MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
A record-breaking number of gamers played the beta for Blizzard’s upcoming release Overwatch. Over9.7m consumers tried the team shooter, making it Blizzard’s biggest ever beta. Not only that – 4.9bn minutes of gameplay (more than 81m hours) were played. Comparing this to the performance of other betas – over nine …
Read More »Blizzard on community management: ‘We have to listen to many, many voices’
World of Warcraft developer explains the complexities of appeasing a massive audience
Read More »Blizzard holding back Overwatch’s Competitive mode until post-launch
The recently introduced Competitive Play mode in Blizzard shooter Overwatch does not feature in the new open beta and will not be re-launched until after the game has been released. The mode was designed for those intent on engaging most seriously with the game, featuring a ranking system and leagues …
Read More »Blizzard explains fan WoW server shutdown: ‘There is not a clear legal path to protect our IP’
‘There are tremendous operational challenges to integrating classic servers,’ says exec producer J. Allen Brack following closure of ‘vanilla’ server
Read More »Hearthstone hits 50m players as Whispers of the Old Gods launches
As a brand new expansion launches for Hearthstone, Blizzard has revealed that over 50 million people are registered for the free-to-play card game. This was announced by Blizzard CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime in a blog post on Activision Blizzard’s investor relations portal, and indicates that 20 million people have …
Read More »Players to get 13 free Hearthstone Whispers of the Old Gods packs
Blizzard has announced plans to give players over 65 free cards upon the release of next week’s expansion Whispers of the Old Gods. All players will get three free packs for simply logging on following the expansion’s release. The developer has now revealed that a further five packs will be …
Read More »Kaplan: Blizzard failed horrifically with scrapped MMO Titan
Blizzard designer Jeff Kaplan has revealed how the cancellation of MMO Titan has provided huge motivation for the studio. Titan was abandoned in 2014 after seven years in development. CEO Mike Morhaime said simply that the team weren’t able to find the fun” in the title. "You had a really …
Read More »Blizzard dev: ‘After Titan’s horrific failure, Overwatch was our last chance’
‘Nobody said a word, everyone was super supportive, but I think there was this inward embarrassment,’ designer Jeff Kaplan says of cancelled MMO
Read More »Hearthstone changes and expansion arrive next week
Everything changes in the world of Hearthstone next week. Blizzard has confirmed that expansion Whispers of the Old Gods will be released on April 27th in Europe and April 26th in the US. The DLC also marks the arrival of the new Standard and Wild playmodes that represent the biggest …
Read More »Lizard Squad claims responsibility for Blizzard DDoS attack
Blizzard has suffered an attack on its servers that halted access to many of its games. Hacking group Lizard Squad has claimed credit for the attacks on social media, pre-empting the downtime with a Get Ready” message. It has also warned that further attacks are on the way, although Blizzard’s …
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