More than 50 million players worldwide have teamed up to capture objectives, push payloads, and fight for the future in Overwatch, Blizzard Entertainment’s acclaimed team-based shooter.

Today, before a sold-out crowd of BlizzCon 2019 attendees and millions watching online, Blizzard Entertainment revealed Overwatch 2, a supercharged sequel that will send players deeper into the world and story of Overwatch and build upon the original game’s critically acclaimed foundation of world-class PvP competition.

In Overwatch 2, players will take on the roles of the world’s heroes in cooperative missions that challenge them to team up, power up, and stand together against an overwhelming outbreak of threats around the globe. Players will also battle each other in the next evolution of competitive Overwatch play, which carries forward existing players’ accomplishments and loot collections, and features the current complete Overwatch roster, a new generation of heroes, new internationally recognisable maps that widen the scope of the world, a new Push map type, and more.

“With Overwatch 2, we’re building the cooperative, narrative-driven game experience that players have been asking for since the original—and that we’ve wanted to make for a long time,” said J. Allen Brack, president of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re looking forward to telling the next chapter of this epic story in-game, and we’re excited to give players a whole-new kind of co-op experience built around progressing and customising their favourite heroes—all while providing even more of everything they love about Overwatch today.”

In the sequel’s action-packed cooperative Story Missions, players will experience the advent of a new Overwatch as Winston, Tracer, and other members of the original Overwatch join forces with a new generation of heroes. Players will take an active role in the Overwatch saga as a new global crisis unfolds through a series of intense, high-stakes four-player missions. As the story progresses, players will team up as different sets of heroes and fight to defend the world from the omnic forces of Null Sector, uncover the motives behind the robotic armies’ attacks, and come face-to-face with rising new threats around the globe.

The battle continues in Hero Missions, where the Overwatch team will be called upon to go beyond their limits as they deploy across the planet, defending cities against robot invasions, taking on elite Talon agents, and battling the villainous forces laying siege to the world. In this highly replayable mode, players can level up their favourite heroes and earn powerful customisation options that supercharge their abilities in co-op play—such as altering Reinhardt’s Fire Strike to ignite nearby enemies or modifying Tracer’s Pulse Bomb to cause a devastating chain reaction—granting the extra edge they need against the overwhelming odds.

To help realise these missions, the sequel also introduces significant engine upgrades that support larger maps for co-op (PvE) play, as well as the wide variety of new enemies and factions that players will encounter on their missions. The game also introduces visual enhancements designed to bring players’ favourite heroes—and their new looks for Overwatch 2, to life in greater detail.

Overwatch 2 also represents the beginning of a new era for the series’ world-renowned competitive 6v6 play. In addition to carrying forward all of the original game’s heroes, maps, and modes—as well as existing Overwatch players’ accomplishments and loot collections—the sequel adds multiple new playable heroes to the ever-growing roster; widens the scope of the world with even more maps and locations; and adds a new Push map type, in which two teams compete to make a robot (that happens to be pretty good at pushing things) push the map’s objective to their opponent’s side.

Overwatch 2 also renews Blizzard’s commitment to continue supporting the existing Overwatch community. Current Overwatch players will battle side-by-side with Overwatch 2 players in PvP multiplayer. In addition, current Overwatch players will be able to play Overwatch 2 heroes and maps, ensuring the core PvP experience remains dynamic and vital for today’s community in the Overwatch 2 era.

More details on Blizzard’s plans, including some of the new heroes joining the fray, will be announced here in the future as development continues.

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Blizzard Entertainment today unveiled Descent of Dragons, a high-flying 135-card expansion for its smash-hit free-to-play digital card game Hearthstone.

Hatching on 11 December 2019, the epic conclusion to Hearthstone’s first-ever year-long story line will arm players with draconic firepower—including the ability to transform into Galakrond, the mightiest dragon in Warcraft history.

The Year of the Dragon began with Rise of Shadows, where players were introduced to the League of E.V.I.L., a shadowy organisation led by the notorious Archvillain Rafaam. In Saviors of Uldum, the villains threatened to unleash a world-ending plague, but players joined up with the League of Explorers to save the day. Now, in Descent of Dragons, the forces of good and evil will settle things once and for all with the help of dragons—lots and lots of dragons.

The League of E.V.I.L. plans to bring doom to Azeroth by resurrecting Galakrond—the father of all dragons—who’s playable in different forms in Hearthstone as a set of five new Hero cards. Available to the five “E.V.I.L.” classes—Priest, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, and Warrior—Galakrond takes on a form appropriate to the corresponding class, each with a unique Battlecry and Hero Power.

Cultist minions and spells with the new Invoke keyword will trigger the effect of Galakrond’s Hero Power. Invoking multiple times upgrades Galakrond into his two increasingly stronger forms, the mightiest of which is Galakrond, Azeroth’s End—which comes into play with a quadruple-strength Battlecry and a powerful claw attack. Hearthstone players who log in when Descent of Dragons swoops in will receive all five Galakrond Hero cards free.

Heroic Druids, Hunters, Mages, and Paladins can cower in the face of Galakrond’s might, or they can bravely prepare to face their doom by completing the new Sidequests, which provide a variety of accessible early-game goals and rewards.

“We love constantly exploring new ideas with Hearthstone, from telling an epic year-long story to introducing fun new ways to play,” said J. Allen Brack, president of Blizzard Entertainment. “Descent of Dragons embodies that value—we think players will have a blast with all of the new cards as well as the new gameplay mechanics we’re introducing with this expansion.”

