzard plans to show off Legion and new maps for Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm - Unless you're living in some sort of video game-proof hole, you are probably aware that the mighty Gamescom is kicking off tomorrow and running through the weekend. It's one of the biggest trade shows of the…

Overwatch stares down the barrel of buffs, nerfs, and competitive play changes - Buffs and nerfs. Nerfs and buffs. They're a fact of life in any online game, but when it comes to competitive environments, even a hint of possible changes could send shockwaves through the community. Prepare to…

Overwatch bans public cheater mid-stream - Here's your dose of sweet, sweet justice for the day. A Korean streamer was using an aimbot in an Overwatch match while performing for the internet crowd when Blizzard's GMs caught wise to his act and banned…

Overwatch players are warned: use Lucio in Lucioball or face consequences - The whole point of Overwatch's Lucioball mode is that everyone plays as Lucio. The name of the mode is already "Lucioball," the only character you can normally select is Lucio; it seems pretty transparent that you…

Superdata’s June report shows Overwatch, WoW still on top - Superdata's latest report on the worldwide digital games market is out, and Overwatch owned the month of June on PC, to no one's surprise, with GTA Online "dominating" (their word) by showing up on both the…

Activision-Blizzard Q2 2016: Overwatch at 15M users, WoW sees growth - Activision-Blizzard has released its Q2 results for 2016. No, you won't be getting hard World of Warcraft numbers -- that all came to an end last year. But the company is happy to tout 491 million…

Perfect Ten: The ten things I look forward to with MMO launches - It's not long now until World of Warcraft: Legion launches, which is all that I've been waiting for now for a while. Sure, technically I could have experienced everything in the game so far in the…

Blizzard holds firm on Overwatch’s Olympic promotion - Players who want to collect all of Overwatch's limited-time Olympic goodies will have to deal with disappointment. Blizzard said that it will be staying the course on its Summer Games promotion in which players only have through…

Overwatch is heading to the Olympics in spirit - If you maintain some hope of wowing audiences worldwide with your skills at playing Overwatch, we're sad to inform you that playing the game is still not considered an Olympic event. You can, however, get some…

LawBreakers’ Titan looks like it could literally chew rocks - Nexon's LawBreakers has put out videos on the Enforcer and Assassin roles so far, and this week is the week of the Titan. Yeah, these guys are the heavies of the online shooter, the tanks with…

Overwatch banwave crashes into cheaters - For some of Overwatch's cheaters, August 1st could be the date that lives in infamy. From the sound of it, it looks like Blizzard triggered a banwave today that's reaching out far and wide to wash out…

Ana gets some big buffs with the newest Overwatch patch - Ana has gotten just a little bit more effective in Overwatch with the game's most recent patch. While she was considered fun, her healing/damaging shots weren't making her as effective as she should have been. So…

Threats against Blizzard Entertainment lead to a Sacramento man’s arrest - Maybe you're upset with the class changes in World of Warcraft. Maybe you're disappointed with character balance in Overwatch. Maybe you have specific heroes you want to see in Heroes of the Storm who keep getting…

Overwatch’s Jeff Kaplan discusses future plans and competitive mode - A new Kotaku interview with Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan has shed new light on the state of Overwatch -- you know, the game everyone played before Pokemon Go eclipsed the sun. The interview focuses heavily on the…

LawBreakers highlights Enforcer characters in new video - In is latest character video for LawBreakers, Nexon is featuring the Enforcer role. "Whether you are a LAW or BREAKER, get your run n’ gun fix by playing Axel or Kintaro," writes the studio. "[Kick] ass…

Blizzard is quietly fighting Overwatch toxicity - If you've started to notice that the community in Overwatch has started to turn vicious in the past few weeks, you're not alone. In an interview last week, Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan acknowledged that the longer…

Overwatch’s next hero is revealed as Ana - If you've been waiting until San Diego Comic-Con to find out the identity of Overwatch's next hero, you're in luck, because the news has gone out early. The next hero is Ana, also known to lore…

Overwatch tweet teases a new addition to the roster - One of the central elements of Overwatch is the fact that it's built around the careful, balanced interplay between its 21 characters. Naturally, players want to know when the 22nd character will be added. A new…

