It’s time for yet another set of news stories that make up a Bundle O’ Blizzard. A snow pile? Whatever you want to call it, there are multiple smaller headlines across the studio’s various non-WoW multiplayer games, so let’s try not to think too hard on what we would call this collection of news piece… snow drift! Yes, perfect.
We begin with Hearthstone, which will put out a new Embers of the World Tree mini-set on Tuesday, May 13th. This set introduces 38 new cards to the game, including cards with a smoldering mechanic that increases their strength the longer they stay in a player’s hand and new Druid cards that literally play with fire. In the meantime, the digital CCG has its tenth season underway with new heroes, a minion refresh, and the return of trinkets.
Next we turn our attention to Overwatch 2 and its all-new transmedia collaboration with Gundam Wing. Fans of the FPS can buy up skin bundles that transform characters into iconic mecha from the anime such as Tallgeese, Gundam Zero, and Epyon, assuming they want to mark the series’ 30th anniversary by giving Blizzard money, though there are some in-game challenges that players can complete to earn Gundam-themed cosmetics until May 12th, such as the Gundamari weapon charm. Assuming you’re able to tear yourself away from Stadium mode, which MOP’s own Tyler is finding to be a big W for the shooter. That stands for “win” here and not “wing,” just to be clear.
If you prefer your Blizzard gaming more pocket-sized, then you’ll be happy to note that Season 14 is underway for Warcraft Rumble, which introduces normal and heroic variants of Molten Core, brings several minis that were previously time-limited coming permanently to the GRID, the ability to engage in friendly 1v1 duels, and a smoothing of the mini XP leveling curve.
Finally of note, we turn to a Blizzard-related kerfuffle over voiceovers: Players of Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV found something was off with certain character voices, noting robotic-sounding voices for Spanish characters in D4 and the German voice for Mercy in OW2. This unsurprisingly led some players to accuse Blizzard of using AI generation to replace voice actors, but the studio clarified that’s not what is happening in both cases: The D4 lines were a placeholder bug while the Mercy lines are among “certain localized voice lines in some recent Blizzard game content [that] are currently unavailable or unchanged,” which suggests that situation is a bit pricklier.
