Blizzard Entertainment today released major details about BlizzCon 2018, its epic celebration of gaming and community taking place next week.

On Friday, 2nd of November 2018, and Saturday, 3rd of November 2018 PDT (3-4 November AEDT/NZDT), an expected 40,000+ people, and millions more tuning in online from around the world, will come together to see what has become a spectacle of video game culture.

Every BlizzCon is an epic moment in Blizzard history, and this one promises to be another one to remember—from announcements at the opening ceremony to the dozens of stage events, community activities, and esports tournaments taking place across more than 1 million square feet at the Anaheim Convention Center in California.

BlizzCon 2018 is sold out, with record attendance expected this year, but Blizzard wants to make sure as many people as possible from around the world can be part of the show. This year, Blizzard is adding to its slate of free livestreams, which include the show’s opening ceremony and all esports tournaments. Last year, over 10 million viewers from more than 180 countries tuned in to BlizzCon.

Blizzard is also enhancing the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket with more features and ways to be part of the show. The BlizzCon Virtual Ticket is a paid service providing the deepest access available to live content, with access to events from every major stage and field reports from the BlizzCon show floor.

It includes the same in-game virtual item bonuses for Blizzard franchises that show attendees receive and comes with access to dozens of videos on demand (VODs) featuring original programming. As a first in Blizzard’s history, this year’s Virtual Ticket also brings home one of the demos being debuted at the show, with the World of Warcraft Classic demo available to players around the world around the same time it goes live on the show floor.

“BlizzCon is simply the best part of the year for Blizzard and our player community, as we come together for an epic celebration of games and gamer culture,” said Saralyn Smith, executive producer of BlizzCon at Blizzard Entertainment. “This is a welcoming home for our global community. We co-create the show with our players, and we want to involve as much of our community as possible in forming the next epic moments that become Blizzard history.”

BlizzCon’s biggest news and announcements begin with the opening ceremony at 5:00 a.m. AEDT / 7:00 a.m. NZDT on Saturday, 3rd of November 2018.

Like last year, online viewers can tune in for free to see the pre-show and opening ceremony on the BlizzCon All-Access Channel starting at 4:30 a.m. AEDT / 6:30 a.m. NZDT.

This year, there are more ways to catch BlizzCon live. Livestreams are available via BlizzCon.com and the BlizzCon mobile app for Android and iOS. For the first time, viewers can watch livestreams using the BlizzCon TV app and the Blizzard Battle.net desktop app, and they can cast to their favourite devices using Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and Airplay. They can also watch in more languages than ever, with content available in English, Spanish, German, Korean, French, Chinese, Russian, and Portuguese.

For the first time, the BlizzCon All-Access Channel is airing two additional free livestream previews, from 8:00 a.m. AEDT / 10:00 a.m. NZDT to 9:00 a.m. AEDT / 11:00 a.m. NZDT on Saturday, and again from 9:00 a.m. AEDT / 11:00 a.m. NZDT to 10:00 a.m. AEDT / 12:00 p.m. NZDT on Sunday. To access the show programming available during these times, check out the BlizzCon 2018 Schedule.

Along with the opening ceremony and All-Access Channel previews, all esports programming at BlizzCon is livestreamed for free.

BlizzCon spans nearly every part of the Anaheim Convention Center (with more onsite broadcast equipment than many major league sports events). Blizzard is again featuring a multi-stage opening ceremony that will be simulcast throughout the convention centre. Panels and presentations featuring developers and special guests—and plenty of memorable moments—take place both days of the show across three stages: Mythic Stage, located in Hall D, and the Epic and Legendary Stages, both located in North Hall Level 2.

BlizzCon has traditionally ended with a closing headline band. BlizzCon 2018 is transforming that tradition into a closing music festival featuring three distinct entertainment experiences: the iconic American rock band Train, violinist and performance artist Lindsey Stirling, and DJ and popular actor Kristian Nairn. All three concerts will be streamed live in HD to online viewers via the Virtual Ticket.

Community Night returns with the legendary Costume Contest, Talent Contest, Movie Contest, and Art Contest. Featuring popular VO actors Darin De Paul as host and Matthew Mercer joining the judge’s panel, Blizzard’s biggest annual community stage show starts at 1:00 p.m. AEDT / 3:00 p.m. NZDT on Saturday, 3rd of November 2018, and is available to online viewers via the Virtual Ticket.

BlizzCon 2018 is also the site for Blizzard esports, gathering elite players from around the world to make history in the Overwatch World Cup Finals, Hearthstone Global Games Finals, StarCraft II WCS Global Finals, World of Warcraft Arena World Championship Global Finals, World of Warcraft Mythic Dungeon Invitational All-Stars, and Heroes of the Storm Global Championship Finals.

The post Blizzard Prepares an Unforgettable BlizzCon 2018 appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Finnish game studio Critical Force has just reached two amazing milestones with their mobile esports game Critical Ops. Mobile game industry legend and Esports prodigy Kevin Chou has joined the company as a board member and the game has soared past 30 Million downloads.

League’s Seoul metropolitan and put together a championship caliber team building around the former Lunatic Hai roster. KSV’s Heroes of the Storm team recently won the World Championship along with the the $500K first place prize at BlizzCon 2017. KSV’s newly formed PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) team is currently ranked number one in the Korean / Japan servers.

Kevin Chou’s earlier venture, the mobile game company Kabam was built from a tiny operation above a dim sum restaurant to a massive 1 billion dollar exit in 2017. Kevin was named as one of the “top 40 under 40” industry players by Fortune magazine in 2014.

Kevin Chou

“I’m passionate about esports, and Critical Force represents the leader in creating the first possible mobile FPS esports” said Kevin Chou. “I expect to work with a global team of people passionate about making great games and taking the right long term steps to bring competitive FPS experiences to gamers worldwide”.

