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Tag: Blizzard Entertainment

  • Housing in World of Warcraft Is Giving Players a Huge Creative Suite to Make Azeroth Their Own – Xbox Wire

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    When it comes to hotly anticipated World of Warcraft updates, few have sizzled for longer than Player Housing – a feature that will bring liveable homes and dynamic neighbourhoods to the ever-evolving world of Azeroth. And the best news? It’s almost here – scheduled to land in the final patch of The War Within starting on December 2.

    The WoW team is giving players a whole new way to express creativity, so we sat down with Design Lead Toby Ragaini and Lead UX Designer Laura Sardinha to find out how housing works, and how it’s offering the ultimate cosy, creative retreat for all types of WoW players.

    Housing has been in development at Blizzard for a while, and the team knew that it not only had to meet expectations for such a requested feature, but also exceed them, according to Ragaini. While the update will be released as part of Midnight, WoW‘s latest expansion, the feature itself is evergreen, something that players can invest in for the long term. 

    “It took years of design and engineering to get where we are today,” says Ragaini. “We wanted something that felt like a whole new part of the game, that would grow with the community.”

    So how will it work? Players can obtain a plot of land (though they will have two total for their Warband, one for each faction neighborhood), and every plot contains a house. Each plot differs by style, shape and biome, built to accommodate whatever vibe you’d like. Some houses within a neighborhood are grouped for a more communal feel, allowing friends to become digital neighbors, while other spots are more isolated for the recluses and the solo settlers among you. 

    No matter how isolated your plot might be, however, all player housing exists within neighborhoods, which contain approximately 50 houses each. There are Public Neighborhoods, where anyone can buy a home, and Private Neighborhoods, which can be created and managed by Guilds or larger groups of players that all want to share a space. Once you’ve chosen a house, you’ll live among those players until you decide to leave the neighborhood. It’s inherently social, a dynamic hub where you’ll be able to see what all your neighbors are up to at all times, which was important for the WoW team. 

    “These neighborhoods, and the neighbors you have – they’re going to persist for as long as you live in that community,” Ragaini says. “I think that’s one of the most compelling aspects of MMOs. We’re trying to rekindle the magic of online social interaction in that way.”

    Housing comes with a robust set of permissions, so you can fully customise how other players in the neighborhood can interact with you, and these can be altered at any time.

    “We recognise that ‘social’ means different things to different people,” Ragaini adds. “So we want to make sure that everyone can decide how they want to interact with their neighbours. Whether you want an open house that anyone can visit, or something closed off to visitors, you can choose whatever makes you comfortable.”

    Making A House A Home

    Once you have a home, what’s next? You’ll need to decorate it, both internally and externally – and there is an entire library of whimsical Warcraft decor to discover. What’s more, there’s little limit to how creative you can be with how to design your home and the surrounding land, whether you’re a mage wanting to throw up a quirky wizard tower, or a rogue designing a dark den. Housing is much more than just a gameplay loop to earn rewards – it’s giving WoW players a robust suite of creative tools and UI to express creativity so your home can be truly unique, and a marvel to other players living in the neighborhood.  

    “We allow players to have total freedom of how they arrange things. They can use items in unorthodox ways to make something completely different,” Sardinha says. “In addition to that, you have a room layout tool that defines rooms, but you can also play around with the pieces to create your own room with a secret door, or build puzzles for people to solve – the UI is so powerful in how it allows players to be flexible with what they want to build in their world.”

    Concept art of decor created for the Blood Elf race

    One of the most interesting parts of the Player Housing update is who the WoW team is aiming to engage – besides the long-time players, they want to see cozy gamers, design enthusiasts, and those who may not have found a reason to venture into Azeroth before, but certainly could now.

    To do so, the team wanted housing to be more than a currency grind – expanding your house is a whole new mechanic in itself. With that in mind, it was also important to make housing an approachable update for lapsed or entirely new players – how can this be interesting to the uninitiated, while still introducing those players to the full scope of WoW? 

    “We didn’t want housing to exist as a standalone activity; it needed to be integrated into the core mechanics of World of Warcraft,” Ragiani explains. “So that if someone new comes in and wants to engage with housing, they’re not just feeling isolated, they’re encouraged to participate in all aspects of the game.”

    You’ll be able to earn items for your home – items, furniture, trophies and trinkets – through numerous activities, and anyone can get stuck in, no experience needed.

    “There’s a lot of different ways to play WoW, and no one has the ‘right’ way,” Ragaini says. “So when you’re out doing quests, or raids, or dungeons, there will be opportunities to earn decor and other rewards for your house. You’ll be brought into the core loop of the game as part of the housing experience.”

    To increase that sense of participation, neighborhoods will have semi-regular events called Endeavours, and players within these spaces can work together to complete tasks and unlock rewards for all residents within a neighborhood. These tasks range from questing and running dungeons, to activities like crafting and gathering, so that every style of player can contribute to a community-wide goal. Completing these tasks can also earn you Neighborhood Favor, a new currency used to level up your home, increase your decor limit, or buy additional items from NPCs.

    Player Housing is such a fresh, inviting direction for World of Warcraft, a game that is so visually warm and entrancing, but can feel overwhelming in terms of how much content is on offer. This is a smart, interesting way to encourage different types of players to get involved, and idea of building a unique home, sharing a space with friends, and completing objectives together to craft a collaborative environment is an intensely appealing prospect that I can’t wait to get started with.

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    Danielle Partis, Xbox Wire Editor

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  • Over 450 Diablo developers at Blizzard have unionized

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    More than 450 Diablo developers at Blizzard Entertainment to unionize with the Communications Workers of America (CWA). The union will represent employees across multiple disciplines including designers, engineers, artists and support staff. This comes after a slew of layoffs in the , Blizzard’s parent company, as well as across at large.

    The Diablo team isn’t the first to unionize at the tech giant. workers reached a union contract with Microsoft after two years of negotiations, and Story and Franchise Development team voted to unionize earlier this month. Both are part of the CWA, which also helped the unionize earlier this summer.

    Kelly Yeo, a Diablo game producer and organizing committee member, that the mass layoffs at Microsoft were a major motivating factor in the unionization. “With every subsequent round of mass layoffs, I’ve witnessed the dread in my coworkers grow stronger because it feels like no amount of hard work is enough to protect us,” she said. “This is just the first step for us joining a movement spreading across an industry that is tired of living in fear.”

    CWA says that more than 3,500 Microsoft workers have organized with the union. Earlier this year, video game workers announced the formation of the , an industry-wide union for workers in the US and Canada.

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    Andre Revilla

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  • Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred Is An Expansion Worth Committing To

    Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred Is An Expansion Worth Committing To

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    Image: Blizzard

    With the release of Vessel of Hatred, Diablo IV has seen its most significant changes since its original launch in June 2023. Adding a completely new region, Nahantu, along with a wealth of added characters and modes and a brand-new story, the expansion pack is the very definition of a game changer. But it goes even further than that, bringing in entirely new ways to upgrade items, a revamp of the World Tiers, new animal-morphing classes, and a new level cap. However, we meet change without fear, offering a litany of guides to get you up to speed.