Blizzard sues Bossland again, this time for Overwatch cheat - Remember Bossland GmbH? It's the German company that makes bots like World of Warcraft's HonorBuddy for Blizzard's games, which Blizz has ardently argued violates its copyrights and costs Blizzard exorbitant amounts of money to fight in-game…

Battle Bards Episode 77: Spirit of Adventure 2 - Steff has decreed the return of spirit of adventure -- and so it shall be! In the second part of this theme, the Battle Bards explore adventurous and inspirational MMO tunes. Are we out of ideas…

Overwatch’s competitive play patch hits PC today - Blizzard is pushing out Overwatch's competitive play patch tonight -- but only on PC. Console players on PS4 and Xbox one will see the update next week. "We know this isn’t an ideal way to deliver…

Overwatch, League of Legends, and World of Warcraft top May Superdata charts - Probably no big surprise here, but according to Superdata Research in May, Blizzard and Riot Games are still kings of the online PC gaming charts. Overwatch was the MVP of May, raking in $269 million during…

Overwatch is tearing it up in Korea - We know that Overwatch has been more than the talk of the town, as the game almost effortlessly shot past 10 million units sold since its launch. What might not be common knowledge is that this…

Overwatch’s Jeff Kaplan explains the functionality of matchmaking - Matchmaking is a big consideration for Overwatch's competitive play. Sure, it's upsetting when a Quick Play match is filled with people choosing Bastion whilst you have no support or tanks, but it's just a clear sign…

Korean Overwatch player is cleared of cheating allegations - Have you ever met someone in a random Overwatch match and been absolutely certain that they must be cheating, that no one is that good? That's exactly what happened to a 17-year-old Korean player who goes…

Blizzard introduces an incredibly simple one-button authenticator - When it comes to safety, people often weigh the security of taking preventive measures against the annoyance of having to use them. The more tedious or lengthy a process, the more likely that a person is…

Overwatch expects the new competitive play to change after release - Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan took to the forums yesterday to share some of the plans for the game's continued development. Primarily on the table, of course, is the competitive play mode. Kaplan said that Blizzard…

Overwatch surpasses 10 million players - Blizzard just announced via Twitter that Overwatch has surpassed 10 million players -- that's 10 million boxes sold, at least half of them to my guild. Send help; I've lost them to another Blizz game! The…

World of Warcraft: Legion is getting an animated Illidan short - Considering that Illidan Stormrage is the origin of all of the Demon Hunters double-jumping around in World of Warcraft: Legion you wouldn't be surprised to learn that he's a pretty important lore figure. Blizzard revealed yesterday…

Superdata: WoW, Lineage, SWTOR, TERA, and Blade & Soul top April P2P online games revenues - Superdata has a new seasonal report out on the state of the digital games market. The research firm's April figures show that World of Warcraft once again dominates the pay-to-play online games market, followed by classic…

Overwatch’s updated competitive play system will be ‘much more skill-based’ - With launch and meteoric success under its belt, Overwatch and its team are hard at work on the game's next big update, which should arrive before the end of June. Blizzard Game Director Jeff Kaplan sat…

Blizzard and Facebook team up for streaming - Blizzard's just announced a new partnership with Facebook that will allow players to livestream their games on the social media platform and give Facebook some much-needed street cred amongst core gamers. Says the press release, "Adding…

WoW Factor: How to get ready for the Legion pre-patch - As of the time that I'm writing this, we don't know when the Legion pre-patch will hit World of Warcraft. I had to double-check that; these days, I'm never sure any longer. You would think that…

Overwatch racks up 7M players, bans 1500 of them - It's been a little over a week since Overwatch launched, and in that short time Blizzard's new team shooter has become a bonafide success in the market. As of yesterday, Overwatch passed its seven millionth player, which represents…

Heroes of the Storm turns one year old today - Overwatch may be the darling of Blizzard's eye right now, but a year ago it was all about the studio's foray into MOBA gaming. That's right: Today marks the first anniversary of Heroes of the Storm,…

