Blizzard will have a Campfire Chat about the Diablo 4 changes

Diablo 4 global community development director Adam Fletcher revealed the developer will be holding a Campfire Chat tomorrow, July 21, to “talk more” about the player feedback surrounding the class nerfs and other changes that were made in the Season 1 update. The chat will be held at 11 a.m. PT and will feature Fletcher, associate game director Joseph Piepiora, and designer Joe Shely.

The Diablo 4 Season 1 update, which was released on July 18, made a swath of changes in preparation for the start of Season of the Malignant. Of the class nerfs in the patch, the Barbarian Hammer of the Ancients, Druid Werewolf Shred, Necromancer Bone Spear, and Sorcerer Ice Shard were the skills that were hit the hardest. The reduction to the Barbarian skill in particular was felt to make a lot of the class’ endgame builds redundant.

Another of the controversial changes made was to introduce level requirements for World Tier III (level 40) and IV (level 60). A small update made today has now removed that requirement. The patch notes for update 1.1.0b also made it so Malignant Hearts always grant armor that directly maps with their item power.

In the meantime, the start of Season of the Malignant has come with its own issues. Blizzard has reported that players in the Americas have been facing “unusually long queue times” and has been working to get all players into the game as quickly as possible. Of course, long queues aren’t a new problem for the game and are something that should be expected at the launch of a new season.

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Overwatch 2’s rocky launch keeps getting rockier

The financial report in question from the second quarter of 2023 lays out the seemingly dire situation regarding Overwatch 2’s competitive league. It started out by saying that it continued to “face headwinds” and detailed how teams will hold the league’s future in their hands. They can either receive a $6 million termination fee from Activision Blizzard or continue onward.

“During the second quarter, we amended certain terms of our collaborative arrangements with team entities participating in the Overwatch League. According to the amended terms, following the conclusion of the current Overwatch League season, the teams will vote on an updated operating agreement. If the teams do not vote to continue under an updated operating agreement, a termination fee of $6 million will be payable to each participating team entity (total fee of approximately $114 million). As of June 30, 2023, a termination liability has not been accrued.”

This huge decision doesn’t have any sort of date associated with it, but it hasn’t come out of nowhere. According to The Verge, the company just laid of 50 people in its esports division. Esports reporter Jacob Wolf also reported in May 2022 that Activision Blizzard was owed around $125 million to $150 million in franchise payments (which were initially postponed because of the pandemic). In June 2023, Sport Business Journal reported that Activision Blizzard canceled some of those fees. The Overwatch League then lost a whole team, as the Chengdu Hunters left in June.

This all paints a grim picture of the league’s long-term viability, but it seems as though there are plans in place to continue competitive Overwatch in some form. Overwatch League commissioner Sean Miller told The Verge in the aforementioned report that the company was “committed” to the game’s competitive future.

“I want to be clear on one thing in particular, that Overwatch remains committed to a competitive ecosystem in 2024 and beyond,” said Miller. “And we’re building toward a revitalized global scene that prioritizes players and fans.”

Miller didn’t provide further details, but said the team is looking at other Overwatch leagues like Apex, which was a South Korean tournament series.

“We’re in ongoing conversations with teams internally and [players] are our top priority to ensure that this transition, should it occur, happens in the best way possible,” he continued. 

Miller expressed optimism for the future, which was not matched by The Verge’s sources that were laid off nor does it appear consistent with the various other previously mentioned developments.

Overwatch 2 itself has also taken some lumps. While players have constantly ragged on the sequel for its gameplay changes, heavy monetization, and number of missing features, the biggest blow happened when Blizzard announced that it was severely downsizing the story missions (which won’t be free, either). To many, this mode was what differentiated the sequel from the original.

It seems as though that might have had an effect on the game’s player numbers since Activision revealed in that financial report that the player count was down. However, it is anticipating some of those players to return for the first batch of story missions and new hero that are dropping in August.

“While engagement and player investment in Overwatch 2 declined sequentially in the quarter, the Overwatch team is looking forward to the August 10 release of Overwatch 2: Invasion. This will be the largest seasonal update yet, planned to include new PVE Story Missions, a new game mode, and a new hero progression system as well as an additional hero.”