    For instance, Diablo IV now has NPC Mercenaries you can hire to come with you on your brawling, but you’re only going to find them by following a specific series of quests. Then there are those Spiritborn classes that let you pick between being able to possess the powers of a Jaguar, Eagle, Gorilla, or Centipede…Wait, centipede? No, we’ve checked, that’s definitely correct—and apparently one of the best choices for end-game content.

    And this all follows on from piles of massive changes earlier this year, which saw the introduction of loot-fest The Pit, a new way to improve loot called Tempering, the addition of Mythic Uniques, and Infernal Hordes to battle. It’s mayhem!

    But worry not, as here we’ve collected every guide we’ve published for Diablo IV’s big changes, which will see you flying toward the new level cap in no time at all.

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    John Walker

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  • You Can Play The OG Diablo In Your Browser For Free Right Now

    You Can Play The OG Diablo In Your Browser For Free Right Now

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    Image: Blizzard / Kotaku

    It’s now possible to quickly and easily play the original 1997 Diablo on your PC or phone via a simple website. Just load it up on your browser and you can start killing demons and skeletons like it’s the ‘90s all over again.

    Diablo IV – Bear Bender Build

    The original Diablo was developed by Blizzard North and released in January 1997 for PC. Its single dungeon, evil monsters, creepy town, and loot-filled catacombs forever changed the action RPG genre. Today, the OG Diablo might seem a bit small and simple compared to the wild open-world adventure we find in 2023’s Diablo 4. But Diablo’s vibes are still unmatched by any of its sequels, and now you can experience the classic ARPG for free on your phone or PC browser.

    As spotted by PC Gamer, a new website has popped up that lets you play the shareware version of the original Diablo in your browser. This new web-based port of the game was built using Diablo’s original source code, which was previously reconstructed by GalaXyHaXz and the Devilution team and can be found on GitHub.

    Blizzard / Izie

    Now, keep in mind that unless you own Diablo and upload the “DIABDAT.MPQ” file, you won’t have access to everything found in the retail release. Still, the shareware version of Diablo lets you play as a warrior who can’t talk to NPCs, but can kill demons and loot weapons in the dungeon under the church in Tristram.

    In my testing, this browser-based port of Diablo plays really well. I had no issues exploring the dark corridors and killing zombies and skeletons. Just toss your old Diablo save and DIABDAT.MPQ file onto a service like Google Drive or a USB stick and you can play Blizzard’s seminal ARPG anywhere with an internet connection.

    In fact, you could be playing Diablo right now on the device you are currently using instead of working or reading the last sentence of this blog.

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    Zack Zwiezen

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  • Blizzard Dev Uses Company Perk To Get A Decade Of WoW Time Before Being Laid Off

    Blizzard Dev Uses Company Perk To Get A Decade Of WoW Time Before Being Laid Off

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    Last week, Microsoft laid off 1900 video game workers across its various studios. This included cuts at recently acquired Activision Blizzard. And one employee, before being laid off, used a Blizzard company perk to walk away with nearly 10 years of World of Warcraft subscription codes.

    Diablo IV’s Strongholds Are A Great Way To Level Up This Season

    The video game industry’s terrible 2023, which saw thousands of people laid off across multiple companies, has continued into 2024. As of January 29, according to Kotaku’s layoff tracker, nearly 6,000 cuts have been made at places like Unity, Riot, Bethesda, Twitch, Discord, and Activision Blizzard. One developer at Blizzard realized what was happening and took advantage of a company perk before losing access.

    As spotted by PC Gamer, on January 25, the same day the layoffs at Blizzard happened, former product lead Adam Holisky tweeted that once he “realized what was happening” and that he was one of the nearly 2,000 people losing their jobs that day, he made sure to “jump into Keyring and use all the 1-year [pre-paid World of Warcraft] subscription codes” he had yet to activate.

    He then shared a screenshot that shows that he doesn’t have to pay for his World of Warcraft subscription until October 14, 2033. That’s one hell of a parting gift and beats a watch or pizza party, that’s for sure.

    “Free game time is a well-known employee benefit,” Holisky added on Twitter. “I just never used all the codes I got over the years. It’s nothing sketchy or immoral.”

    I reached out to Holisky and he explained to me that Keyring is an internal system at Blizzard where employees can access digital game codes that they “earned for whatever reason.”

    He clarified that he had stockpiled these one-year codes while working at Blizzard for nearly five years. Another employee who was laid off at the company tried a similar tactic, but it seems so many others were trying to get their codes before getting laid off that they all crashed the Keyring service.

    So Holisky was like Indiana Jones sliding under the door and grabbing his hat at the last second, except the stone door is horrible layoffs causing 1,900 people to be out of work and the hat is a decade of key codes. And while a decade of WoW subscription time is a nice prize, I assume most folks would rather have a job instead.

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    Zack Zwiezen

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  • Activision Sure Knows How To Bury A Story On A Friday Night

    Activision Sure Knows How To Bury A Story On A Friday Night

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    Photo: Kevin Dietsch (Getty Images)

    Activision Blizzard has been the subject of scrutiny for several years now, due to its widely criticized “Boys’ Club” corporate culture of sleazy shenanigans. And now, late on a Friday evening just before the holiday season begins in earnest, The Wall Street Journal reports the embattled gaming company announced on December 15 that it will pay $50 million to settle a 2021 gender discrimination and harassment lawsuit—the same lawsuit that seemingly prompted Microsoft’s landmark $69 billion acquisition of the Call of Duty and Overwatch publisher that was finally greenlit after an 18-month legal battle in October of this year.

    What’s Coming Out Beyond Pokémon: The Indigo Disk | The Week In Games

    California’s Civil Rights Department sued Activision back in 2021, claiming company leadership willfully ignored employee complaints regarding pay disparity, gender- and sexuality-based harassment, and discrimination.

    Activision has repeatedly denied these charges. Company representatives have also claimed that an internal investigation by its board of directors concluded that the allegations against the company were without merit. When the Microsoft acquisition closed earlier this year, longtime Activision CEO Bobby Kotick was “asked” to stay for another two months, through the end of 2023.

    According to the Journal, which broke the story regarding the settlement, the state of California had initially estimated Activision’s liability for a far greater amount than $50 million.

    The state in 2021 estimated Activision’s liability at nearly $1 billion to 2,500 employees who might have claims against the company, court documents show. Activision had around 13,000 employees as of the end of 2022.

    Citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, the Journal goes on to claim that state agencies had “initially sought an amount much greater than the settlement Riot Games paid earlier this year to settle its lawsuit.” The Riot settlement in May 2023, which touched upon similar grievances relating to toxic workplace culture, resulted in a $100 million settlement for plaintiffs.

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    Jen Glennon

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  • You Can Play Diablo IV For Free All This Week

    You Can Play Diablo IV For Free All This Week

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    Image: Blizzard

    Just in time for the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Blizzard is letting you play Diablo IV for free for one full week on Steam right now. That’s a pretty sweet deal among a crop of other pretty sweet deals that Valve is offering as part of the PC gaming store’s massive annual Autumn Sale.

    Diablo IV – Bear Bender Build

    Read More: Diablo IV Will Take Over Your Thanksgiving With Some Nice Bonuses

    Blizzard tweeted on November 21 that the action-RPG has a free trial going on until November 28. If you head to Diablo IV’s Steam page right now, you can get the demon-slaying, loot-hunting game for the low until the end of the week.

