As Blizzard announces at PAX East in Boston, the development of “Hearthstone Mobile” is progressing well. The online card game could soon run on additional mobile systems such as iPhones.
This has been one of Blizzard’s main topics for a while: They want to bring the successful game Hearthstone to as many mobile platforms as possible. They originally thought Blizzard would manage to accomplish this last year, but that did not succeed. In late December, they at least achieved a partial success: The Android tablets were in place. Now they announced at PAX East in Boston that the “Hearthstone Mobile” version is in alpha testing. In the next few months, it is expected to be released.
As is known, the crux is the significantly smaller display. Blizzard is working to ensure that nothing is lost in terms of user comfort and clarity, which in the past ensured that Hearthstone became a hit.
And the cat is out of the bag. The next adventure for Hearthstone takes us to Blackrock, better known to veterans as “Blackrock Mountain”.
The adventure is structured similarly to Naxxramas: New wings will be unlocked weekly. There will be a total of 5 wings with 17 bosses, all based on known WoW challenges. The first three fights take place in the “Blackrock Depths,” where you must face the Dark Iron Dwarves. In the following weeks, you will confront other enemies – as besides the Dark Iron Dwarves, the Fire Lord Ragnaros and the black dragon Nefarian also reside at the mountaintop.
Dragon decks!
While the first expansion focused on “Deathrattle,” this time you’ll be dealing with “Dragons.” Many cards interact with the winged beings, and of course, there will be plenty of new Dragonlings to add to your army. In total, the adventure will introduce 31 new cards, including some exclusive class cards.
Prices and pre-order bonus set, release date not yet
Starting March 20, you can pre-order the new expansion “Blackrock Mountain.” Those who do will secure an exclusive card back and timely access to all 5 wings.
How much will the Hearthstone expansion “Blackrock Mountain” cost? The wings of Blackrock can be purchased with real money or in-game gold. Single wings can be purchased for 700 gold or €5.99. The entire package costs €21.99.
What is certain so far is that “Blackrock Mountain” will be released in April.
To wrap up, here’s the new trailer, beautifully dubbed in German. Enjoy!
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New details have emerged about the upcoming multiplayer shooter Overwatch. PAX East 2015 is a great opportunity for developers to showcase innovations for future games. Blizzard has also taken advantage of this opportunity. Fans can look forward not only to two new heroes but also to a new map.
Two New Heroes for Overwatch
Two new heroes are joining the existing Overwatch heroes. The Outlaw McCree has been introduced, reminiscent of Clint Eastwood in his best Western days. With the Peacekeeper revolver, McCree shoots at his enemies. His ultimate ability, Deadeye, is particularly exciting. McCree targets all enemies in his line of sight and kills them with a single shot after a few seconds unless interrupted.
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The second champ is less brutal: Zarya. As a tank and support, Zarya helps her teammates. She can provide a shield not only for herself but also for her allies. The ultimate of this supporter resembles Orianna’s ultimate from League of Legends: Zarya throws a ball on the ground that pulls in nearby enemies and stuns them for a short time.
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Alongside the champs, the map Watchpoint: Gibraltar has also been introduced. Here, attackers must protect rocket parts that move through the map in vehicles. If no attacker is nearby, the vehicles return to their starting position. Defenders must prevent attackers from gaining the upper hand over the payload. The map is also expected to reveal much about the lore of Overwatch, aiming to reach similar depth as the lore of Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo. The Overwatch beta begins in Fall 2015.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Blizzard naturally didn’t miss the opportunity to present something new for Heroes of the Storm at PAX East 2015. The game has been in beta for a few weeks now and receives regular updates with new heroes. As a beta tester, you can also look forward to a new map.
Food for Beta Testers
The Banshee Queen Sylvanas Windrunner was introduced as a new champion at PAX East. You will soon be able to play her on the new map Tomb of the Spider Queen. The new map brings even more action to the HotS gaming experience, as the lanes are very close together, increasing the risk of a gank compared to, for example, Sky Temple. Blizzard is also improving the gameplay in several ways. Players will soon be able to mute their teammates and rate them after a game. The hero level increase from 10 to 20 also ensures long-term motivation. You can take a closer look at the new champion Sylvanas in the following trailer:
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The game developer is also thinking about eSports: With the Heroes of the Dorm tournament, Blizzard not only promotes the eSports potential of HotS but also provides the winning team with $450,000 for college education. Young students can thus improve their finances for the not cheap education in the USA.