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FTC’s appeal against Microsoft Activision verdict will be an outlier if it happens

The FTC doesn’t have a great track record of pursuing appeals after initial losses, but Bloomberg claims to have heard from a person familiar with the case that the agency is “leaning towards” filing an appeal. If true, the move will certainly be seen as an outlier.

According to Bloomberg, the FTC has yet to make a final decision on the matter but an appeal could come as soon as today, July 12. The agency is reportedly planning to seek an emergency stay from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals because next Tuesday, July 18, is the merger deadline for Microsoft and Activision.

Judge Corley’s decision has been criticized by some, who have pointed out that the law demands that the FTC should show that a deal “may” substantially lessen competition, not that it certainly will or likely will. However, others say that the FTC presented a weak case.

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Diablo 4 Season 1 adds a new form of corruption

Malignant Monsters will be introduced in Diablo 4 Season of the Malignant, which are caused by a new form of Lilith’s corruption. These creatures have lost their minds and kill at random. Through the new quest line, players will team up with a former priest of the Cathedral of Light called Cormond to stop the Malignant from spreading any further.

Slaying partially corrupted enemies will reap Malignant Hearts that can be captured during a ritual with the Cage of Binding — a new item. These can be placed into special sockets on jewelry instead of a normal gem. The new season will introduce 32 Malignant Hearts in four different categories, each with their own unique bonuses.

As well as the new quest line, there will be the new Malignant Tunnels dungeons and a new boss battle in the form of Varshan the Consumed. New gear will be introduced to the in-game shop.

There’s also the Season Journey, which is broken into chapters. Each has quests for players to complete and earn rewards like new Legendary Aspects, a Mastery Title, and a Scroll of Amnesia, which provides a free Skill Tree and Paragon Board reset.

Another battle pass is going to be part of the season, too, and will offer free and premium tracks with plenty of rewards down each path. The free track will include 27 tiers with rewards like Smoldering Ashes, armor transmogs, and titles. Meanwhile, the premium track will offer 90 tiers of rewards, with additional rewards like the Coldiron Armor Set, Warded Mustang Mount, Coldiron Barding Mount Armor, more armor transmogs, weapon skins, and emotes.

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Why did Sony turn against the Microsoft-Activision deal?

On day 1 of the legal battle between the FTC and Microsoft/Activision, the latter produced a bombshell email from Ryan in which he wrote that although the merger isn’t great news for Sony, the PlayStation business will be more than okay. In his video deposition played on day 3 of the court proceedings yesterday, Ryan confirmed that it wasn’t until August 2022 that Sony became concerned about the deal.

Unfortunately, Spencer’s email was completely redacted, meaning that it was entered as evidence, and only Judge Jacqueline Corley and lawyers are aware of its contents. What we did get to hear, though, was that Sony isn’t against Starfield’s Xbox exclusivity and doesn’t see it as anti-competitive. Furthermore, Ryan alleges that Spencer sent over a list of games that would be supported on PlayStation platforms, and the list only contained older Activision games. As an example, Ryan said that the list included Overwatch but not Overwatch 2.

Ryan went on to confirm that following Spencer’s mystery email, he told Activision CEO Bobby Kotick that he thinks the deal is anti-competitive and he hopes regulators block it.

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Why the Microsoft-Activision deal has temporarily been blocked, and what’s next

The U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California has barred Microsoft and Activision from closing the deal until it has considered FTC’s arguments for a preliminary injunction. If the FTC is granted an injunction, Microsoft and Activision won’t be able to merge until the FTC presents its case and a ruling is made in favor of the companies. Should the FTC fail to get an injunction, it can still present its case but Microsoft and Activision will be able to close the deal.

For now, Microsoft and Activision will not be able to merge this month as previously expected, and their deadline of July 18 is fast approaching.

Microsoft sees the accelerated legal process as a win because it wants to avoid any complications that might stem from missing the aforementioned deadline.

The post Microsoft Activision Deal Temporarily Blocked in the U.S. appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

The Overwatch 2 Invasion missions will cost money

Blizzard Entertainment went into more detail about these missions in a post after the show. There will be two bundles that will unlock the first three Invasion missions. The $15 version will include permanent access to these three Invasion missions, 1,000 Overwatch Coins (around $10), and a Legendary skin for Sojourn (valued at $19). Those who don’t own Sojourn will also get access to her upon competing story mission challenges. The $40 bundle also comes with the same perks, as well as 2,000 total Overwatch Coins, 20 battle pass skips, and a Legendary skin for both Cassidy and Kiriko.