Someone is already level 100 in Overwatch - Overwatch player FenderOverwatch has successfully reached the level 100 cap on Tuesday, just a week since its formal launch. You can all give up now. The feat took him 92 hours over the course of that week,…

Blizzard pushes Overwatch’s redesigned competitive mode to June - Update: Blizzard has corrected its tweets; the patch is June, not July. A series of tweets from Blizzard just before the holiday weekend have confirmed that Overwatch's competitive mode isn't coming until later this summer -- "mid-to-late…

Launch impressions: Overwatch is good, but it’s only half a game - The thing that bugs me about Overwatch is that it feels like half of a game. Unfortunately, it's also the less interesting half, the part that you turn to after you've milked the core game for…

Blizzard cracks down on Overwatch porn - Surprising exactly no one familiar with Overwatch's art style, people are already making porn of it. Rule #34, guys. PCGamesN ran the numbers and found that Tracer is the chief target, which again won't surprise anyone…

Perfect Ten: Apologies I must make to my fellow Overwatch players - Fellow players of Overwatch, I am sorry. I don't know your names because I tried very hard to forget them, but I am still very sorry about the matches that you had with me when I…

Analyst argues game devs are abandoning free-to-play in some genres - Red Fox Insights analyst Jake Parmley has another piece on Gamasutra this week, this one arguing that video game developers are "backing away from free-to-play" -- and why. Parmley suggests that the vast majority of consumers…

Get a quick rundown of the lore relationships in Overwatch - With 21 characters, 12 maps, and 0 actual in-game story, it can occasionally be difficult to place what's happening in Overwatch within the context of the game's lore. There's a lot of backstory there, but it's…

Overwatch shares plans for bringing back competitive play - Every match in Overwatch is, by its very nature, a competition. You have two teams struggling to complete an objective; it's not going to end in cuddles and nice words. But actual ranked competitive modes are…

Beta testers actually used Overwatch’s commendation system for good - Still feeling bereft of Overwatch in this period between the beta and the launch? Can't help you there, but Blizzard has expounded on its 9.7-million-people-played-the-beta statistic from last week with a new infographic. The studio says…

The story of Overwatch’s Hanzo and Genji plays out in ‘Dragons’ short - The archer-assassin Hanzo stars in the latest Overwatch animated short, which tells the tale of two brothers locked in eternal struggle. "Dragons explores the history of conflict between the scions of the Shimada clan: Hanzo and…

First impressions: Overwatch offers nothing new (yet), but I’m buying it anyway - I'm going to be blunt: I don't feel like a Blizzard fan. I know that may sound odd from the guy who plays Hearthstone more than any other writer on this site, but it's true. I don't hate Blizz, though. In fact,…

Almost 10 million people logged into Overwatch’s beta - Overwatch has swallowed my guild. Ever since the Overwatch IV drop was shut off at the end of open beta earlier this week, my guildies have been moping around as if they can't remember how to…

Surprise: Overwatch gives an extra day of open beta to all - Has your Twitter feed been inundated with talk about Overwatch this past weekend? You can thank Blizzard for making the game's beta open to all. And it looks like you might have to put up with…

Overwatch open beta is live until May 9th - Tired of just watching the people who get to shoot their way through Overwatch in its more selective test phases? You don't have to just watch any longer. The game's open beta starts today and runs…

Overwatch’s Winston: Are you with us? - Overwatch's Winston should probably not quit his day job, but you gotta love him anyway. Blizzard has a new Overwatch trailer out today featuring our favorite gorilla badass making a passionate plea for the return of…

Overwatch posts McCree comic book, talks about its birth from Titan’s death - It's going to be hard to escape Overwatch's presence this spring as Blizzard's multiplayer shooter revs up for release at the end of May. Part of the promotion for the superhero-themed game is coming in the…

Blizzard begins distributing Overwatch’s digital goodies - If you haven't noticed, Blizzard sure does love to cross-promote its games through special edition extras. Encouraging players to explore the entire Blizzard ecosystem is a sound strategy to keep the money somewhere in the studio's…