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As expected, at PAX East, some cats will be let out of the bag, especially with Blizzard, this is almost a given. They kicked things off directly with Overwatch. The beta should start later this year, and indeed it will: It begins worldwide this fall!
Of course, they have not yet committed to a specific date – but at least this is a clear sign that the game’s development is progressing well. There will be further revelations about Overwatch, more on that later! (Update: Read more here about the 2 new heroes and the map Watchpoint Gibraltar).
If you want to learn more about the game, we recommend our Overwatch theme page.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
That EVE Online is not a walk in the park, not only players of the game should have noticed. Much more, New Eden resembles a post-apocalyptic wasteland where everyone is only concerned about their own advantage. This has now been impressively confirmed once again through a billion-dollar theft.
600 billion ISK or 13,000 US dollars
The thief named Non Erata had infiltrated the Corp Vanguards Frontiers (VAF) six months ago. There, he seems to have gained the trust of CEO ladygrey relatively quickly, as giving a new member rights that allow access to a large part of the Corp assets after 6 months is unusual. He must be quite charming, this Non Erata. And so, on a night when all other VAF members were offline, he grabbed all the assets. Total value: 600 billion ISK. Since you can buy game time with ISK in EVE Online, a real equivalent can also be determined, which is 13,000 US dollars.
Not the first theft
Non Erata is not the first to achieve such a theft in EVE Online. One wonders, as a layperson, whether the leaders of large alliances and corps with billion-dollar assets learn nothing? This question cannot be answered easily. Alliances in EVE function more like a company with different departments. An individual would lose track or have no time to coordinate everything. That’s why rights must be delegated: One takes care of production, another collects the raw materials, some alliances have traders who make high margins in the market. You have to trust others to be successful. But even people you have met in real life can still disappoint you.
By the way, Non Erata has announced that he plans to scam someone again in the future. Let’s see how long it takes him this time to gain the trust of a CEO.
At the last BlizzCon, some of the early design ideas for HearthStone were shown. It was already clear back then that Blizzard’s card game was by no means as well thought out from the start as it seems today. At this year’s GDC, Senior UI Designer Derek Sakamoto shared some insights and showed us early images from previous versions.
HearthStone with Single Player Campaign
In a very early phase of the project, it was not yet clear where exactly the focus of the game should be. Was it preferable to create an exciting single-player experience? Did it need an exciting campaign?
Back then, both questions would surely have been answered with “Yes”. An initial mode of the game envisioned that the player would progress step by step through all of Azeroth. They would start in the Elwynn Forest and unlock new areas with each battle won, where new cards and challenges awaited, functioning much like quests in WoW. This idea was discarded relatively early – by the way, the whole game was written in Adobe Flash back then!
Complex, More Complex, the Chain
A few years ago, it was also uncertain how complex HearthStone was meant to be. At the time, there were still mechanics like “the chain”. Players of Magic or the original “Warcraft Trading Card Game” surely understand this term. Each time the opponent played a card, one could respond directly with a card. If Player A played a minion, Player B could destroy it with a spell in the same turn – unless Player A also had an ability that would counter Player B’s spell as a reaction.
What is a great enhancement for dynamics and strategic planning in the offline world would have only hindered the online game. Ultimately, a clear distinction between “My turn” and “Your turn” was made – with the only exception of secrets, which the opponent cannot control specifically.
A whole game just as an interface
The developers of HearthStone quickly realized that the user interface (UI) basically makes up the entire game. There is no real world in which players can move. This realization results in everything in the large “box” of the game having its own place.
For example, the selection screen for the 9 classes was taken. Everything here is firmly anchored, and the entire design is centered around the hero portraits. At some point, the idea might come to create a new class – but the interface is not designed to be “extendable”, but rather tailored to the current state.
Immersion before utility
Although HearthStone is ultimately “just” a card game, the aim was to create an immersive atmosphere. This should already happen in the loading screen. In the current version, you see the entrance of an inn – immediately after loading, you are welcomed by the innkeeper and zoom in on “the box” in which HearthStone is located. Within this box, everything has its own place; it should feel like you need to unfold the different areas to access them.
It is admitted that this decision was not well received by some players. For example, if you want to change a single card in your deck during the “Curse of Naxxramas” expansion, it takes quite a few clicks because you cannot directly jump to the “Collection”. The motto at HearthStone is “Immersion before utility,” but still prioritizes “Gameplay over everything else”.
In summary, it can be said that the development of the million-dollar success initially took many different directions before the right path was found. Additionally, the current title sounds much cooler than “Warcraft Legends – Fire and Ice,” what do you think?
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Our question to the community today is all about first love, the first MMO.
