Activision and Microsoft have reportedly approved the creation of a new "smaller" team within Blizzard Entertainment - mostly comprised of employees from Activision's mobile-focused King division - to develop new "AA" games based on existing Blizzard properties.
That's according to Windows Central's Jez Corden, whose sources say the new initiative reflects an eagerness at Microsoft to "explore and experiment" with smaller teams within the larger organisation, in response to the "monstrously ballooning costs" of AAA game development.
Corden notes Microsoft has seen success with the likes of Sea of Thieves and Grounded, both built by comparatively small teams - and, of course, 2023's Hi-Fi Rush, created by a small team within Tango Gameworks, was heralded as a "break out hit" by Microsoft after its release.
Activision and Microsoft have reportedly approved the creation of a new "smaller" team within Blizzard Entertainment - mostly comprised of employees from Activision's mobile-focused King division - to develop new "AA" games based on existing Blizzard properties.
That's according to Windows Central's Jez Corden, whose sources say the new initiative reflects an eagerness at Microsoft to "explore and experiment" with smaller teams within the larger organisation, in response to the "monstrously ballooning costs" of AAA game development.
Corden notes Microsoft has seen success with the likes of Sea of Thieves and Grounded, both built by comparatively small teams - and, of course, 2023's Hi-Fi Rush, created by a small team within Tango Gameworks, was heralded as a "break out hit" by Microsoft after its release.
We are officially in summer, with the summer solstice having passed just yesterday. Happy Midsommar to all who celebrate. May your sacrifices protect you and bring a bountiful harvest once more.
I was a bit surprised that the Steam Summer Sale did not kick off yesterday. Steam has a pretty solid track record of landing summer and winter sales on the first day of each season. But this year it won’t start until the 27th. [Addendum: Though if I had looked back to 2023, I would have seen it didn’t start until the 29th, so just another issue in my brain.]
So no post about that today, as I had sort of planned. Instead, some things are launching or announcing dates for launch. Time for a pass through that I guess!
Tarisland Launches
Tarisland goes live today, doesn’t it? Technically it is going live world-wide and will have launched everywhere on the list by the time this post gets published. At 11am eastern time it was supposed to go live here in North America, the last of its launch regions after Asia, Europe, and South America.
Now here and Free to Play
Derided repeatedly as a WoW-clone in a world where it is tough to be an MMORPG without that comparison, it is available on PC, Android, and iOS as a free to play title.
I have said several times that I wanted to give it a try, if only to see if all this WoW-clone talk had any merit. But I have I downloaded it yet? I have not. Maybe it will strike my fancy this weekend.
Anyway, there is a launch announcement with details on how to join in on your platform of choice. They have even partnered with an emulator to try and make the game playable on MacOS. You need an M-series Mac, no Intel models need apply, and there are hoops to jump through, but you could make it happen if you were dying to play.
Finally, looking at that logo, is it Tasisland or Taris Land?
Also it is multiplayer. And a lot of people will be able to play together. I mean, they literally use the word “massive” later on in the text to describe the PvP and PvPvE experience. It is almost like it is… I don’t know, another MMORPG?
Amazon, why won’t you say that? They have literally banished the term from their web site. They make zero MMORPGs if you believe what they say.
Anyway, a title that I nearly put on the “won’t ship in 2024” list for my new year’s predictions… seriously, it was on there, then I realized I had one too many for the point count, so I removed it, will in fact ship in 2024, landing on September 17th.
So I dodged that bullet. That and the whole refusal by Amazon to use the term “MMORPG” are the key takeaways from this bullet point.
Valheim Board Game
Valheim has apparently hit the level of success where somebody felt they needed to make a board game out of the experience.
Please Odin… now in physical form
This will be a crowdfunding campaign and run by another company, which is probably good because Iron Gate has like three devs and they still have a biome to finish some time this decade. The campaign will be run on Game Found, an off-brand Kickstarter clone for board games which you can find here.