Some players did not take kindly to the news, which is evidenced in the trailer’s like and dislike ratio. It currently has around 28,000 likes and 32,000 dislikes on the official Overwatch channel. The numbers are smaller elsewhere on the official PlayStation, Xbox, and European Overwatch channels, but the ratio is even more severe and more heavily skewed towards dislikes.

This comes less than a month after Blizzard canceled the RPG-like Hero Mode it announced in 2019. That mode was one of the key bullet points for Overwatch 2, but Blizzard noted that it ended up being quite difficult to make a mode that would resonate with players. The decision was made to axe it in order to feed the live game.

Invasion will let players tackle three missions across three “massive maps” with “complex objectives” and an “in-depth storyline.” It’ll also include new enemies that haven’t been in Overwatch yet. Game Informer noted that this first drop will have eight cinematics and the first mission, excluding cutscenes, took about 31 minutes to complete.

These sit alongside a new bonus co-op mission that takes place in a new area in King’s Row where players guide an armed version of the robot from the Push game mode across the map. Flashpoint will also be a new competitive game type available to everyone where teams fight for control on certain areas of the map. Hero Mastery missions are solo affairs where players can go through courses specifically designed for each character. Not every hero will have one from the jump, but the rest will roll out in future seasons. The practice range is even getting an update and will include a new firing range.

The gameplay reveal for Invasion will start on June 21, but Blizzard will show more later in the summer, too.

The post The Overwatch 2 Story-Based Co-op Missions Won’t Be Free appeared first on PlayStation LifeStyle.

Diablo 4 revenue exceeds box office revenue of all 2023 horror films combined

In a press release, Blizzard reiterated the significance of video games in the entertainment industry, highlighting that Diablo 4 alone outperformed worldwide box office totals of all horror movies released in 2023 combined.

“Those wins are driving the gaming industry to greater heights,” Blizzard wrote. “Pop the hood of the global entertainment and media industry and you’ll find gaming functioning as its engine.” The company also highlighted that 1 in every 3 people around the globe played a game in 2021.

Going back to Diablo 4, Blizzard revealed that players have already killed a total of 276 billion monsters since launch and have died 317 million times. Diablo 4 players have played a whopping total of 276 million hours already, which amounts to more than 30,000 years or “enough time to watch everything on YouTube with 13,500 years to spare,” per Blizzard.

Diablo 4 has also broken streaming records for all previous Blizzard games on Twitch.

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Activision Blizzard substantiated numerous employee harassment reports last year

Kotick made his comments in an interview with Variety, during which he bizarrely claimed that Activision Blizzard has “no systemic issue with harassment.” Yet, as spotted by Axios, Activision Blizzard’s own transparency report published on Wednesday found that the company substantiated over two dozen misconduct complaints filed by employees in 2022.

Kotick also took aim at unions, and blamed Activision Blizzard’s PR and image woes on “outside forces.”

Response to Kotick’s comments from within the gaming circles was swift. Many expressed disgust and disbelief. Others pointed out that the interview was published at the time of Diablo 4‘s launch, which will be available via early access today, overshadowing the hard work put in by developers

Variety also faced some of the backlash for publishing the interview without due diligence. The website has not responded to complaints.

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Host of Diablo 4 Q&A addresses allegations of creating fake fan accounts

As spotted by Twitter user Philtacular (via TheGamer), the oddly worded questions were posed by accounts that either didn’t exist, were dormant, or were freshly created. Philtacular’s thread makes for a hilarious read.

Although Blizzard is being accused of creating the fake accounts, it looks like the show’s host may have been more of a culprit here. As pointed out by fellow journalist Jason Schreier, Future Games Show put out a call for community questions but it appears that no one responded. The outlet understandably didn’t want to cancel the Q&A, so they decided to roll with it.

This morning, Future Games Show put out a statement on Twitter explaining their side:

However, this doesn’t explain the fake accounts.

Diablo 4 will release on June 5, with early access kicking off on June 1.

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