Journey down Overwatch’s road to launch with dev video - Overwatch's launch is just a little over a month away, and those are sure to be busy for developers. If you're curious to know what's in the plan for these upcoming 30-odd days, Game director Jeff…

Overwatch opens up all heroes for final closed beta weekend - Gotta play them all! If you've been itching to try out any specific Overwatch hero, this weekend might be your chance. On Friday and Saturday, Blizzard is inviting even more players to help stress the servers…

Overwatch walks players through the addition of competitive play - Are you ready to compete against other Overwatch players to see who is truly the best person playing the game? If you answered in the negative, well, this post is probably not going to change your…

Blizzard swapped Tracer’s butt pose in Overwatch with a… different butt pose - We're sure you're all still watching Overwatch's #tracergate with keen anticipation, so you'll be pleased to know that Blizzard replaced Tracer's infamous "butt pose" with the latest patch. [caption id="attachment_54636" align="alignright" width="150"] Original pose[/caption] Player complaints…

Heroes of the Storm previews Tracer’s mechanics - Cheers, Heroes of the Storm fans, the cavalry's nearly here. Tracer is dropping into the game for Overwatch pre-orders on April 19th, and a brief new video highlights how the shooter's erstwhile mascot will play once…

Overwatch’s second animated short features the assassin Widowmaker - Following Overwatch's first animated short featuring the superhero Winston comes a new movie that takes a look at the assassin Widowmaker. The six-plus minute video revolves around an attack in London and a battle between Widowmaker…

Blizzard alters Overwatch’s Tracer’s sexualized victory pose following player objections - Call it "The Great Butt Controversy of 2016." If you didn't see it pop up all over the internet last night, here's the deal: There was some hubbub around a specific Overwatch character pose that some…

Overwatch outlines its progression system and patches in new gameplay - Characters in Overwatch do not level. You can play nothing but Tracer day in and day out, and she's still going to have the same ability set from start to finish. But there is progression in…

Gorilla hero Winston headlines Blizzard’s first Overwatch short - For those still lost on the lore of Overwatch, Blizzard's upcoming shooter and brand-new IP, the company has begun pushing out a series of three animated shorts, the first of which, Recall, is included below. Recall…

Overwatch prepares expanded media universe - As if there isn't already enough excitement over the fact that Overwatch will be launching in a little over two months, Blizzard revealed yesterday some of its plans for an expanded media universe featuring the new…

How Overwatch’s Tracer will play in Heroes of the Storm - Game Informer's latest digital issue has the scoop on Tracer, one of the many Blizzard franchise toons being ported to the Heroes of the Storm MOBA. She's essentially a ranged assassin who never stands still and…

Rumor: Overwatch is releasing on May 24th [Confirmed] - Rumor confirmed! See below. Overwatch could be releasing a lot sooner than you think, if a web ad is to be believed. An ad for the shooter game popped up on IGN recently that pointed to…

Blizzard’s Jeff Kaplan on Overwatch’s ranked play philosophy - If you were hoping that the latest development video for Overwatch from game director Jeff Kaplan would reveal the ins and outs of the game's ranked progression system, you'll be disappointed. But it's not that he…

Blizzard eyes mobile development, player-created content, and faster updates for the future - When you think mobile gaming, chances are that super-casual (and extremely cheap) titles come to mind. Blizzard might be looking to change that stereotype, as its execs are publicly mulling over future mobile development with deeper,…

Activision-Blizzard Q4 2015: WoW sees ‘growth,’ Legion still on track for summer - Activision-Blizzard has posted its Q4 2015 financial report, touting record digital revenues up 20% year over year, thanks in part to game exports to Chinese audiences, but revenues were down quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year. CEO Bobby Kotick says…

Overwatch is back in beta with new progression, new skins, and a new mode - After taking an extended winter break, Overwatch is back to the beta grindstone once again. But it's not the exact same game that you waved a temporary farewell to before; the game has been updated with…

Overwatch’s beta revs back up next week - It's been a long while since fans have been able to duke it out in Overwatch's beta. The game's test went offline on December 10th and remained steadfastly so throughout the holidays and first month of…

