Items tagged with Blizzard Entertainment
It looks as if Blizzard is trying very hard to shed some employees without having to institute "official" layoffs in some departments. Reports indicate that some very enticing offers have been made in at least one of Blizzard Entertainment's European offices. In Cork, Ireland Blizzard has been offering impressive incentives to get workers in its customer service department to voluntarily leave their positions. The incentive has reportedly been offered on numerous occasions over the last few months. Some anonymous sources claim that workers have taken up to a year's worth of pay to leave Blizzard....
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After lots of teasing and rumors Blizzard Entertainment has confirmed that Diablo 3 will be coming to the Nintendo Switch. The specific version of the game landing on the Nintendo console will be the Diablo 3: Eternal Collection. That collection includes the Reaper of Souls and Rise of the Necromancer content add-ons. Blizzard didn’t give up a specific launch date, only stating that the game will land on Switch later this year. Diablo 3: Eternal Collection will sell for $59.99 and buyers will get some other exclusive items only offered in the Nintendo version of the game. All the extras are...
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For almost as long as video games have been around, players have wanted the ability to play against each other no matter what platform they are on. Xbox players want to fight PC gamers and PS4 gamers and vice versa. The catch is that Sony isn’t into cross-platform action. Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan, who is also the VP of Blizzard Entertainment, has let slip that Overwatch players might gain the ability to share progress between game consoles and PCs. Kaplan said in an interview recently that his team has "frequent and ongoing discussions about" adding that feature. Kaplan also noted...
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Blizzard has announced that it is rolling out a new tool for Overwatch players that will allow them to avoid people that make their gameplay experience less than ideal. This less than ideal gameplay can be because the player and you clash and don’t communicate well, or perhaps the player doesn’t meet your expectations for team play and skill. To help you avoid having to deal with this sort of player Blizzard has added a new "Avoid as Teammate" option. If you choose to use the option, the matchmaker won't place you on a team with that player starting with the next match for up to one...
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Before World of Warcraft (WoW), the massively successful MMORPG game, there was Warcraft III. Warcraft III is a game with events set before the events in WoW happened, and has been around for 15 years. Most games that have been around even a fraction of that time are left stale and stagnant with little or no developer support. That lack of dev support typically means no updates, any bugs remain unsquashed, and you certainly don't get any new maps or map updates. That's not how Blizzard rolls and after a decade and a half of availability, Blizzard has added a bunch of overall improvements and new...
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DeepMind is an offshoot of Google that has scientific mission in mind, with the goal of developing Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems that have the ability to learn to solve complex problems. DeepMind says that meeting that mission requires it to design agents and then test their ability in a range of environments, with some built specifically for testing of AI and others using things built for humans. DeepMind has announced that it has teamed up with Blizzard Entertainment to open the popular video game StarCraft II for AI testing and research. The two firms have released SC2LE, which is...
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Doomfist, the latest Overwatch character, has made a smashing debut. One professional Overwatch player tested Doomfist out at an exhibition match and wowed the crowd with four quick eliminations. Overwatch player Kim “Libero” Hye Sung of the professional South Korean team “Meta Athena”, recently played Doomfist in a match against “Ardeont”. Libero was quickly able to take out his opponents’ Winston, Genji, Tracer, and Zenyatta with Doomfist’s skills like “Rocket Punch” and “Meteor Strike”. Libero’s savvy use of Doomfist will hopefully encourage other professionals to experiment with the...
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Overwatch, the team-based multiplayer shooter from Blizzard Entertainment has proven to be an unstoppable force in the industry having now reached the hands of more than 7 million gamers within a week of launch. Many predicted as much once the early beta saw nearly 10 million users. Admittedly, we too have been immovably glued to the game since installing the PC version early last week. It features a wide variety of characters, and play styles, with frenetic-pace gameplay that is easy and intuitive for casual players. Yet Overwatch dishes out plenty of depth and strategy for crafty players who...
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Blizzard has finally lifted on the veil on the upcoming World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, and the official information generally confirms and fleshes out the sneak preview from last week. The new expansion will feature the corrupted black dragon Deathwing as its principle villain. Once thought buried in the depths below the fortress of Grim Batol, Deathwing has actually spent years within the earthen Elemental Plane, Deepholm. The Cataclysm itself is caused by Deathwing's ascent and erruption into Azeroth; an event that will create what Blizzard describes as a "festering wound across the continents....
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