Every beginning has its magic, a dead writer once said when he was still alive. We consciously avoided nasty, sexually suggestive puns like “What was your first time?” in the headline. Although they would have been quite appropriate. Because just like the “first time”, this other first time was a formative experience for many of us. And since the “first time” is often quite overrated, perhaps even more important.
You know the drill from recent Fridays. Usually, we talk your ears off all week. Now it’s your turn. Let us know in the comments what your first MMO was. What comes to mind first when you think about that time? And does it still hold a special place in your heart?
My first MMO was Dark Age of Camelot. I was a great hero, had my own crew of loyal and capable companions, created my own tactically challenging playstyle that no one else on the server cultivated, and stood out in forums with pointed and witty remarks. I was so elite. Yes. In my memory, it was just like that. And I don’t want to hear anything contrary. It’s bad enough that no one believed me in the next MMO, in WoW!
How about you?
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In Evolve the balance patch for PC is expected to arrive in at least 8 days, said the co-founder of the studio Chris Ashton in the forum.
The balance patch for Evolve is still awaited. It is said to contain various buffs and nerfs. Especially the monster “Spirit” is expected to be hit hard, while some hunters may become stronger after the patch.
In a response in the official Evolve forum, Chris Ashton mentioned that the PC patch can earliest be expected the weekend after next, on March 14th and 15th. And that only applies if the patch passes testing, so it does not introduce more bugs than it fixes.
The pace of the patch is considered too slow, and they are working internally to improve the processes so they can be faster next time.
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In Destiny, Xur, Agent of the Nine, visits the Tower on Friday, March 6, and offers his exotic goods.
Xur has a steep career in Destiny:
In the beginning, no one knew him (“In which loot cave do these strange coins drop exactly?”)
Then he was a hidden gem. (“An exotic rocket launcher? Who’s going to buy that? I won’t waste my Exotic slot on this… what’s it called? I can’t even pronounce it? Is there a ‘J’ after the ‘G’?”)
Later, everyone was excited and eager to see what he would have. (“No matter what armor piece he has, I’ll finally be 27!”)
Even later, everyone was still curious about what he would have, but this was coupled with a dose of disillusioned bitterness and a kind of Xur gallows humor that, even when he brought something good, melted away into a kind of British understatement: “At least he has the weapon this time that I’ve been drooling over for three months… that jerk!”
And now, one practically knows in advance what he will have and is moderately curious if it will actually be so. The Xur bashing is now so embedded in the DNA of Destiny players that he can expect no praise. Players’ expectations are rising as they have more and more Exotics, while Xur doesn’t get any better.
What exotic weapon does Xur have this week in Destiny? What is available for Titans, Warlocks, Hunters?
Xur sells the sniper rifle Ice Breaker for 17 strange coins. The weapon is considered essential, even though it has been offered by Xur multiple times. When he sold it for the first time, he recorded record revenues.
There is also a chest engram and heavy ammo synths.
The predictions have indeed been correct. That’s three in a row.
What can he upgrade this week?
Xur can upgrade 6-7 weapons and 6 armor pieces each week, upgrading them from their “Vanilla” version (300 damage, 30 light) to the “Darkness Awaits” edition (331 damage, 36 light). We explain exactly how this works and what it costs in the Xur Upgrade Article.
… and the helm Mask of the Third Man (extremely powerful 116/125)
For Titans, the Helm of Inmost Light (100/107)
… and the other helm an Unyielding Skullfort (95/102)
For Warlocks, the helm Light Beyond Nemesis (respectable 111/119)
… and the gloves Sunbracer (86/92)
For those who want to stay updated on Destiny, you can follow us on Facebook, subscribe to our Twitter, or simply bookmark our Destiny topic page. Well, totally connected.
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Bungie has now announced that there will be one more update before the “House of Wolves” DLC. However, what will be included in 1.1.2. is still unknown.
The Weekly Update usually informs the community about what is happening in Bungie’s online shooter “Destiny” and what the next plans are. Since it is only published in English, we report weekly on what is new. This week, the information is even scarcer than usual. The only statement the community manager of Destiny lets slip is: “There will be one more update before the release of House of Wolves.” The next patch 1.1.2. is still weeks away.
There are no hints about what will be included in the update. The fans’ favorites for months have been a larger vault, fixing certain bugs in the raid “Crota’s End” and the introduction of more PvE events.
It looks like after the eventful and informative past weeks, the end of which saw Patch 1.1.1., we may now prepare for a rather quieter phase.