    “Give thanks and drag your friends to Hell,” Blizzard said. “Play Diablo IV for free on Steam, from now until November 28th at [10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET].”

    This free Steam trial coincides nicely with a gold and XP bonus Blizzard is also running in Diablo IV. Dubbed Mother’s Blessing Week, folks playing the game will earn 35 percent more gold and experience points until November 27. This bonus applies to everyone, including people running amok in the Eternal and Seasonal realms, as well as players across all four World Tiers (Diablo IV’s interpretation of difficulty setting). Blizzard really wants this game to take over your Thanksgiving holiday, it seems.

    Read More: Diablo IV: How To Pick Your New Character

    Diablo IV—out now on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox—is running its second season of content, the Season of Blood. The new update, which brought the game to Steam on October 17, adds gameplay changes (like revamping inventory management) and story content while promising an easier grind so folks can level up faster. It’s the first of many seasonal drops, which will be interspersed between yearly paid expansions. The first DLC, Vessel of Hatred, arrives next year, bringing with it a new class to play and a new region to explore.

     

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    Levi Winslow

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  • Diablo 4: Greater Rifts Will Return in Patch 1.2.3

    Diablo 4: Greater Rifts Will Return in Patch 1.2.3

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    While patch 1.2.2 already delivers some new exciting content in the form of Unique rings with effects from Season of the Malignant, Greater Rifts will return in Diablo 4’s patch 1.2.3.

    New Endgame Pinnacle Dungeon Event

    Image Source: Blizzard

    Called Abattoir of Zir, these new pinnacle dungeons, by far, represent some of the most challenging content in Diablo 4. Functionally, they are very similar to how Greater Rifts work in Diablo 3. Specifically, Diablo 3 veterans will notice the need to kill a certain amount of monsters in a Nightmare Dungeon while a timer ticks down. If they succeed, then a boss will spawn. Once slain, we hope the boss will become a literal loot fountain as they did in Diablo 3.

    However, these pinnacle nightmare dungeons shouldn’t be taken lightly since they will likely represent some of the most challenging post-level 100 content in Diablo 4. This is on top of the fact that these dungeons will have 25 tiers that boost enemy levels past 200!

    How to Find and Enter these Nightmare Dungeons

    Well, you don’t find these dungeons as much as you make them. But before that, players must finish all seven tiers of their season journey. Once that’s completed, you’ll travel to the occultist, and they will give you access to a new recipe, Bloodforged Sigils. You’ll make the first-tier sigil, costing you 800 sigil powder and 60,000 gold. From there, the sigil will be consumed, and a blood-red portal will open in Ked Bardu. Rinse, repeat.

    The Reward for Completing the Abattoir of Zir Dungeon

    A screenshot of the new Unique Glyph: Tears of Blood
    Image Source: Blizzard

    Completing the Abattoir of Zir for the first time will grant you a Unique Glyph called Tears of Blood. Now, its stats are noteworthy because for every 5 Core Stats purchased within range, you’ll gain 2.0%[x] increased damage. It also grants a +50% bonus to all Rare nodes within range, increasing by 10% every ten levels. Finally, the Tears of Blood Glyph has a level cap that is 10 times higher than normal Glyphs.

    It’s looking like end-game players will be able to run the Abattoir of Zir over and over to level this Glyph and gain huge amounts of power. This whole Pinnacle dungeon event system partway through the season seems like a great way to incentivize players to get to level 100 and beyond. Hopefully, we will see a system like this return in every new season going forward.

    About the author

    Ali Taha

    Whether its new releases, or a new Destiny 2 season, Ali will flex his gaming and freelancer skills to cover them extensively. He started off writing features for Game Rant but found a better home here on Twinfinite. While Ali waits for the next Monster Hunter title, he enjoys publishing his progression fantasy novels as an indie author.

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    Ali Taha

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  • World Of Warcraft’s Next Three Expansions Announced At BlizzCon

    World Of Warcraft’s Next Three Expansions Announced At BlizzCon

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    Screenshot: Blizzard Entertainment / Kotaku

    At BlizzCon 2023, Blizzard announced it’s preparing to enter what it’s calling World of Warcraft’s “Worldsoul Saga,” a multi-expansion story arc in the MMORPG that it plans to roll out over the course of the next three expansions.

    Diablo IV’s Strongholds Are A Great Way To Level Up This Season

    During the convention’s opening ceremony, Warcraft Executive Creative Director Chris Metzen explained that the Worldsoul Saga will bridge the gap between the first 20 years of World of Warcraft and whatever Blizzard has planned next for the long-running MMORPG. The tenth expansion, titled The War Within, will kick things off and will be followed by the eleventh and twelfth expansions, called Midnight and The Last Titan, respectively. The next three expansions form a trilogy that will usher in the next era of World of Warcraft storytelling.

    After Metzen outlined the next three expansions, Blizzard showed a cinematic trailer for The War Within, which featured long-time World of Warcraft figures Anduin and Thrall getting into a heated discussion before the camera panned to the Sword of Sargeras, a giant sword that was stabbed into the surface of Azeroth during the events of the Legion expansion.

    Blizzard Entertainment

    Following this, Blizzard showed a trailer running down new features, including new zones to travel around in Azj-Kahet, Isle of Dorn, The Ringing Deeps, and Hallowfall. Players will also be able to take part in cooperative PvE instances called Delves, transfer progression between multiple characters through Warbands, and take advantage of expanded Hero Talents. Check out the trailer below:

    Blizzard Entertainment

    The War Within will launch in fall 2024. While past World of Warcraft expansions have launched around two years apart for years, Metzen says Blizzard is looking to release Midnight and The Last Titan with less downtime between. However, he didn’t give a specific timeline. It’s possible World of Warcraft’s next three expansions could launch annually, and that the next era of the MMO could be a reality in the next few years. Before that, however, World of Warcraft now have three more expansions to look forward to.

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    Kenneth Shepard

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  • Activision Blizzard Games Should Hit Game Pass In 2024

    Activision Blizzard Games Should Hit Game Pass In 2024

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    When speculation rife that Microsoft expects to finalize its purchase of Activision Blizzard this week, and COD: Modern Warfare III out in a month, it seems people have been wondering when Activision’s games will start appearing on Microsoft’s Game Pass. According to a tweet from Activision Blizzard, it should be some time next year.

    The Team Behind Tetris On The New Movie And Gaming History

    The entire debacle of Microsoft’s attempts to buy Activision Blizzard feels it has been clogging up gaming news for years. In fact, it all started only last January, but followed hot on the heels of months of grim and gruesome reporting on the heinous working conditions at the developer’s various studios. This week could see that enormous, shitty chapter come to a close. Presumably so another enormous, shitty chapter can start.

    But still, more games on Game Pass!

    “As we continue to work toward regulatory approval of the Microsoft deal,” said Activision Blizzard on X, “we’ve been getting some questions whether our upcoming and recently launched games will be available via Game Pass.”

    The Verge reported on Friday that Microsoft is getting ready to close the $68.7 billion deal, with October 13 thought to be the Big Day. Of course, this is all being held back by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which is the one international regulator that managed to decisively block the deal. However, being the UK’s CMA, it did it in the most cack-handed way, blathering on about unfair market control of cloud gaming, or some-such abstract technicality.

