Tag: Overwatch

Somehow Overwatch 2 Loot Boxes Returned


The house…wins?

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Overwatch 2 Is Getting A Classic Mode


Remember when Overwatch was good?

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Activision Made $1.2 Billion In Microtransactions Last Quarter


Activision releases quarterly income.

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Freebie: Overwatch Courtesy Of Overwatch League


Get a free copy today.

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Blizzard Cancels Overwatch League Matches, Points To Coronavirus


Overwatch matches scheduled to take place in China have been cancelled.

In case you haven’t been watching the news, the Coronavirus has become a pretty big deal and more so because of the danger it poses than the beer memes it has inspired. Blizzard announced via Twitter today that all matches scheduled for the next two months within China have been cancelled for the protection of players and staff.

The announcement:

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Streaming Buddies: Activision Blizzard Partners With Google Cloud


Google and Activision Blizzard today announced that the two companies will be joining forces to power new player experiences. Activision Blizzard will use Google Cloud services to power their game hosting infrastructures while Youtube will play exclusive host to live broadcasts of eSports and other events (excluding China). In other words, Youtube will be hosting Overwatch League, Call of Duty League, Hearthstone, and others.

Call of Duty’s inaugural league kicks off today (January 24) at 2p.m. PST where twelve teams will face off in Minnesota with Overwatch League following on February 8.

“We’ve worked closely with Activision Blizzard for the past few years across mobile titles to boost its analytics capabilities and overall player experience,” said Sunil Rayan, Head of Gaming, Google Cloud. “We are excited to now expand our relationship and help power one of the largest and most renowned game developers in the world.”

Activision boasts that the cloud will allow gamers to play their favorite titles with low latency and packet loss.

“This is an exciting year for Activision Blizzard Esports as we head into the inaugural season of Call of Duty League and our first ever season of homestands for Overwatch League all around the world,” said Pete Vlastelica, CEO of Activision Blizzard Esports. “It’s our mission to deliver high-quality competitive entertainment that our fans can follow globally, live or on-demand, and to celebrate our players as the superstars that they are. This partnership will help us deliver on that promise at new levels, by combining our passionate communities of fans and players with YouTube’s powerful content platform and exciting history of supporting next-generation entertainment.”

Source: Press Release

Blizzcon 2019: Blizzard Eats Humble Pie, Gives Audience What They Want


As I have said over the past couple of weeks, the best thing that Blizzard could do with Blizzcon 2019 is to give the audience what they want.

Blizzcon 2019 is officially upon us and it started with President J. Allen Brack coming out and apologizing for the company’s actions and response to criticism following last month’s Hearthstone Grandmaster controversy. Brack took full responsibility for the company and stated;

“We moved too quickly in our decision-making and then, to make matters worse, we were too slow to talk with all of you,” said Brack. “We didn’t live up to the high standards that we really set for ourselves.”

Outside of the apology, Blizzard gave their fans exactly what they wanted. Wasting no time, Blizzard took its opening ceremony to announce Diablo IV and Overwatch 2, and went even further. There was also a marked absence of any news regarding Diablo Immortal. Confirming the week’s leaks, Overwatch 2 will have a more PVE-focused approach. In addition, players who own Overwatch will be able to play with those on Overwatch 2, ensuring that the two communities will not be fractured.

[NM] Nintendo Snubs Blizzard, Ignores Overwatch Switch Launch


After the dismal week that Blizzard has had, it’s hard not to pile on to the company while they are down. In that vein, let’s talk about Nintendo snubbing Overwatch.

To set up this story, Nintendo had a big event planned for Overwatch’s launch on the Switch which was yesterday (October 15). The event in New York City was supposed to be massive, we’re talking hundreds of people showing up with the first 150 having an opportunity to meet and greet various Overwatch voice actors. Very cool. You actually had to RSVP to the event in order to get a chance at meeting the people behind the characters.

And then on October 14, Nintendo cancelled the event with no explanation other than that the event was cancelled by Blizzard with no explanation. Since then Overwatch launched. You wouldn’t know it from reading Nintendo’s social media accounts because the company has just completely ignored that one of the largest games in recent years has come to its system.

Obviously this conclusion takes some extra reading in order to come to, but it strikes us as weird that Nintendo who are insanely eager to showcase any big release on their systems (their Youtube page is covered in launch trailers) would completely ignore the launch of a game as big as Overwatch. No tweets, no trailers, no acknowledgement whatsoever. You’d think Overwatch was some Unity asset flip coming out on the system, but even those get some recognition by Nintendo.

Maybe someone at Blizzard should learn a lesson about hospitality.

 

Blizzard Releases Over 18,000 Partial Usernames Of Toxic Players (From Korea)


Nobody likes a cheater, I know this because of how many times the phrase has appeared in court dockets whenever Epic Games takes a Fortnite cheater to court, but Blizzard really hates toxic gamers and isn’t afraid of laying down the banhammer to let them know just how unwelcome they are. Case in point, Blizzard’s Korean sector has released a partially redacted list of over 18,000 usernames of Korean gamers banned for toxic behavior including abusive language and non-participation which presumably refers to players either ducking out of games or deliberately going AFK to throw a match.

The list of names is heavily redacted and involves the Korean player base, so odds are no one on the list will be familiar to anyone reading this website. It also seems unlikely that Blizzard will replicate this tactic in North America or Europe.

As stated by Blizzard (and translated somewhat poorly through Google):

“As indicated in previous blog, players who use inappropriate language in the game will be subject to silence penalties and will not be allowed to access the game if the silenced penalties are repeatedly used in inappropriate language without sanction Sanctions are under way. In addition to profanity and inappropriate language punishment for players who reported to bimaeneo acts such as deliberate interference ally, the game has been absent from recent enhancements, for more information on this Notice can be found through.”

The entire list of names can be found at the link below.

Source: Battle.net

Overwatch League Pro Suspended After Insulting Competitor In Post-Loss Stream


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(Original Story) Dallas Fuel has suspended one of its players, Felix “xQc” Lengyel after the player hurled an insult at a competitor on the Houston Outlaws after a match Thursday night. More details on the suspension will be coming.

Houston beat Dallas with a resounding 4-0 victory on Thursday, after which Lengyel went onto his stream to rant about the loss, eventually directing his anger toward Austin Wilmot of Houston who used Lengyel’s catchphrase “rolled and smoked.”

“No, you didn’t smoke shit. Shut your fucking mouth. Go back there, suck a fat cock. I mean, he would like that.”

It’s obvious from the clip that Lengyel immediately realizes that he let his frustration cross a line, and he quickly apologized on Twitter.

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Wilmot, who is openly gay, accepted the apology while apologizing for his own stream where he referred to Lengyel as a “homophobic piece of garbage” in response.

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While Wilmot may not have taken the flippant, heat-of-the-moment comment personally, Dallas Fuel hasn’t been so forgiving. Lengyel did not play in tonight’s match.