Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson) You might have heard the news: Microsoft has announced plans to acquire gaming behemoth Activision Blizzard King and its subsidiary development studios. The deal is valued at $68.7 billion—or roughly 17 acquisitions of the Star Wars series—and that kind of money doesn’t get spent without an expectation of major moves (and […]
Enlarge / A cinematic intro to the WC3 human campaign? That’s cool. Too bad fans had to step in to create this, since Blizzard doesn’t appear poised to add anything substantial to WC3R ever again. (credit: InsaneMonster) WarCraft III: Reforged has not received a patch or official announcement since April 2021, and its handlers at […]
Enlarge / Sign on facade of Activision’s Los Angeles offices. (credit: Getty Images) On Wednesday, a California State agency filed a lawsuit against the game publisher Activision Blizzard over allegations of rampant sexual discrimination and sexual harassment. The nature of this harassment is so widespread, the lawsuit claims, that women who have worked for the game […]
Off to Tempest Keep we go, starting June 1. [credit: Blizzard Entertainment ] After World of WarCraft successfully relaunched its original, “vanilla” client in 2019, fans began wondering whether the WoW Classic universe would eventually march toward expansion packs—like the unofficial WoW Vanilla community had already done. That question was answered earlier this year with […]
Enlarge (credit: Blizzard / Sam Machkovech) Diablo II: Resurrected is slated to launch on PC and consoles “later this year,” but in the meantime, the remaster is far enough along that its handlers launched an early “technical alpha” demo over this weekend. (There’s a teensy, tiny chance you can still get in if you sign […]
Enlarge / It’s resurrected. But is it good? Find out in real time as I get world-premiere access to unrestricted gameplay via Ars’ Twitch channel on Thursday, April 8. (credit: Blizzard) A lot is riding on Blizzard’s next remaster project, Diablo II Resurrected. After successfully spit-shining StarCraft Remastered in 2016, the Blizzard Classic team followed […]
Uhhh, this is kind of comical! For Blizzcon on February 19, Metallica streamed their music live over Twitch. But it did not go off without a hitch. During the virtual concert, the platform got scared they’d face copyright issues, so they played some random 8-bit tunes over the top of the musicians rocking out. In […]
Enlarge / Long rumored, finally confirmed. (credit: Blizzard) Blizzard’s latest BlizzCon event sees the longtime PC game maker at perhaps its most beleaguered yet. Game delays, notable departures, botched remakes, smartphone-gaming backlash, and an anti-protester reputation have weighed down what was once a sterling RTS/RPG reputation. That led us to wonder: Can today’s streaming-only BlizzCon showcase of […]
Enlarge / Is there any chance WarCraft III: Reforged might receive another reforging this year? (credit: Aurich Lawson / Blizzard) You may have heard that 2020 wasn’t the greatest year—an issue we try not to belabor when covering the fun and escapism of video games at Ars Technica. But “disappointing” games are different than bad […]
Expand It looks like every couple of months, we hear word about a brand new studio created by Blizzard Entertainment experts, that is not always newsworthy. However, after a tough stretch for Blizzard’s roster of real time strategy matches, the most recent cast of Blizzard specialists beginning a new store has set a glowing fresh […]