    This complete whiff, entirely ignoring the concerns of, you know, Microsoft forming an actual monopoly, ensured a pathway for the two corporations to renegotiate arrangements such that it would avert the CMA’s peculiar strategy, and a couple of weeks ago it was provisionally stated it had succeeded. We should be finding out this week if the CMA is entirely satisfied, and given that’s likely to be the case, signet-ring-bearing hands will shake and overpriced Champagne shall be popped, as a bunch of extraordinarily rich people stand to get even richer.

    Read More: Hold Onto Your Butts, Microsoft’s Massive Activision Blizzard Deal Is Finally Happening

    “While we do not have plans to put Modern Warfare III or Diablo IV into Game Pass this year,” continues that Activision tweet, “once the deal closes, we expect to start working with Xbox to bring our titles to more players around the world.” So when? “And we anticipate that we would begin adding games into Game Pass sometime in the course of next year.”

    It’s oddly slow, if anything. They’ll be the same company, and they’ve known they would been the same company for the last 20 months, so it seems strange that it’ll take another few months before Microsoft will be hosting what will suddenly become first-party games on its own streaming service.

    There’s one small cloud hanging over their grey-suited celebrations: the FTC still has an appear in with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and that decision won’t appear until December. Should it succeed, it would then become about trying to undo the already sealed deal, which would be a whole other level of difficult, and no one surely believes the FTC has the teeth or the fight in it to win.

    So, the industry shrinks yet again, with less competition, fewer major publishers attempting to outsell each other, and so less choice and worse prices for the gaming public. It doesn’t seem like the games industry can be far away from the monstrous and idiotic situation of the music industry, in the control of the Big Four record labels. It certainly seems unlikely that any regulatory bodies will be able to stop it, either way.

    But you know, you can get next year’s COD on your subscription, so shhhhh.

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    John Walker

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  • Diablo 4’s Next Season Looks Pretty Gruesome In New Trailer

    Diablo 4’s Next Season Looks Pretty Gruesome In New Trailer

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    Screenshot: Blizzard / Kotaku

    During Gamescom’s Opening Night Live presentation, Blizzard took to the stage alongside host Geoff Keighley to announce that Diablo IV’s next update, Season of Blood, will start on October 17—just in time for Halloween.

    Diablo IV – Bear Bender Build

    Much like Diablo IV’s current update, Season of the Malignant, Season 2 will introduce five new and returning endgame bosses, and will also come with changes to renown rewards, gem and stash storage, and resistance and status effects. While the studio didn’t divulge details on what those updates will be just yet, Blizzard came through with a new trailer showing off what to expect come this October.

    Diablo

    Read More: There Are Officially Too Many Video Games Launching In October 2023

    If you thought that looked kinda gruesome, well, I’m right there with you. With vampire hunter Erys at your side, it’ll be up to the two of you to put an end to a new threat roaming the lands of Sanctuary. Erys is voiced by Gemma Chan, who you might recognize from Captain Marvel (Minn-Erva), Raya and the Last Dragon (Namaari), Crazy Rich Asians (Astrid), and Eternals (Sersi), among other films and TV shows. Revealing that this is her first video game performance, Chan, alongside Diablo general manager Rod Fergusson, briefly talked about the “badass warrior companion” Erys, some “cool vampiric powers” at your disposal, and a “big bad vampire lord” you’ll face at Season of Blood’s end.

    Read More: Diablo IV Is About To Make Loot Way Better For New Characters

    But that’s not until October 17. For now, Season of the Malignant is still going on, and unfortunately, things haven’t been going well. After a controversial change to player power level, the studio addressed the community by promising to not make classes weaker, which Blizzard is aware leads to a “not fun” experience overall. Here’s hoping things go better with Season of Blood.

     

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    Levi Winslow

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  • Diablo 4’s Inventory Situation Is Pretty Crummy

    Diablo 4’s Inventory Situation Is Pretty Crummy

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    It’s been two months since Diablo IV came out and players are airing their frustrations with the game, particularly now that season one is underway. One of the most contentious aspects of the loot-hunting action-RPG right now is inventory management, which has become a hot topic in the community.

    Diablo IV – Bear Bender Build

    Read More: Here’s The Big Overhaul Diablo IV’s Getting After That Hated Patch

    Diablo IV, like previous entries in Blizzard’s storied franchise, features a massive amount of loot; expect a constant deluge of gear drops from bosses and chests and dungeons as you travel the world of Sanctuary. With a total of 110 inventory slots, your bag will inevitably run out of space. And that’s fine, until you need to make room for that awesome armor or weapon you just snatched. There are some options for clearing your inventory, but the process is so cumbersome and tedious that players are feeling burnt out from over-micromanaging their wares, a feeling I’ve experienced during my own playtime.

    The problem with managing Diablo IV gear

    The Diablo IV subreddit is inundated with folks decrying inventory management. With post titles like “Comparing items and clearing inventory is overwhelming” and “Inventory management is burning me out from this game,” it’s clear folks have grown weary of frequently rummaging through the in-game bag. Part of the problem is you can’t dismantle or salvage items anywhere in the world. Maybe it’s to make the game feel more lifelike, but to break gear down into other resources, you must travel to a blacksmith at any of Sanctuary’s many towns. This not only interrupts the loot-kill-loot loop by forcing you back to a borough to tend to equipment, it also wastes time as you head back to a town by either backtracking on foot/horseback or sitting through a long loading screen when teleporting. Either way, with a full inventory, looting becomes impossible until you clear more space in your inventory.

    Diablo IV’s Strongholds Are A Great Way To Level Up This Season

    Diablo IV’s Strongholds Are A Great Way To Level Up This Season

    Aside from salvaging, you could drop useless things to make space for better loot. However, while doing so is easy with a few button presses, it’s ultimately a self-defeating endeavor as every piece of gear can be sold or broken down, which is far better for your longer-term bottom line. Maybe you can’t use that level 75 dagger with your Sorcerer, but the iron or cash you can turn it into are necessary and vital for character growth, particularly for upgrading your current equipment. And this process of inspecting every item to determine whether to break it down, drop, or sell has been at the forefront of players’ minds.

    Diablo IV players are tired of rummaging their bags

    In a popular August 8 Reddit post, user FullStackNoCode joked that fiddling with inventory in Diablo IV is “like having to pee every five minutes.” They went on to explain that they’re “tired of running to town” just to manage the bag, saying a solution could be to allow players to sell or scrap items immediately.

    “That’s all just busywork anyway, and highly annoying,” FullStackNoCode wrote. “Then, our bag space could be reserved for things that we want to be looking at/thinking about.”

    Image: Blizzard

    Another popular post from July 21, a day after Diablo IV’s Season of the Malignant started, saw user jlarue2010 say this new content update should be called “season of inventory management.” This is in reference to malignant hearts, season-exclusive items offering statistical buffs for your characters such as strength or defense that also happen to take up inventory space.

    “Seasonal items need seasonal stash tabs IMHO,” Green_Cloud replied.

    Players are also bumping up against the limits of their item stash, a separate area which lets you easily transfer items between your characters. A popular July 26 post from user Protocide559 explained how they won’t start a second character due to their stash already feeling tight just from saving gear for their current Druid. Diablo IV’s seasons require you to start new characters to participate, but because of the limited storage space, Protocide559 said they’re sticking with their pre-Season One Druid and refusing to play multiple characters like they did in previous Diablos.