Until launch, players can pre-purchase two different Descent of Dragons card pack bundles: a 60-pack bundle, which includes a Descent of Dragons-specific golden Legendary card and the Shattering card back; and the massive 100-pack Mega Bundle, which includes those bonuses and the new Deathwing playable Warrior Hero. These bundles are available for $66.95 AUD and $109.95 AUD respectively; one of each can be purchased per account.

At BlizzCon 2019, Blizzard unveiled Hearthstone: Battlegrounds, an all-new way to play. Hearthstone: Battlegrounds is a raucous eight-player auto-battler featuring 24 unique Heroes, in which players will recruit minions, strategically position them, and watch as they battle for supremacy.

This free game mode is designed as a standalone experience that uses Hearthstone as a foundation, but it does not require building or maintaining a card collection. Hearthstone: Battlegrounds will be available to everyone when it enters open beta on Tuesday, 12 November 2019. An early access period will be available from 6 to 12 November 2019 for everyone who attended BlizzCon, purchased the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, or pre-purchased either of the Descent of Dragons bundles.

Beginning with Descent of Dragons, everyone will receive free access to Hearthstone: Battlegrounds. While nonessential for play, Hearthstone players will be able to unlock optional bonus features when they acquire card packs from the most recent expansion (starting with Descent of Dragons). This includes free packs, those acquired with in-game gold, or those purchased with real money. At 10 packs, players unlock comprehensive stat-tracking in Hearthstone: Battlegrounds (slated for release following beta testing); at 20 they can choose from three different Bosses instead of two at the start of each match; and at 30, players unlock the ability to playfully communicate with their opponents using a visual emote system.

Be on the lookout for more information regarding Battlegrounds soon.

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An ancient evil threatens to engulf Sanctuary in darkness, and new heroes have been called upon to face challenges the world has never seen before. Today, Blizzard Entertainment announced Diablo IV, the highly anticipated next entry in its genre-defining action–role-playing series. The newest instalment of Diablo was announced during BlizzCon 2019, where attendees were eager to be the first in the world to play a public demo of the game. Diablo IV draws players into a grim story line and gives them the freedom to explore and forge their own path across the most expansive and intense vision of the world of Sanctuary—a bleak and shattered hellscape bereft of hope and beset by demons.

True to the franchise’s roots, Diablo IV will deliver visceral combat, gruesome and varied monsters, an epic hunt for legendary loot, and endless playability and progression. Players will find a lifetime’s worth of adventure scattered across a land rooted in unique ecologies and inhabited by dangerous new foes. They’ll delve into randomised dungeons packed with unpredictable adversaries and unimaginable treasures. While continuing to fully support solo and coordinated party play, Diablo IV will also provide opportunities for groups of players to encounter each other in the same shared world—whether to tackle bigger challenges… or possibly even slaughter one another in player-vs.-player combat.

“Sanctuary has been a home to Diablo players for more than 20 years, and it’s with our own deep passion for the series and a deep appreciation of the community that we announce Diablo IV today,” said J. Allen Brack, president of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re excited to be returning to the dark, quintessential Diablo gameplay that players love while expanding the world and story in new ways, and we can’t wait for more people to be able to experience it.”

In Diablo IV, players will attempt to bring hope back to the world by vanquishing evil in all its vile incarnations—from cannibalistic demon-worshipping cultists to the all-new drowned undead that emerge from the coastlines to drag their victims to a watery grave. For the first time in the series, Sanctuary will be a contiguous, seamless landmass comprising diverse regions ranging from the burning desert of Kejhistan, to the verdant werewolf-infested forests of Scosglen, to the harsh and rugged wilderness of the Dry Steppes.

At BlizzCon, Blizzard revealed the first three of Diablo IV’s character classes, all playable at the show:

• The Barbarian, known for their unparalleled strength and brutal melee combat, utilises a new and more powerful system in battle, Arsenal, which arms them with the ability to carry and rapidly switch between four different weapons at a time by assigning them to individual attacks.
• The Sorceress hearkens back to their Diablo II roots and shapes the elements to obliterate their foes by impaling them upon jagged spikes of ice, electrocuting them with bolts of lightning, or raining flaming meteors from the sky.
• The Druid is a savage shapeshifter whose updated playstyle empowers them to fluidly transform between werewolf, werebear, and human form to unleash the raw power of nature’s fury on the forces of the Burning Hells. 

These three iconic characters honour the legacy of the franchise and exemplify how Diablo IV builds upon the series’ history by preserving the core Diablo fantasy while allowing players to explore untapped gameplay possibilities with fresh inspiration. Players will be able to experiment and discover countless character builds through customisable talent trees and skills, a deep loot system filled with legendary and set items to collect, runes and rune word combinations, and even personalised mounts for traversing the open world. 

Diablo IV is being developed using modern technology that pushes the franchise to dark, new depths. This technology is at the heart of everything players will see, hear, and feel—delivering much higher fidelity and a more engrossing experience. It opens up countless possibilities for the Diablo series, from smooth character animations, such as the Druid’s fluid shapeshifting, to the seamless, vast overworld players will travel across in search of the next loot-filled underground dungeon. Ultimately, Diablo IV will ground players in a grittier and deadlier world.

Diablo IV is currently in development and will be coming to PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

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