Blizzard delays the return of Overwatch’s beta to February - Blizzard has delayed the return of Overwatch's beta, according to a post on the official forums today. Game Director Jeff Kaplan says that the tentatively planned resumption date of mid-to-late January isn't happening because the team…

Massively OP’s guide to choosing an online ARPG - Bored of MMOs, despondent about the industry, or simply looking for something a little different? Turning to something similar to MMOs, yet offering a new experience, is what's attracted many people to online action RPGs. MMOARPGs, or…

Massively Opinionated: Is Star Citizen’s ‘first-person universe’ really a new genre? - Larry hosts MMO Bomb's Mike Byrne in a debate over topics ranging from Star Citizen to Overwatch!

Overwatch’s theatrical teaser will give you goosebumps - "We are hope. We are honor. We are courage. We are justice. We are compassion. We are determination. We are harmony. We are Overwatch!" Thus sayeth the new Overwatch theatrical trailer. As these stirring words are…

New Overwatch video explains progression systems and the two that didn’t work - Progression is a nice thing. Everyone likes the feeling of being better in some small way after playing a game for two hours. When Blizzard brings Overwatch back from its holiday testing break, a progression system…

Blizzard promises future Overwatch maps and characters will be free - Blizzard's Overwatch team already has ideas for additional maps and characters that will come post-launch. What are they? Well, the studio isn't saying, but it did state that if and when any are developed, they will…

Overwatch beta is taking off for winter break - Everyone needs a break sometimes. It's a chance to step back, examine what's going on, take a few deep breaths, all of that good stuff. Overwatch's closed beta also needs a break, and is going offline…

Overwatch is running a weekend beta stress test from November 20th - The good news for you here is that if you aren't already in the Overwatch beta but want to be, you have better odds of getting in for a weekend of testing. The bad news is,…

Overwatch panel confirms gay characters, teases Blizzneyland - Just because Overwatch will be a team-based shooter doesn't mean that it lacks a story. On the contrary, Blizzard said that the game will boast a rich narrative that will illuminate the histories and personalities of…

BlizzCon 2015: Overwatch shows off three new heroes and Origin Edition bonuses - It's been about a year since we first heard of Overwatch at last year's BlizzCon. Since then, the beta has kicked off, and as of Tuesday, 82,000 matches had been played with an average length of…

BlizzCon 2015 opening ceremony recap, Warcraft movie trailer - BlizzCon 2015 kicks off with its opening ceremony at 2 p.m. EST (11 a.m. PST) today, and Massively OP liveblogged the festivities down in the comments. Now that it's over, we've updated the end of this post with…

Overwatch will be on consoles as well as PC - Overwatch will be playable from the living room couch as well as at a desk, as word has leaked out that Blizzard's team shooter is heading to consoles as well as the PC. GameStop said that…

Blizzard secures rights to Overwatch’s name - Overwatch's tagline is, "The world needs heroes." If we might amend that motto in light of a recent story, it should add "...but no more lawsuits, please." Blizzard recently finished up a legal fight to secure the…

Overwatch knocks down the closed beta door - Heroes, suit up: Overwatch's closed beta test for both North America and Europe is now live. While the test for the superhero-themed multiplayer shooter has commenced, Blizzard said that it is still inviting players in waves, which…

Overwatch’s closed beta starts tomorrow - Good news for Blizzard fans: Players might get a shot of seeing the studio's newest game a little sooner than expected, as Overwatch is going into closed beta testing tomorrow. "We were able to complete setup…

Overwatch’s beta starts on October 27 - Blizzard has announced that Overwatch's beta will begin on October 27th. The company is dividing testers into two groups: a closed beta crew and a beta test weekend group. The former will comprise the "core" testing…

Overwatch debuts on Twitch this week - Curious about Overwatch? If so, you'll probably want to watch Blizzard's Twitch channel on Thursday, October 15th. The studio will air 90 minutes of unedited real-time gameplay footage from its upcoming team shooter. The announcement post…

Overwatch designer Geoff Goodman on characters, balancing, and community maps - The experience of developing Overwatch is very different from that of other Blizzard games; it's a new IP for the company, and it's a different genre than any of its predecessors. Designer Geoff Goodman recently answered…