    “[Blizzard will give you a chance to buy more storage space. Don’t worry,” user vague_diss joked in reply.

    Diablo IV’s inventory will get better, just at a later time

    For its part, Blizzard has addressed some parts of bag management. Gems, items that can be slapped onto gear to provide buffs such as health on kill or additional gold collecting, will take up less inventory space in a future update. The company also said storage upgrades are coming, but again, at a later time. It’s great that inventory management will become less frustrating as time goes on, particularly considering how tedious it was in previous Diablo games. In the first Diablo, for example, your inventory was divided into a grid. A gem would take up one slot while an axe might take up three, thus filling up quicker. The series has moved beyond grid-based inventories, but Diablo IV’s inventory limitations are still finding ways to annoy players and interrupt game flow.

    Read More: Diablo IV Players Are Getting Banned For Transferring Characters Between Realms

    This happens to my partner and I all the time. We’ll grind dungeons for minutes on end, only to stop right in the middle of it to scour our inventories to make space for the new thing that just dropped because we ran out of space. We do this for what feels like every 10 or so minutes as our bags fill up nonstop, repeating the process of inspecting and culling. It becomes draining after a while, especially when Diablo IV can’t stop spilling loot all over the place.

     

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    Levi Winslow

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  • Activision Sues Popular YouTube Music Critic After He Tried Charging For TikTok Clip

    Activision Sues Popular YouTube Music Critic After He Tried Charging For TikTok Clip

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    On July 24, Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard filed a lawsuit in California alleging that YouTuber Anthony Fantano, a music critic who runs the immensely popular channel The Needle Drop, is misusing intellectual property law and “leveraging the popularity” of a widespread TikTok voice clip he created for financial gain. The company said that Fantano, widely known as “the internet’s busiest music nerd,” has embarked on a “scheme” to sue certain users of the clip unless they pay him “extortionate amounts of money,” with Activision Blizzard apparently being Fantano’s largest target.

    The Team Behind Tetris On The New Movie And Gaming History

    At the center of the dispute is a widely used voice clip of Fantano saying “it’s enough slices!” The clip originates in a 2021 TikTok that features Fantano reacting to a pizza being cut into increasingly smaller slices. Fantano looks on appreciatively for a while but the slicing just doesn’t stop, prompting him to eventually scream the now-famous line.

    The video garnered millions of views and spawned thousands of copycats, leading Activision Blizzard to create their own rendition of the meme in a now-deleted June 2023 TikTok promoting some Crash Bandicoot shoes. Apparently, Fantano wasn’t about it, alleging it created a “false endorsement” of the product without him actually being associated with it. He sent the company a cease-and-desist letter on June 27 demanding that Activision Blizzard stopped using the audio and made a six-figure settlement payment to him. If the company didn’t pay up, he would “initiate litigation.” Interestingly, though, Activision’s lawsuit alleges that Fantano himself opted to put the clip in TikTok’s “Commercial Sounds” library, specifically designating it as usable in advertisements.

    “In reliance on TikTok’s explicit representation that the ‘Slices Audio’ was part of its ‘Commercial Sounds’ library— described as ‘sounds that are licensed for commercial use’—Activision paired that video with the ‘Slices Audio,’” the company wrote in the 33-page lawsuit. ‘Notwithstanding that thousands of TikTok videos containing the Slices Audio have been available on TikTok for years without complaint, Fantano suddenly decided that Activision’s video infringed his publicity rights and constituted a false endorsement.”

    Activision is effectively arguing that Fantano is trying to game the law for his own gain, with the company’s lawyers writing, “Fantano has embarked on a scheme whereby he selectively threatens to sue certain users of the Slices Audio unless they pay him extortionate amounts of money for their alleged use.”

    “This dispute is a textbook example of how intellectual property law can be misused by individuals to leverage unfair cash payments,” Activision’s lawyers wrote. “Fantano was very happy to receive the benefit of the public use of the Slices Video. It was only after he identified a financial opportunity—namely, receiving unjustified settlement payments—that he suddenly decided that his consent was limited. The law does not permit, and the court should not countenance, such overt gamesmanship.”

    The company is seeking reimbursement of its legal expenses and a ruling declaring that Fantano cannot sue TikTok users for using the voice clip.

    Richard Hoeg, a lawyer who specializes in digital and video game law, told Kotaku in an email that while he hasn’t seen all of the materials in the lawsuit, based on what he knows this far, the company has a decent case here.

    “As described by Activision (and remembering theirs is only one side of the story), it would seem they have a good case,” Hoeg said. “The TikTok audio library appears to allow for general commercial use on TikTok, so anyone placing content in the library should be limited in their rights to challenge. That said, there still could be facts we don’t know like whether an unauthorized third party actually effected the sound’s inclusion or even whether it might have been automated.”

    Kotaku reached out to Activision Blizzard and Fantano for comment.

     

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    Levi Winslow

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  • Here’s The Big Overhaul Diablo IV’s Getting After That Hated Patch

    Here’s The Big Overhaul Diablo IV’s Getting After That Hated Patch

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    As promised, Blizzard held a livestream today, July 28, going over what Diablo IV players ought to expect from the game’s upcoming 1.1.1 patch. During the stream, the developers laid out their overall philosophy behind the expected changes, and got into some specifics about what to expect when it lands on August 8, 2023.

    Diablo IV – Bear Bender Build

    The Diablo IV community hasn’t been particularly happy with recent changes to the wildly popular action RPG. Shortly before the game’s first season, Blizzard pushed a patch that made sweeping changes to classes and quality of life features that’s been largely seen as a net negative. Players felt that the unwelcome adjustments made the game grindier, among other things. Last week, Blizzard acknowledged that the changes weren’t great and promised to never release a patch of that nature ever again. While full notes for the upcoming patch are expected to arrive next week, August 2, today’s stream gave a good sense of what to expect, with some changes to player power and a few reversals of controversial changes. You can watch the whole stream here:

    Blizzard

    Sorcerer’s and Barbarians, patch 1.1.1 is for you

    Early on in the stream, lead class designer Adam Z. Jackson said that the Sorcerer and Barbarian will see the most changes.

    “We know that Sorcerers typically have a tough time when they start getting pushed into later Nightmare Dungeon tiers, so we’re going to be looking at ways to increase [late game survivability] specifically.”

    Jackson also said that the team is pinpointing what they call “kiss curse mechanics,” which is when the player gains “a really cool power or effect and then we kind of take something or nerf some other part of you, usually for balance reasons to make sure that it’s not out of control.” One example of this is an expected change to the Serpentine Aspect:

    “[The Serpentine Aspect] is the one where you can spawn an additional Hydra, but it reduces the duration of your Hydras. That’s no longer going to reduce the duration. It’s actually going to increase it.”

    Jackson said that the Barbarian’s early game experience will also get a boost. One concrete example of this is an improvement to Fury generation. In a slide shown during the stream, Bash, Flay, Frenzy, and Lunging Strike all see their Fury increased.

    Screenshot: Blizzard / Kotaku

    Jackson said the Barbarian ought to expect other improvements to the late game experience with alterations to Unique items that’ll swap existing effects for more useful ones.