“We are very pleased to have Kevin to join our board, and we look forward to his contributions” said Veli-Pekka Piirainen, CEO and Founder at Critical Force. “Kevin is a real veteran and a leader in the game industry worldwide. He led Kabam from founding to a billion dollar company and his experience as an entrepreneur, business leader and now as a founder and CEO of KSV Esports will be invaluable to Critical Force.”

Critical Force’s hallmark mobile esports title Critical Ops has now been downloaded for over 30 Million times and the game hasn’t even been officially released yet. This is a major milestone for the Finnish game company. Daily download numbers and other metrics will likely grow even more in the coming months due to a big upcoming update.

“Critical Force’s mobile esports scene has grown exponentially this year. There’s been a new Critical Ops tournament every week and even bigger events are in the plans. Getting the legendary Kevin Chou to join our board was just the first step. We will be taking even more major steps soon to grow the scene to the next level,” says CEO of Critical Force Veli-Pekka Piirainen.

Critical Force Team

Critical Force got started five years ago when CEO Veli-Pekka Piirainen and a small team of developers produced their first prototype of a multiplayer first person shooter for the mobile platform. Through incremental stages Critical Ops was eventually developed from this prototype. Critical Ops proved to be exceptionally suitable for mobile esports. From that day on Critical Force have engaged in pioneering work in the development of mobile esports.

The last couple of years have been extremely significant for Critical Force. The company moved to their current office in the center of Kajaani in the summer of 2016 and since then they have renovated and expanded several times due to the growth of the company. Critical Force received a $4.5 million seed investment from Korean game publisher conglomerate NHN Entertainment in the fall 2016. This is one of the biggest ever seed investments for a Finnish gaming company.

In the span of a little over a year Critical Force has grown exponentially from a 15 person core team to a family of over 60 games industry professionals. There are now employees of 13 different nationalities on the team. In addition to having employees in Kajaani, Finland there are now employees both in Seoul, South Korea as well as in Los Angeles in the United States.

Critical Force was also awarded best Finnish game developer of 2016.

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Grab your warglaives, load up your chain gun, and prepare to go ham on the core—Heroes of the Storm is now LIVE!

Players can download the game free at www.heroesofthestorm.com and (stage) dive into pulse-pounding battle, smashing through forts, brawling with mercenaries, and annihilating the enemy’s base as iconic heroes from the Blizzard multiverse.

Heroes of the Storm delivers rowdy team brawls with quick matches, dynamic Battlegrounds, and Blizzard’s trademark strategic gameplay and humour. In Heroes of the Storm, players form teams of five heroes or villains from Blizzard’s different game universes, including Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo, and battle other teams for glory in the Nexus.

No matter which roles they choose, players are able to make meaningful contributions to their team’s war effort, and everyone is rewarded for a team victory.

“Nowhere else can you find your favourite heroes and villains from different Blizzard games teaming up and duking it out in short, action-packed battles,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “Players battled each other in over 100 million matches during testing, and we saw tons of surprising strategies and insane last-minute wins—we can’t wait to see what else players come up with now that Heroes of the Storm is officially live.”

Fun and variety lie at the heart of Heroes of the Storm. Players have a wide range of options for customising how their heroes look and play, with different abilities, skins, and mounts to suit their strategy and personality. And as a place where universes collide, the Nexus features several unique and colourful Battlegrounds, each with different objectives that shape gameplay and create a team-brawler experience unlike any other. The game currently has 37 playable Heroes and 7 Battlegrounds—and more of both are on the way.

Heroes of the Storm also features multiple gameplay modes for players of every skill level, including cooperative Versus AI, in which players team up against computer-controlled opponents, and Quick Match, an accessible way to jump in and play versus others. Experienced players can also join forces against other teams in highly competitive, draft-style ranked play.

In celebration of the game’s launch, players who enter the Nexus within the first week (June 3–9) will receive a special in-game portrait. Players will also receive XP boosts during the first three weeks of launch, perfect for working toward that shiny new Master Skin.

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Rally your fellow heroes and get ready for battle, because the portal to the Nexus is about to bust wide open!

Blizzard Entertainment announced today that Heroes of the Storm will officially launch on June 3rd, 2015, following an open beta testing period beginning May 20th. The free-to-play online team brawler brings together a diverse cast of iconic characters from Blizzard’s far-flung realms of science fiction and fantasy, including the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo universes, and challenges them to compete in epic, adrenaline-charged battles.

Heroes of the Storm invites players to customise heroes to suit their style and then team up with friends for some all-out mayhem.The game features a variety of gameplay modes for players of every skill level, including Cooperative, in which players team up against computer-controlled opponents, and Quick Match, an accessible way to jump in and play versus others.

Experienced players can also join forces against other teams of players in highly competitive, draft-style ranked play.

“With its focus on team play and fast-paced fun, Heroes of the Storm is a fresh take on a very popular genre,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’ve built Heroes of the Storm in a way that makes it accessible to new players, but also challenging enough for veterans who really want to put their skills to the test. We can’t wait to see whatHeroes brings to the co-op and competitive scenes once the Nexus opens up to everyone.”

Heroes of the Storm will launch with more than 30 playable Heroes and 7 dynamic Battlegrounds, each with unique challenges to overcome and even more Heroes and Battlegrounds are on the way. Players can customise the look of their Heroes with a variety of skins, as well as switch between a stable of special mounts that help them cover ground on the battlefield more quickly.

To celebrate the launch of Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard will be holding a live-streamed event on June 1 in London, U.K. Further information will be made available as the events draw closer.

The post Blizzard’s Worlds Collide in June 2015 appeared first on Shane the Gamer.