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Gamescom is back in August this year, and Blizzard have announced they will be present at the Xbox booth! And here's the full press release. gamescom Blizzard Entertainment® is thrilled to confirm their presence at this year’s gamescom, returning to Cologne in celebration of two of their hottest launches of 2024: World of Warcraft®: The War Within™ and Diablo IV®: Vessel of Hatred™. This year’s show promises to bring even more excitement, as Blizzard Entertainment will have a robust footprint alongside other Xbox Game Studios in the Xbox booth, as they come together t

Some great news for Chinese players, as Blizzard have signed a new agreement with NetEase, and players will be returning to their games as early as summer 2024! Most Blizzard games were suspended in January of 2023, with players losing access to their characters and being unable to play World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, Warcraft III: Reforged, Overwatch, the StarCraft series, Diablo III, and Heroes of the Storm, due to an expired licensing agreement. Luckily, a new deal has now been made! A lot of WoW players decided to re-roll brand new characters on Taiwanese and Korean servers af

According to WSJ, Bobby Kotick, former CEO of Activision Blizzard, has floated the idea of buying TikTok to potential partners. Former Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has reportedly shown interest in purchasing TikTok, as legislation in the U.S. threatens to ban or force the sale of the popular app over national security concerns. Kotick is said to be seeking partners for the potential acquisition, discussing the opportunity with notable figures including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The move comes amid growing scrutiny over TikTok's data privacy practices and its ties to China, with

Blizzard games like World of Warcraft, Hearthstone, and Overwatch 2 might soon make a comeback in China, thanks to Blizzard reportedly teaming up again with NetEase. The news comes from Core Esports, which suggests Blizzard's game services could be back by the end of March or the beginning of April. After 14 years of partnership, Blizzard and NetEase hit a rough patch in 2022, leading to failed negotiations. Consequently, when the licensing agreement concluded on January 23, 2023, Blizzard's game services were suspended across mainland China. For more details, you can check out

With Johanna Faires recently taking on the role of the new President at Blizzard, let's delve into the history of Blizzard Presidents from 1991 up to the present. Allen Adham served as President from 1991 to 1998. Mike Morhaime held the position of President and CEO from 1998 to 2018. J. Allen Brack assumed the role of President between 2018 and 2021. In 2021, Jen O'neal was named Co-Leader of Blizzard alongside Mike Ybarra. However, she chose to leave the company after just three months. Following her departure, Mike Ybarra took over as President until a few weeks ago

Blizzard Entertainment has named Johanna Faires as its new president, taking over from Mike Ybarra, who left the company last week. Before this role, Faires served as the General Manager of the Call of Duty franchise at Activision. She previously spent 12 years working at the NFL. “It is important to note that Call of Duty’s way of waking up in the morning to deliver for players can often differ from the stunning games in Blizzard’s realm: each with different gameplay experiences, communities that surround them, and requisite models of success,” "I’ve discus

In the wake of Microsoft's decision to lay off nearly 1,900 employees from its Activision Blizzard and Xbox divisions, there's growing speculation about a strategic shift in customer support for ABK games. Jez Corden, the Managing Editor at Windows Central, has shed light on this development through a series of tweets. Corden's tweets reveal that Microsoft is considering a major restructure in its customer support approach. According to his sources, the tech giant is contemplating outsourcing the majority of its internal customer support roles for ABK games to third-party companies based

We have some more news on today's unfortunate events at Blizzard, as Bloomberg's Jason Schreier explains the big reason the in-development survival game was cancelled. He spoke to people familiar with the project, and dives into what exactly happened below. It seems the big reason for the cancellation was the engine. The game, codenamed Odyssey, was in development for six years and was originally prototyped in Unreal Engine. At a certain point it was decided that the game would switch to Synapse, Blizzard's internal engine that was originally made for use for their mobile games, but was

Microsoft is laying off 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox. Blizzard President Mike Ybarra has decided to leave the company along with Blizzard's Chief Design Officer Allen Adham. Today is definitely a sad day for many at Activision Blizzard and Xbox. Microsoft has made the decision to lay off 1,900 employees in its gaming departments. Here's what Phil Spencer had to say about the layoffs: It’s been a little over three months since the Activision, Blizzard, and King teams joined Microsoft. As we move forward in 2024, the leadership of Microsoft Gaming and Activi

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is stepping down on December 29 and Microsoft is largely keeping the team of Activision Blizzard in place, with some executive-level exceptions, according to the Verge. Check them out! Here's Phil Spencer's internal memo, taken from the Verge, talking about some of the changes that are being made within the company. The Vice Chairman of Activision Blizzard, President of Activision Publishing, President of Blizzard Entertainment and President of King will report to Matt Booty, Head of Microsoft Studios. Earlier today, Activision CEO B

Blizzard President Mike Ybarra recently shared a 2023 recap, highlighting a year of significant learning, growth, and joy at Blizzard. He also shared his outlook for 2024. Between Azeroth and Sanctuary, over 1 billion characters were created. 150,000 Battle.net accounts have been active for over 25 years. The World of Warcraft team worked together with their community to raise USD $1.5 million for BlueCheck Ukraine Overwatch 2 celebrated Pride in-game for the first time ever, and joined forces for legendary crossovers with One-Punch Man and LE SSERAFIM . Warcra

Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer expressed a lot of excitement for the possibilities of reviving Blizzard franchises, according to an interview with Windows Central. Windows Central discussed the future of Activision-Blizzard games including dormant franchises like Guitar Hero, StarCraft, or Skylanders. Phil said he cannot directly compare Xbox's strategy in reviving niche games like Age of Empires and Killer Instinct, versus Activision-Blizzard's approach, as he wasn't involved in Activision's decision-making. Windows Central specifically asked if there are any plans to revive and