    A slide details changes to an item in an upcoming Diablo IV patch.

    Screenshot: Blizzard / Kotaku

    While the other classes can expect some updates, they won’t be as comprehensive as Sorcerer and Barbarian. Still, increases to Spirit gains for the Druid ought to be welcome.

    A slide details increased Spirit gains for the Druid in a future Diablo patch.

    Screenshot: Blizzard / Kotaku

    Blizzard aims to start expanding build options for Diablo IV in future updates

    During today’s stream, Blizzard expanded a bit on how it wants to see build options change for Diabo IV. Jackson spoke to this directly:

    “Vulnerable and Crit are really, really strong right now. A lot of the meta is about [making] an enemy vulnerable, and then you do bonus damage to them, and then you stack as much Crit Strike damage chance and Crit damage as you can, and then you blow them up. [Diablo IV] actually was foundationally made with other types of builds that aren’t only those in mind. We have “Damage Over Time” […] we also have “Overpower” as a mechanic in our game. [We want those damage types] to have parity with Vulnerable and Crit Damage.”

    Jackson said that the long term goals with Diablo IV are to ensure that “if you’re an Overpower build, or a Crit build, or a Damage Over Time build, you’ll be relatively equal in power to all the different types of ways to play. This will be in addition to improving how skills and effects scale as players increase in level, potentially opening the door to late game builds that make use of typically discarded abilities. What might that look like? Jackson gave a couple of examples:

    “We have a lot of legendary powers and effects that spawn ‘a new thing.’ An example of this is the [Barbarian’s legendary power that] spawns earthquakes or dust devils. Another one is the Necromancer [can] leave shadow trails on the ground that deal damage. These [effects] deal what we call ‘flat damage’ which is [where] we give it a damage number and then that’s how much it does. And that damage number scales with player level. But we find is that a lot of these [effects] are really good in the early and mid game […] but then when you get to the really late game, they kind of fall of really hard. And what we want to do is find ways to add scaling so that the player can opt into making a build out of these things. So if I want to be an ‘Earthquake Barbarian’ or a ‘Dust Devil Barbarian’ I can actually do that.”

    Another key way the team is looking to expand build options is to mitigate how many skills require specific scenarios to function. One such is the Sorcerer’s chain lightning, which currently sees bonus damage when the lightning bounces off of you. 1.1.1 will change things so that you gain bonus damage when Enhanced Chain Lightning bounces off of anything.

    Teleporting out of dungeons will take 3 seconds again and treasure goblins are getting better

    In a complete reversal, the controversial change from dungeon teleportation from three to five seconds is getting reversed. Game Designer Joe Shelly said that the original intention of the change was to mitigate players teleporting themselves out of tough encounters and boss fights. Given the community’s reaction over this change, however, teleports are back to three seconds.

    And while associate game director Joe Pieopiora discussed how the Treasure Goblin’s Legendary drop rate was actually 50 percent, player frustration over infrequent encounters with them led to a perception that it was far lower. Starting at level 15, Treasure Goblins are now guaranteed to drop a Legendary.

    Other quality of life updates

    As discussed during last week’s stream, monster density for Nightmare Dungeons and Helltides are going up. During the stream, the devs showed off a slide of what the increased monster presence will look like.

    And while bosses will see their health boosted, at level 35 and up you’ll be guaranteed a Legendary item drop. Legion events will also see a guaranteed Legendary drop.

    On the technical side, patch 1.1.1 is also expected to address a specific VRAM issue for PC players, so the game should be more stable.

    Patch 1.1.1 is expected to arrive on August 8, with final patch notes coming on August 2.

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    Claire Jackson

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  • Blizz On Diablo IV Uproar: Won’t Do A Patch Like That ‘Ever Again’

    Blizz On Diablo IV Uproar: Won’t Do A Patch Like That ‘Ever Again’

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    The last 48 hours of Diablo IV has been a little chaotic following wildly controversial changes to player power level in the game’s first pre-season patch. Now, developer Blizzard is doing a bit of damage control, taking to a livestream on July 21 to try and explain its decision-making process, as well as what changes it’s making in response to the overwhelmingly negative feedback.

    Diablo IV – Bear Bender Build

    Diablo IV’s latest patch, 1.1.0, dramatically reduced player power across the board. Changes include reductions to XP earned for various activities, as well as a diminished role to status effects like Vulnerability that have played a central role in class builds. It was a tumultuous set of changes to say the least, all documented in an exhaustive list of alterations via the official patch notes. As promised, Blizzard held a livestream today to address these changes, as well as provide some updates on future changes to the game—particularly in response to the negative feedback on the previous patch. You can watch the whole stream here:

    Blizzard / Diablo

    Reducing player power: ’We know it is bad. We know it is not fun.’

    On the stream, Blizzard’s associate director of community management, Adam Fletcher, immediately responded to the overwhelmingly negative feedback in response to the patch, acknowledging that missteps were made and that the reduction to player power has wrecked the fun of the game for some players.

    While Fletcher stated that Blizzard had specific goals in mind with the most recent patch and that it wanted an opportunity to explain why it made these changes, some good news is that the team doesn’t “plan on doing a patch like this ever again.”

    Blizzard plans on ‘always providing patch notes well beforehand’

    While the most recent patch did dramatically reduce player power and strike at the heart of the developing meta, one of the most chaotic elements of it all was how suddenly the patch notes arrived, how lengthy they were, and how it felt like there was absolutely no heads up as to what was going to happen going into the game’s first season, which started on July 20.

    As a way to get ahead of future issues like that, Blizzard has promised to provide patch notes “well beforehand,” estimating that notes will hit about a week before a new update. The game’s next patch, version 1.1.1, is expected to arrive sometime soon, and Blizzard will discuss the specific details of that patch in another livestream chat next Friday, July 28.

    Changes to player power explained

    Though some may find Blizzard’s explanations for the dramatic, across-the-board nerfs lacking, associate game director Joe Piepiora explained that the reductions to player attributes like cooldown rates and status effects like Vulnerability were done to try and amplify player choice. On the cooldown rates specifically, Piepiora said:

    [Cooldown reduction (CDR) is the most powerful stat] in Diablo IV, and the reason for it is obvious: When you’re able to get CDR to a certain point when using certain class mechanisms, you’re able to get effectively instantaneous active skills. That can give you unlimited resources, can give you unlimited movement speed, can give you unlimited damage resistance, and it begins to dwarf the effectiveness of other options when you start trying to take these things into account.

    During the stream both Piepiora and game director Joe Shely recognized that overpowered builds and mowing down tons of enemies is core to the action-RPG power fantasy. However, the team is presently concerned that player choice in builds is dying in favor of go-to metas, meaning that if you don’t emphasize cooldown reduction, or optimize builds to send foes into Vulnerable status, you’re operating at a disadvantage.

    Vulnerability, which saw its damage modifier reduced significantly in patch 1.1.0, according to Piepiora, became the only way to really start dealing damage to enemies at certain levels of play. This, the team said, is not in line with their vision of the game, and in many ways they believe it’s the result of the outsized influence of high-level Nightmare Dungeons, which Piepiora said is one of the areas of endgame content that tends to demand very specific builds without much room for customization and choice.