There is a teaser video, but I am not going to bother to embed it because it is 17 seconds and tells you less than I’ve already written. If you are interested you’ll have to go sign up at Game Found to get alerts as to when the campaign will go live… as they haven’t bothered to tell us yet.
EVE Online Paragon Store for SKINs
The next stage of the Equinox expansion hit yesterday, which included the launch of the Paragon store in game, which allows you to take those rather pricey SKINs you can make with the new SKINR utility and list them on the market.
Want to buy a lime green Harpy SKIN?
And, of course, it is a mess. The store front is there and you can do some sorting, but as an online shopping experience it rates ahead of the Pokemon Go in-game cosmetic store, but only just barely, and Niantic at least has the poor excuse of having to work within phone sized devices.
Anyway, you can find it in game… not easily, but you’ll get there if you persist… and read the CCP optimistic take on it here. Or you can go over to r/eve and see what players think. It isn’t pretty.
EVE Vanguard Solstice
CCP’s decades spanning desire to make a successful first person shooter game despite all the signs indicating it is a bad idea carries on with a new round of EVE Vanguard testing which starts… wait, it started yesterday, didn’t it? Yes.
The Solstice is here… which means it will just get darker from now on
The play test… because it is still in alpha so all two dozen fans will get angry and remind you of this should you criticize any aspect of it… features a second map, weapon SKINs, and… um… well, there is still just one gun, but you can now change its stats with chip sets you can find in game.
The play test runs to July 1st, so there is plenty of time to join in. You’ll need to download it in the EVE Online launcher because CCP is determined to handcuff this potential corpse to its one viable game. And, of course, they are offering SKINs to people who join in… which feels kind of odd now that they have blown up the SKIN market with SKINR, but whatever. That is the bribe they have to offer.
Finally, over at Blizzard they are cranking out yet another Hearthstone expansion. It isn’t exactly a “month with a vowel in it” level of phenomena, but they do seem to get two or three out every year.
Maybe the WoW team could learn something from them.
Or maybe not, as Hearthstone goes where it pleases with the lore, with the new expansion being called Perils in Paradise, featuring a lot of perhaps unlikely Azeroth activities on the splash screen.
Perils in paradise
Anyway, among the features of the expansion are tourist cards that act as a conduit to bring in cards unrelated to your class in order to spice up your deck. Blizz is also introducing catch-up packs, which I think was mentioned back at BlizzCon where I made some joke about ketchup packs… wait, here is the joke… was it worth it?
How this helps you with deck building I don’t know…
Anyway, those are here now. The whole thing launches on July 23rd and you can read more about it here.
That is what I’ve got for Friday. Did I miss anything?
What are the best card games on PC? It is not a question we would have been asking a few years ago, when some basic ports of paper-based systems and some minigames in larger titles were all we had access to.
Now, there are heaps of games like Hearthstone vying to be among the best card games on PC - it is one of the fastest-growing genres in the industry. Card games offer players a rich and constantly shifting meta, potentially limitless replayability, and are approachable to boot - so it is not hard to see why they have started to emerge on our best PC games list. Our list covers everything from the biggest player in the genre today, the best ports from paper, the up-and-comers you might not have heard of, and some of the best free card games out there.
I pretty much spent all of February ignoring WoW, Blizzard, or anything related. The call of Valheim and the need for a break was strong I guess. I suppose it is time to take a minute to catch up with a new month on hand. And hey, it is Friday, so bullet points look like the path forward.
Season of Discovery Season 2 and XP Boosts
WoW Classic: Season of Discoveryhit phase 2 early in February, so that is hardly news I suppose, except to acknowlegde that it happened and that I haven’t logged in since before that occured. I had done the WoW Classic zones already a few times, and for anybody who was neither raiding nor interested in PvP, Season of Discorvery doesn’t have much new to offer. The idea of “Classic Plus” was always a fantasy.
The Gnomeregan raid was the headline of phase 2
Well, Blizz has apparently at least realized that making everybody grind through vanilla yet again… they’re on a mission to make us do this once a year I guess… so will be introducing the Discoverer’s Delight buff, which brings a 100% xp boost for level 1-39 characters.