This thing has actually made it to the Community Video of the Week. Randal the Vandal has now gained cult status among a small group, the level 8 mob has an obscene amount of health:
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In the MMO Star Trek Online, statues and plaques commemorate the late actor Leonard Nimoy and other faded personalities from the Star Trek universe starting today.
On New Romulus, a statue has also been erected. Inscribed here: “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one.” The reunification of Vulcans and Romulans was one of Spock’s life goals in the Star Trek universe.
In the coming weeks, black flags will also fly in the Earth drydock, in those of New Romulus and Qo‘noS.
In the memorial sites, plaques will be placed with the names of fallen legends of the Star Trek family like DeForest Kelley (Bones), James Doohan (Scotty), and those of the couple Gene Roddenberry and Majel Barret (Lwaxana Troi). Players can click on the plaque to read the names, birth and death dates, as well as a personal quote.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The PEGI assessment is relevant for players in Switzerland and Austria. There will be no change in the assessment by the USK responsible for Germany.
According to Schober, no online game has been re-evaluated due to a patch before. This seems to be a premiere, which Zenimax would probably have preferred to avoid. Let’s see if there will be any official statement regarding this.
What do you think? Does the law system now turn Tamriel into Vice City? Should Zenimax fully embrace the new image of The Elder Scrolls Online as a gangster game and go all-in on sex, murder, skooma, and subversive soundplay with offensive texts?
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
The space MMO Elite: Dangerous is currently exclusively available on consoles for the Xbox One for a limited time. However, this is only temporary, as studio head David Braben has now announced.
In the United States, they are a bit further along. David Braben, the head of Frontier Development, tweeted that the deal with Microsoft is a “time exclusive” for the Xbox One. Later, Elite: Dangerous is also to be released for other platforms, such as the PlayStation 4. A port for the Mac is already a given.
@smallfaraway_ Sure. Mac of course, then down the line we will support more, including PS4. The XB1 is a timed exclusive.
In Destiny, there are now predictions about what Xur, the Agent of the Nine, will sell on Friday. The last times, the prophets were right.
Tomorrow on 6th March, Xur, the Agent of the Nine, will appear again in the Tower. That much is certain. In the last months, that was all that was known about his visit in advance, but that has changed in Destiny over the past few weeks. Users have repeatedly surfaced in the reddit forum and were able to announce in advance what Xur would have in his inventory. Twice out of two times, they were right.
Also, predictions are being made for the third time. However, this time, it is not the Japanese user Megaman, who has withdrawn and so far has only revealed part of the inventory and given hints. The current information comes from another user named maimonguy. He accurately predicted the last inventory of Xur and reveals the complete, purported offer for tomorrow.
About packet sniffing, tired prophets, and Xur doppelgängers
The method being used boils down to a relatively complicated and elaborate packet sniffing. One cannot see too far into the future, and there is a philosophical danger, as one knows from science fiction films: “Can the future itself be changed by viewing the future?” At least the Japanese user Megaman respects this, although in reality it is not that philosophical or abstract but quite banal.
For Megaman believes: Bungie could replace the “normal” Xur, whose inventory can be predicted, with “the other Xur” if too many know about the loot in advance. The “other Xur” has an inventory that Bungie manually selected. Therefore, Megaman refrains from making further predictions.
His colleague does not see it quite so tightly and announces the following inventory:
What will Xur have on 6th March? What predictions are there?
Xur is supposed to sell the sniper rifle Icebreaker for 17 strange coins tomorrow.
For Titans, he supposedly has the Helm of Saint-14 (106/114).
For Hunters, he offers the gloves “Ahamkara’s Spine” (91/98).
According to the prediction, there will also be a chest engram and heavy ammo synthesis.
Of course, this data is unconfirmed. No Bungie employee has come and admitted shaking their head, “Damn, you caught us again!” If you definitely want to know what Xur is selling tomorrow, you can find out tomorrow from 10:00 AM, for example, in our almost ritualized Xur article.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Funcom faced drastic revenue losses in 2014 compared to the previous year. The reason is the aging MMOs and thus dwindling revenue from titles such as Age of Conan, The Secret World, and Anarchy Online. The Secret World is reportedly holding up the best. The hopeful candidate Lego Minifigures Online seems to be falling short of expectations.
Funcom has been in crisis for years. The last major game released was the dark fantasy MMO The Secret World. It was launched in July 2012 precisely between Diablo 3 (May 2012) and Guild Wars 2 (August 2012). Since then, they seek to transition to smaller titles across multiple platforms and, above all, save, save, save. However, this has not yet shown a significant effect.