    The reality is that Nightmare Dungeons are dramatically overtuned from where they actually need to be based upon the role they fill in the game itself. So Tier 100 Nightmare Dungeons are excruciatingly difficult for most classes to be able to actually get through and as a result it begins to winnow the opportunities and options that players have when they begin to engage with content at that Tier. You need to lean on very, very specific builds, very specific setups with access to things like near-instantaneous cooldowns for some skills in an effort to actually make it through those spaces. And that was never really the intent of that content.

    Apparently Nightmare Dungeons will see changes on at least two fronts: The density of hordes will be increased to play into the power fantasy of destroying vast amounts of enemies and, in respect to Piepiora’s statement that the crushing level of difficulty they pose is having too much of an effect on build choice, difficulty will be reduced, bringing Tier 100 Nightmare Dungeons down to about the current difficulty level of Tier 70 Nightmare Dungeons.

    Patch 1.1.1 is expected to address some of the concerns

    During the stream the team stressed that the goal was not, in fact, to reduce the speed of the game and slow progress, though many have felt that changes to game systems like an increase in the amount of time it takes to teleport out of dungeons seems to suggest otherwise. Commenting on that very change, Shely said the team will continue to evaluate changes like this, but stopped shy of saying why, exactly, that specific change was instituted in the first place.

    The next patch, 1.1.1, is expected to address a wide variety of the issues present in the current build of the game. Blizzard revealed some such changes, like an extra tab in stash size to mitigate concerns over inventory management, and a 40 percent reduction in respec costs so players can more adequately respond to changes in the game’s meta while also having more choice over build variety as the game progresses. Other specific details, such as changes that have wildly reduced the power level and strength of certain classes more so than others, will be explored more in depth in next week’s livestream.

    The team stressed that it doesn’t want to take powerful skills and items away as abruptly as it did with the most recent patch, and pledges to offer more alternatives when potentially sweeping changes come about in the future. A hotfix is scheduled to arrive later today (July 21), with patch notes expected to hit Diablo IV’s website shortly before it goes live.

    It’s not uncommon for live-service games to make sudden changes like Diablo IV did here, but community frustration over poorly communicated and executed changes can easily build up over time to create burnout and resentment. Time will tell how quickly Diablo IV recovers from this latest kerfuffle.

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    Claire Jackson

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  • Activision Set To Become Part Of Microsoft After FTC’s Last-Ditch Effort Fails

    Activision Set To Become Part Of Microsoft After FTC’s Last-Ditch Effort Fails

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    Photo: Anadolu Agency (Getty Images)

    The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied the Federal Trade Commission’s final request to pause Microsoft’s takeover of Activision Blizzard, likely paving the way for the biggest-ever merger in gaming to finally move forward after a more than year-long regulatory saga.

    The Open World Racing Game That’s Been Gone For A Decade Is Coming Back

    The FTC had sought to have the acquisition kept on hold ahead of a July 18 deadline while appealing a ruling from the Northern District of California that sided with Microsoft. It was the antitrust agency’s last chance to stop the historic $69 billion merger that would see major gaming franchises like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush all become an extension of Xbox.

    Regulators argued that the federal court had ignored evidence that Microsoft would have reasonable incentive to potentially make those franchises exclusives to its console and cloud gaming platforms in order to corner the market. Microsoft in turn blamed the FTC for using delay tactics and underselling a massive $3 billion breakup fee Microsoft would have to pay to Activision if the deal ended up not going through for some reason.

    The Ninth Circuit will still handle that appeal, but denied the FTC’s motion to block the merger until that ruling was made, giving Microsoft the greenlight to close its deal on July 17.

    It’s been a long journey up to this point, full of twists and turns, including abroad in the UK, the only country to block the deal so far. That country’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had denied the merger on the grounds that it would give Microsoft too much of an advantage in the nascent market of cloud gaming.

    Following the FTC’s initial court defeat earlier this week, however, the CMA announced it was back negotiating with Microsoft over new ways to resolve the antitrust conflicts. It’s now extended its final deadline for approval of the deal into August, suggesting it’s prepared to accept the tech giant’s latest concessions.

    While nothing’s final until it’s final, it now looks like Microsoft’s shocking acquisition of one of the biggest game publishers in the world is about to become a reality, and will soon have the potential to completely reshape the video gaming landscape in the process. Or maybe Xbox owners will just get a bunch more free games on Game Pass. Time will tell.

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    Ethan Gach

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  • Diablo IV Pulls Rarest Items After Fans Find Easy Exploit [Update: They’re Back]

    Diablo IV Pulls Rarest Items After Fans Find Easy Exploit [Update: They’re Back]

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    Diablo IV has six Uber Uniques that are the rarest and some of the most powerful items in the game. Players have spent hundreds of hours without ever coming across them—until now. A trick for easily earning them was recently discovered and Blizzard has now removed the items from the game entirely to try and stop the madness.

    Diablo IV – Bear Bender Build

    Previously only farmable in Nightmare dungeons, Uber Uniques were added to the game’s Helltide event in the latest patch, an in-game event where a particular zone on the map turns blood red and fills up with extra tough enemies. Players quickly found out that there was a way to significantly increase their chances of getting the Harlequin Crest, better known as Shako, one of, if not the, most powerful item in Diablo IV. That’s because characters like Barbarians don’t have many Unique helmets, meaning Helltide chests that only give out helmets are much more likely to grant those players Shakos instead.

    “Just do Helltide and open the helm chest over and over and over and these are dropping like candy,” said YouTuber Raxxanterax in a how-to video about the trick. Players rushed to try and snag their Shako before Blizzard nerfed the exploit, and the Diablo IV forums and subreddits immediately began to fill up with success stories and memes. Players who chose the night of July 6 to not log on to the game were kicking themselves, while others who got Shako called on Blizzard not to take their cheesed Uber Uniques away.

    It didn’t take long for Blizzard to step in and remove Uber Uniques, including Shako, from the game entirely until a hotfix goes live. Naturally, there were debates about whether this actually constituted an exploit, versus players just seizing on a seeming oversight in the game’s design following the latest patch. Others complained about how fast Blizzard reacted to what is arguably an innocuous issue when other quality of life features are still missing from the game.

    Read More: Diablo IV’s First Season Brings New Eldritch Quests, Gear, And More

    On the bright side, once the hotfix goes into effect, Uber Uniques like the two-handed sword The Grandfather and the Ring of Starless Skies will be easier to earn overall since they’ll now drop in Helltide activities, as well. While players still might not earn them even after dozens of hours of end-game farming, at least they can have a change of scenery from their standard Nightmare dungeon runs.

    Diablo IV’s first season, meanwhile, goes live on July 20. Players will have to start entirely new characters but also have access to a whole new raft of season-specific abilities and builds. Hopefully the action-RPG’s most devoted players manage to earn at least one or two of their most coveted Uber Uniques by then.

    Update 7/7/2023 7:38 p.m. ET: Blizzard has released the hotfix and brought Uber Uniques back online. It says only 142 accounts in total earned them while the Helltide chest exploit was live and the studio doesn’t plan to take them away from players. However, if something like this happens again in the future it might in order to keep things fair. Here are the full patch notes:

    Bug Fixes

    • Fixed an issue where Uber Unique items had an unintended higher chance to drop from Helltide Chests.