Battle.net gets Twitch integration, Overwatch gets some criminals - Do you want an easier way to stream Heroes of the Storm from the Battle.net client? Possibly in anticipation of the new skins and mounts that are in development? Good news; integration between the Battle.net client…

Perfect Ten: Ten MMO futures that never were - One of the things I spend a lot of time thinking about is Operation Unthinkable. For those of you who don't feel like clicking the link, it was essentially Winston Churchill's plan to start World War…

Gamescom 2015: Blizzard shows off new heroes and maps for Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm - Heroes of the Storm players are going to have quite a bit to look forward to in the near future. The game's newest map, Infernal Shrines, continues the Diablo theme of recent months with three lanes…

Ex-WoW lead Rob Pardo says industry devs are avoiding the ‘MMO’ label - MMOs aren't going anywhere, but the label may be on the way out. This comes from former World of Warcraft lead Rob Pardo, who said in an interview that developers are avoiding the term "MMO" like…

Overwatch unveils the mysterious Soldier: 76 - The big lore dump for Overwatch yesterday did not come from nowhere. Hot on the heels of that article connecting the mysterious Soldier: 76 to the supposed demise of strike commander Jack Morrison, a new hero has been…

Overwatch blog details the legend behind Jack Morrison - It's a little bit odd, on some level, that Overwatch takes place after the eponymous organization is dead and gone. Not unheard of, no, but it's still a little odd. Of course the latest blog is…

Blizzard and Netease partner for a Chinese release of Overwatch - You are probably not terribly worried about whether or not Overwatch is going to get a Chinese release for the same reason that most Chinese gamers are nor terribly worried about whether or not their new…

Overwatch shows off Zarya and Bastion gameplay in new videos - The early Overwatch gameplay videos continue moving through the cast with a robot that has the heart of a human and a woman with the heart of... well, still a human. But a very athletic human.…

See a pair of high-octane Overwatch matches - Got a few minutes? Then we've got some action eye candy for you, straight from the land of Overwatch. Blizzard recently released two videos of in-game matches featuring bespectacled gorilla Winston and lethal sniper Widowmaker. These…

Overwatch shows off the heights of Pharah’s abilities - Overwatch's Pharah is a pretty straightforward character in terms of play philosophy. She has a rocket launcher, jump jets, and a wrist rocket to break down barriers. Nothing super difficult to understand. But seeing her in…

Check out Overwatch’s Reinhardt gameplay video - If Overwatch were a tabletop RPG, Reinhardt is the guy who didn't bother listening to the setting information and just made a knight with a huge hammer. Still, it's hard not to like a guy who…

Overwatch shows off the turret-building gameplay of Torbjörn - Torbjörn, aside from having a name that's very satisfying to type when you're familiar with Unicode inputs, is a simple kind of guy. He doesn't rush into danger, he doesn't dance around, he doesn't dual-wield guns.…

See Overwatch’s Reaper in all of his dark, billowing action - Reaper's life in Overwatch is pretty difficult. His whole schtick is being dark and mysterious and wraithly and so forth, but that can't work well for him when, say, he just needs to stop at a fast…

There are six minutes of Overwatch shooting action in the Tracer preview video - You've already seen gameplay footage for four of Overwatch's fighters (Zenyatta, Mercy, McCree, and Hanzo) from Blizzard's upcoming team-based shooter. Now witness Tracer in action! With a youthful exuberance and a British accent, this dual-wielding hero…

Check out Overwatch’s Hanzo and McCree in action - Are you the guy who looked at Overwatch's character lineup and said, "Nah, get rid of that robot with twin chainguns; I want to play a guy with a pistol or a bow"? Hey, you got…

See two of Overwatch’s superheroes in action - Which Overwatch character are you going to pick when you get into the beta? That's a hard call to make before you can actually get in and sample each of them, although preview videos are the…

PAX East 2015: Overwatch aims for fall beta, introduces two new characters - Blizzard is breaking out the big guns for Overwatch -- in more than one sense of that term. The studio announced at PAX East today that it is aiming for a fall beta test for the…