The other live titles in Funcom’s stable, “Anarchy Online” (2001) and “Age of Conan” (2008), have long seen their best days. The age is also blamed for the lower income compared to 2013: The live games are aging, as they say. And the trend will continue, as we all know from our own experience: One simply does not get younger.
However, December 2014 is said to have been good – there were some events in the games, so they exceeded expectations in the fourth quarter and shrank relatively little compared to the third.
Anarchy Online and Age of Conan still make money … but who knows for how long?
There is no guarantee that these aging games will entertain for much longer. It is expected that their income will continue to decline. However, the financial report assures that they will be maintained as long as they contribute positively to the company’s overall balance.
Even though things went well in December 2014 for the MMOs, the whole year looks bleak. In 2013, revenue was still $21.4 million, but it fell to $12.6 million in 2014.
Lego Minifigures Online not the hit expected
The hopeful candidate Lego Minifigures Online seems to have led to greater expectations than what has come out so far. It is said that the initially set goals will not be achieved soon in 2015, requiring more time. An attempt to transition from microtransactions to a type of subscription (Unlimited Membership) has been well received by children and parents, which gives hope. They continue to work on the game and aim to bring it to new platforms in the first half of 2015.
Meanwhile, they continue to restructure the company, separating from the “Work for Hire” sector and believing they can reap the fruits in 2015.
This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
In Final Fantasy XIV, mastermind Naoki Yoshida will share more details about the first expansion “Heavensward” this weekend.
The producer of FF XIV: Naoki Yoshida, we met him at Gamescom.
If there is a guiding light among the heads of MMORPGs, it is probably Naoki Yoshida. He is the one who pulls all the strings of Final Fantasy XIV together. He takes on the big presentations as well as the small ones, has the ideas, is dedicated, lives and breathes his game. While in other games the “big shots” often appear rarely and operate more in the background, it is different with Yoshida; everything relevant to FF XIV essentially goes through him.
For Saturday evening our time, a one-hour panel on Final Fantasy XIV has now been announced for GDC in San Francisco. It will be interesting to see what fresh details there are about the first expansion of FF XIV. What we know so far, we have summarized in this article.
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Bungie’s MMO shooter Destiny has been played for over 1.1 billion hours. The average player spends over 3 hours a day, far exceeding expectations.
At the GDC conference in San Francisco, Bungie announced the current figures for its colossus. This was taken over by John Hopson, who is responsible for user research at Bungie, telling the developers what players really want.
Man, if you keep playing so much Destiny, all your eyes are going to be square!
Numbers are gigantic
They currently have over 17 million registered players, 200 billion aliens had to face the consequences, and gamers spent 1.1 billion hours in the world of Destiny.
What is particularly impressive is the figure of “3 hours”; this is how much playtime the average Destiny player spends daily on the game. According to Hopson, they did not expect this number at all. They had estimated only 39 minutes a day at Bungie.
The average player has played Destiny for 77 hours and completed 200 activities.
As announced at the GDC fair, the space MMO Elite: Dangerous is set to be released for the Xbox One console this summer.
At the GDC fair taking place these days in San Francisco, developers mostly keep to themselves. Some technical innovations were presented to each other – this also interested the media; otherwise, they give talks on how to deal with the new social media, how to maintain a community, and of course a lot of techno-speak. A lot of new things happen there, but little is really reported. A highly anticipated presentation of The Division did take place, but much to the fans’ dismay, it remained completely under wraps.
However, there are exceptions, and they are all the more delightful: Elite: Dangerous, the space MMO, is expected to come to the Xbox One later this year, in the summer. As the head of Elite, Dave Braben, states, it will provide the “complete authentic Elite experience” on the Xbox. It will not be “dumbed down.” Braben promises that the port will not slow down the development of the PC version. It was released in December.
Here is the trailer:
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The military MMO Armored Warfare does not hold back and presents its “deeper” gameplay systems in a nearly half-hour video. This focuses primarily on the progress a player can achieve if they remain loyal to Armored Warfare over a longer period.
The US studio Obsidian has earned its merits with RPGs like Fallout: New Vegas, Neverwinter Nights 2, or South Park: The Stick of Truth. When they received the commission from my.com to create something that resembles World of Tanks, but not quite so, they probably decided to focus especially on the “Progression” system. This regulates how the gameplay is “worth it” for the player in video games, in Armored Warfare, it means how he gets stronger tanks, better weapons, and assembles a capable crew.
All about this progression system, with which Armored Warfare wants to score points against World of Tanks, is now available in this 27-minute video.
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