PC Gamer had the chance to talk to Blizzard President Mike Ybarra who said Blizzard's job is to satisfy impatient players who want "new stuff every day, every hour". Interview Highlights Blizzard is now adapting to the Microsoft Era under the umbrella of Xbox and Phil Spencer. The focus remains on maintaining their live service model. Blizzard President Mike Ybarra emphasized the challenge of satisfying players who demant constant new content. He acknowledged the high expectations of players for new updates and experiences on a nearly continuous basis. The live service m

Players getting the free to play Warcraft Rumble on their mobile devices were greeted with a nice bonus! The game released a day early and those trying it out today found a Hearthstone card back and the WoW Gnomelia Battle Pet reward just for starting the game! MiT_Epona posted the rewards screen, but the items are not yet unlocked in their respective games. Presumably this is due to the early launch and they will be arriving to players tomorrow, when Rumble was originally set to be launched. Source: Rumble battle pet inc (don’t have in game yet).

We're liveblogging all the important announcements and highlights from the opening ceremony. Check back often for updates! BlizzCon 2023 Opening Ceremony Highlights World of Warcraft Chris Metzen is now on stage talking about the next WoW expansion. The next expansion is titan-themed, light vs the void. The new storyline feels like the culmination of 20 years of storytelling. They are adding something called World of Warcraft: Worldsoul Saga which will cover multiple expansions at a faster pace. The first chapter is called World of Warcraft: The War

It seems the Rumble just couldn't wait any longer! The Warcraft mobile game was scheduled to release tomorrow, but Blizzard pushed the button early and it has begun rolling out already! Plenty of players are reporting seeing it in their stores, but it's a rollout so it may take a while longer to get to you if it hasn't yet. You can get the game here: Apple Store Google Play If you're unfamiliar with it, you can check out the game overview here and here's a couple of videos as well, one with the basics and one with some recent updates.

As the Microsoft-Activision deal closes, Bobby Kotick will only stay on as CEO through the end of the year and leave on January 1, 2024. Placeholder for tweet 1712818483442987422 Based on the value of his shares, Robert Kotick will leave with around $400 million and if Microsoft/Xbox wants to get rid of Kotick, he will also receive a minimum payout of $250 million. Image courtesy of Dexterto.

Following their recent $69 billion acquisition of Activision-Blizzard-King, Microsoft is actively working to integrate and foster trust with their new teams. Key figures from Microsoft's leadership, including Phil Spencer, Matt Booty, and Sarah Bond, recently made their inaugural visit to Blizzard's headquarters in Irvine, California. During the visit, Phil Spencer took the opportunity to address the Blizzard staff. He emphasized that Xbox is in a phase where they are keenly listening to the needs and aspirations of the Blizzard team. Spencer further conveyed Microsoft's commitment to bei

We're looking at memes that emerged soon after the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard merge was complete. The first one targets new Great Vault rewards in the form of a Office 365 subscription.

Xbox has released a new video welcoming the legendary teams of Activision Blizzard King to Xbox. The Microsoft/ABK merger has been officially approved and so creators of Call of Duty, Candy Crush, Diablo, Overwatch, Warcraft, and more, will now operate under Microsoft.

Nothing stands in the way of the Microsoft/Activision Blizzard merger now that the CMA (regulatory authority in the UK) approved the transaction with Microsoft. Activision Blizzard CEO sent the following mail to employees: (Source) Team, Today the CMA, the regulatory authority in the UK, approved our transaction with Microsoft. We now have all regulatory approvals necessary to close and we look forward to bringing joy and connection to even more players around the world. Our board chair Brian Kelly and I are incredibly proud of all of you and your

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has preliminarily approved of the Microsoft / Activision Blizzard merger, but Activision's Cloud gaming rights will be sold to Ubisoft. Earlier this year, the CMA had blocked Microsoft from acquiring Activision due to fears that it would negatively impact competition in the UK's cloud gaming sector. However, Microsoft later proposed a restructured transaction, which the CMA is reviewing. In the new deal, Microsoft won't acquire the cloud gaming rights held by Activision. Instead, the rights will be sold to an independent third party,

Blizzard is restructuring the Hearthstone team and we've seen reports of multiple new layoffs at the company. The first report comes from Senior Producer Joe Belousek who got laid off from the Hearthstone team without prior notice after 2 years. The second report is from Hunter C. who was laid off after 18 and half years at Blizzard Entertainment. Apparently, the "Hearthstone team is being restructured" and his "Tools Engineer role is no longer needed". We will be updating this post with more reports as they come.

Microsoft today announced it will sell cloud gaming rights for Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft in an effort to appease regulators in the UK that are concerned about the impact of Microsoft's proposed $68.7 billion deal on the competition. In January 2022, Microsoft announced the proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Inc., to advance our goal to bring more creative and innovative games to players everywhere and on any device. Today, we are taking another important step regarding this transaction. To address the concerns about the impact of the proposed acquisition on c

Blizzard have announced a big change, as they will be bringing some games to Steam! Company President Mike Ybarra announced this a short while ago. Overwatch 2 is coming to Steam on October 10th, and it hasn't been announced what other games may follow. The game's Steam page is live now. Here's the official OW2 post: Overwatch 2 on Steam (Source) As Blizzard evolves as a studio, inside and out, one of the ideas pushing us forward is meeting players around the world where they are and making our games as easy as possible to access and play. We want to give everyo