They have also decided to cut the price of level 40 mounts in half and to increase the coin reward for all level 1-39 quests, because while penury was all fun and laughs back in 2004, asking us to scrimp and save to just buy our basic class skills yet again is turning into a non-starter for some.
That will all land next Tuesday next week, March 5th, which is also “Super Tuesday” (of “Stupid Tuesday” as it may turn out) here in the US.
The team did say they won’t change the price of epic mounts, but I am not convinced they will stick with that. Grind for that fast mount just on a server that will go away soon enough?
Blizz is also going to adjust a bunch of raid related things, because raiders are always the main concern of the company. There is also some discussion of level 60, end game, and what happens to these characters with all the special skills and runes when Blizz ends the season. My bet is that they will managed to make people angry somehow when they shut down the Season of Discovery servers.
Microsoft… and I should probably just stop using “Blizzard” or “Activision” now, it is all the Microsoft show, layoffs and all… has announced the first formerly Blizzard title to show up on the Microsoft XBox PC Game Pass: Diablo IV.
Diablo IV
Coming March 28th, you will be able to play Diablo IV by just subscribing to the XBox PC Game Pass, which last I checked was $10 a month, though rumor has it that price will be going up before the end of the year.
Blizz has another WoW item available on Prime Gaming, the tabard of frost.
The promo shot for the tabard
While a tabard is kind of small potatoes, it still looks better than what you can make with the guild tabard generator, a bit of the game still stuck in 2004. Also, only available for retail WoW.
Is WoW Classic Hardcore not challenging enough? Want to prove you’re even tougher than the run of the mill no-lifers who made it to level 60? WoW Classic Hardcore introduced “self found” mode so you can prove you’re a step above the average hardcore survivor.
Hardcore for all your… something… needs
Self found mode restricts your character from using the auction house, recieving in-game mail, or trading with other players so that you can prove the purity of your efforts.
If you decide you have made a horrible mistake in choosing that mode, you can turn it off. But once turned off, it can never be restored.
I feel like I should be interested in what Blizz has going on when it comes to the next retail expansion… though I also feel like I shouldn’t care since I haven’t played since early Shadowlands… so I did poke my nose into the early look at the hero talent trees for The War Within. So, for example, Paladins will have hero talents that work between spec pairs it seems.
This is one piece of a giant chart, let me assure you
And, at some level, “hero talents” sounds pretty cool.
But then the history of the game starts to weigh on me. Specs and talents get thrown in the air and redone with EVERY expansion. Nothing ever builds on the past, everything is a complete rug pull, changing up what you’ve grown used to in order to try and be fresh and new. Also, anything with “hero” in the name is doomed to be nerfed it is as all useful. The history of the game demands it.
Remember when Hearthstone came out… oh… ten years ago! Yeah, back then for launch to get WoW players to try it out, they gave away the Hearthsteed. I will admit, that was enough to bribe me to try it out.
Well, now that Hearthstone is turning ten, they are doing it again, this time offering the Fiery Hearthsteed mount to WoW players who log in between March 11 and May 14 2024.
Hearthsteed, hearthsteed, burning bright…
This reward, like the frost tabard above, is only available to be redeemed in retail WoW. Classic players can suck it… which makes me wonder if I should bother. Oh, who am I kidding, I do Twitch drops for games I’ll never play again, I can log into Hearthstone for this.
So it goes, here on the first day of March. Spring is in the offing, at least here in the US, but so is Daylight Savings Time, so your mileage may vary.
I pretty much spent all of February ignoring WoW, Blizzard, or anything related. The call of Valheim and the need for a break was strong I guess. I suppose it is time to take a minute to catch up with a new month on hand. And hey, it is Friday, so bullet points look like the path forward.