    Developer Note: With the above change, we have re-enabled Uber Unique drops in Diablo IV. In total we have discovered that only 142 accounts obtained an Uber Unique between the launch of 1.0.4 and when we disabled Uber Unique items from the game on the evening of July 6th. We do not plan on removing these items from the accounts. In the future, we may need to take action to maintain fairness within the game when a bug or exploit impacts the gameplay of others.

    Gameplay Changes

    • Helltide Chests will now have the chance to drop any Unique and not be restricted to specific item slot limitations from any chest.

    Developer Note: With the above change players will now be able to find Unique items from ALL Helltide Chests. Uber Unique items also have a chance to be found from all chests.

                

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    Ethan Gach

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  • Diablo IV Devs Say Future Update Will Fix Annoying Gems

    Diablo IV Devs Say Future Update Will Fix Annoying Gems

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    If you’ve been murderin’ your way through dungeons in Diablo IV recently, you’ve likely killed a lot of monsters, found a lot of loot, and also ended up with a half dozen (or more) gems in your inventory taking up space that weapons and armor could occupy. That can be annoying, and some players have asked for a gem bag. While that’s not happening, Blizzard understands the frustration and confirmed a change is coming in the future.

    The Week In Games: What’s Releasing Beyond Diablo IV

    Released earlier this month, Diablo IV is the latest action-RPG in Blizzard’s long-running demon-looting franchise. While I wish the game had an extra skill slot and players have complained about some issues with XP, overall the game’s release has been much smoother than most big games in 2023, as well as Diablo 3’s historically bad launch. But even a great game can be improved, and Blizzard acknowledged today that gems are causing a bit too much “inventory tension” in the game’s current state.

    Blizzard

    In Blizzard’s first Diablo IV campfire chat--a video series where devs will talk about upcoming updates and answer community questions—game director Joe Shely confirmed that the team is aware of the gem problem and has a fix on the way. But it’s not just a simple gem bag or gems tab.

    “The idea is to change the way you acquire gems so that they show up in your materials or currency tab, rather than your inventory,” explained Shely. “And then the way that will work is you go to craft your gem in the same way that you do today, and you just use a certain amount of that material, similar to the amount of equivalent, actual gem inventory slots that you’re using now, but as materials.”

    When is Blizzard changing how gems work in Diablo IV?

    What this should mean is that your inventory won’t be filled up with unused gems after every dungeon as they will live alongside your other crafting materials. (Which is really how this should have worked in the first place…)

    But don’t expect this change to happen too soon, as Shely was clear that this is something that won’t be added to the game until “around season two.” With seasons in Diablo IV lasting around three months and the first one starting sometime in July, it’s likely this gem change won’t happen until October or even early November. Still, it’s nice to hear something is being done.

    During the livestream, it was also confirmed that crafting resource limits are being increased, which should help people hoard more gems when the change to how they are stored goes live in a few months. In the meantime, I’ll just keep tossing them into my stash.

    .

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    Zack Zwiezen

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  • Incredible Diablo IV Cosplay Photographs Bring Lilith To Life

    Incredible Diablo IV Cosplay Photographs Bring Lilith To Life

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    Cinderys is a professional cosplayer from France who has been active in the scene for almost a decade now. Over the years she’s cosplayed as a bunch of Blizzard characters, from World of Warcraft to Hearthstone, but her latest Diablo work is terrifyingly good.

    The Week In Games: What’s Releasing Beyond Diablo IV

    Before we go any further: yes, I said professional cosplayer. As I’ve written about previously, there’s a certain level of cosplay where artists can engage in paid, sponsored work, and Cinderys has been doing this for a while. The Diablo cosplay here, for example, is the result of a collaboration between her, Blizzard France and peripheral company Steel Series, which technically makes this advertising, but also gives Cinderys the time and resources to make something that looks this incredible.

    As you can see in this quick making-of video, putting a costume like this together wasn’t easy. There was sewing, of course, but also loads of 3D model work (being sponsored can help with access to that stuff), 3D printing, prosthetics and make-up. Somehow—with a little help at the end from fellow French cosplayer Xia—Cinderys not only got it all together, but built the whole thing from scratch in just a month:

    Finally, here’s some footage from Diablo IV’s launch party in France, which shows that the costume not only looks incredible in photos, but was entirely (RELATIVE FOR COSPLAY) practical to walk around in for the night.

    If you want to see more cosplay work like this that’s just as good, Cinderys has a portfolio section on her personal website that has some absolute show-stealers, not just from Blizzard games but stuff like Monster Hunter as well. Her Savathûn from Destiny 2 is a particularly “holy shit” kind of photo gallery.

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    Luke Plunkett

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  • Overwatch 2’s Story Missions Cost $15

    Overwatch 2’s Story Missions Cost $15

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    Despite canning a PvE mode, Overwatch 2 is still going ahead with some story-based missions, and after showing them off earlier this week we now have some details on how they’re going to work and, more importantly I guess, how much they’re going to cost.

    The Yakuza Devs Should Cast These Celebs In Their Next Hostess Club Minigame

    And they’re going to cost a minimum of $15 (or $40 for a bigger download). Look, I know video game development is expensive, and this is a free-to-play game so money has to be made somewhere, but hrmm. Overwatch fans, drawn in large part to the series for its story, lore and characters, have put up with many missteps over Overwatch 2, but charging $15 for three story missions is certainly asking a lot, and the backlash—taking place mostly over social media, since Reddit is a bust—has been swift.

    Like, look at the terms of this announcement, presented in Blizzard’s own words so you can see how it’s messaged:

    In Overwatch 2: Invasion, you and your friends can take on three action-packed missions that take place in Rio de Janeiro, Toronto, and Gothenburg—massive maps with complex objectives, and an in-depth storyline that will guide you along the way. You’ll fight against the intensified forces of Null Sector, who will continue to attack until you’ve completely dismantled them. Stay alert for challenging enemies that haven’t been encountered before, such as the powerful Artillery and the deadly Stalkers.

    You can get started on your mission to save the world with the Overwatch 2: Invasion Bundle for $15 USD. This bundle includes:

    – Permanent access to the Overwatch 2: Invasion Story Missions

    – 1,000 Overwatch Coins (equal to the Premium Battle Pass, $10 USD value)

    – A brand-new Sojourn Legendary skin ($19 USD value)

    – Permanent access to Sojourn as a playable hero for new players: unlocked upon completing Story Mission challenges.

    The Overwatch 2: Invasion bundle is intended to give new and veteran players alike the opportunity to explore this brand-new story arc while giving them additional coins to unlock the Premium Battle Pass or to buy cosmetic content for their favorite Hero.

     You can also upgrade to the Overwatch 2: Ultimate Invasion Bundle for $40 USD, you will have access to all the above, as well as:

    – The Null Sector Premium Battle Pass with 20 Battle Pass skips ($30 USD value)

    – An additional 1,000 Overwatch Coins, for a total of 2,000 Overwatch Coins ($20 USD value)

    – Two additional Legendary skins for Cassidy and Kiriko ($38 USD value).

    I’m sure someone at Blizzard and Activision can and will defend this, pointing to earnings and metrics and forecasts and business strategies, but what are we even doing here when a video game has to be packaged and spelled out like this?

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    Luke Plunkett

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