Season of Discovery Season 2 and XP Boosts
WoW Classic: Season of Discoveryhit phase 2 early in February, so that is hardly news I suppose, except to acknowlegde that it happened and that I haven’t logged in since before that occured. I had done the WoW Classic zones already a few times, and for anybody who was neither raiding nor interested in PvP, Season of Discorvery doesn’t have much new to offer. The idea of “Classic Plus” was always a fantasy.
The Gnomeregan raid was the headline of phase 2
Well, Blizz has apparently at least realized that making everybody grind through vanilla yet again… they’re on a mission to make us do this once a year I guess… so will be introducing the Discoverer’s Delight buff, which brings a 100% xp boost for level 1-39 characters.
They have also decided to cut the price of level 40 mounts in half and to increase the coin reward for all level 1-39 quests, because while penury was all fun and laughs back in 2004, asking us to scrimp and save to just buy our basic class skills yet again is turning into a non-starter for some.
That will all land next Tuesday next week, March 5th, which is also “Super Tuesday” (of “Stupid Tuesday” as it may turn out) here in the US.
The team did say they won’t change the price of epic mounts, but I am not convinced they will stick with that. Grind for that fast mount just on a server that will go away soon enough?
Blizz is also going to adjust a bunch of raid related things, because raiders are always the main concern of the company. There is also some discussion of level 60, end game, and what happens to these characters with all the special skills and runes when Blizz ends the season. My bet is that they will managed to make people angry somehow when they shut down the Season of Discovery servers.
Microsoft… and I should probably just stop using “Blizzard” or “Activision” now, it is all the Microsoft show, layoffs and all… has announced the first formerly Blizzard title to show up on the Microsoft XBox PC Game Pass: Diablo IV.
Diablo IV
Coming March 28th, you will be able to play Diablo IV by just subscribing to the XBox PC Game Pass, which last I checked was $10 a month, though rumor has it that price will be going up before the end of the year.
Blizz has another WoW item available on Prime Gaming, the tabard of frost.
The promo shot for the tabard
While a tabard is kind of small potatoes, it still looks better than what you can make with the guild tabard generator, a bit of the game still stuck in 2004. Also, only available for retail WoW.
Is WoW Classic Hardcore not challenging enough? Want to prove you’re even tougher than the run of the mill no-lifers who made it to level 60? WoW Classic Hardcore introduced “self found” mode so you can prove you’re a step above the average hardcore survivor.
Hardcore for all your… something… needs
Self found mode restricts your character from using the auction house, recieving in-game mail, or trading with other players so that you can prove the purity of your efforts.
If you decide you have made a horrible mistake in choosing that mode, you can turn it off. But once turned off, it can never be restored.
I feel like I should be interested in what Blizz has going on when it comes to the next retail expansion… though I also feel like I shouldn’t care since I haven’t played since early Shadowlands… so I did poke my nose into the early look at the hero talent trees for The War Within. So, for example, Paladins will have hero talents that work between spec pairs it seems.
This is one piece of a giant chart, let me assure you
And, at some level, “hero talents” sounds pretty cool.
But then the history of the game starts to weigh on me. Specs and talents get thrown in the air and redone with EVERY expansion. Nothing ever builds on the past, everything is a complete rug pull, changing up what you’ve grown used to in order to try and be fresh and new. Also, anything with “hero” in the name is doomed to be nerfed it is as all useful. The history of the game demands it.
Remember when Hearthstone came out… oh… ten years ago! Yeah, back then for launch to get WoW players to try it out, they gave away the Hearthsteed. I will admit, that was enough to bribe me to try it out.
Well, now that Hearthstone is turning ten, they are doing it again, this time offering the Fiery Hearthsteed mount to WoW players who log in between March 11 and May 14 2024.
Hearthsteed, hearthsteed, burning bright…
This reward, like the frost tabard above, is only available to be redeemed in retail WoW. Classic players can suck it… which makes me wonder if I should bother. Oh, who am I kidding, I do Twitch drops for games I’ll never play again, I can log into Hearthstone for this.
So it goes, here on the first day of March. Spring is in the offing, at least here in the US, but so is Daylight Savings Time, so your mileage may vary.
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