News
Blizzard World Now Available On Overwatch PTR
It was announced earlier this month at BlizzCon and no it is finally here.
Overwatch’s update is now playable on the PTR, which is highlighted by the theme park hybrid map ‘Blizzard World’.
“An amusement park celebrating the universes of Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo, Blizzard World is a brand-new hybrid Assault/Escort map,” Blizzard said in their official patch notes.
“Charge the gates of Stormwind, sneak through the Nexus Experience, and guide the payload through areas filled with high ground, flanking routes, and environmental hazards. Grab some Blizzard-inspired snacks at the concession stand along the way!”
Here is the breakdown:
GENERAL:
A.I.
- An option to “Remove All A.I.” in the custom game lobby can be accessed by Right Click > Remove All Bots
BUG FIXES:
General
- Fixed an issue that caused the arcade card for Limited Duel and Mystery Duel to not list all currently disabled characters
- Fixed an issue that prevented certain sound effects from playing when navigating the Options menu with a controller
Heroes
- Fixed a visual bug that caused Ana’s Biotic Rifle ammo clip to detach when her Captain Amari skin was equipped
- Fixed a bug that caused Doomfist’s Seismic Slam to create performance drops when repeatedly used with no cooldown
- Fixed a bug that prevented Mei’s Cryo-freeze from clearing the healing debuff caused by Ana’s Biotic Grenade
- Fixed a visual bug with Moira’s Biotic Orb that sometimes caused Biotic Grasp’s healing spray effects to display instead
- Fixed a bug that prevented Moira from being able to pass through enemies when using Fade
- Fixed a bug that caused Moira’s eyelashes to detach from her face during her Heroic highlight intro
- Fixed a visual issue with Moira’s Oasis skin that caused her knees to clip through her knee guards while crouched
- Fixed a bug that caused Reaper’s shotguns to animate incorrectly when discarded on the ground
- Fixed an issue that prevented highlights captured by Zenyatta players from recording correctly when the Cultist skin was equipped
Maps
- Fixed a bug that caused a performance drop when players shot at the gold coin piles in the last Defender spawn of Junkertown
Business
Patreon Hires Twitch’s Adiya Taylor as New Corporate Communications Lead
Content creation platform Patreon has officially tabbed Adiya Taylor as their new corporate communications lead, effective in February, according to an official announcement.
Taylor worked for Amazon’s video game streaming platform Twitch for three years in a variety of roles, most recently serving as the company’s senior monetization communications manager prior to her departure.
Taylor’s hiring comes after Patreon brought on Brielle Villablanca as Vice President of communications and creator advocacy back in November 2023.
“I’m thrilled to begin crafting and implementing a communications strategy around policy, trust and safety, product and more,” Taylor said during an official post on the networking platform LinkedIn, adding that she believes Patreon is a “true advocate” for creators.
“I’m looking forward to more storytelling around how we’re fostering fandom so that creators own long-lasting businesses built around their artistry,” Taylor added.
Business
Microsoft Bringing Four Games to Rival Consoles
Microsoft has responded to recent reports that there will be changes to it’s first-party strategy and has confirmed that four game titles will be released on rival consoles.
More specifically, Xbox head Phil Spencer said that ‘Starfield’ and ‘Indiana Jones’ will not be among the four titles heading to other platforms. Both games had a number of candidate platforms, per reports, adding that this is “not a change to our fundamental exclusive strategy.”
“We don’t damage Xbox and we can grow our business using what other platforms have to help us with that,” Spencer said, according to GamesIndustry.biz. “Looking forward, I think there is an interesting story for us of introducing Xbox franchises to players on other platforms to get them more interested in Xbox. We think there’s a good brand value for Xbox there.”
Xbox president Sarah Bond announced that Activision Blizzard games would begin to be added into Game Pass offerings, starting with Diablo 4, which will be added on March 28th.
Additionally, Bond said that Microsoft is still working on hardware for the future and that their focus regarding the future is “delivering the largest technical leap you will ever have seen in a hardware generation.”
Business
Sega’s Revenue See Rise to $27 Billion
Sega Sammy has released its financial report for the nine-month period that officially concluded on December 31st, 2023, and that report that demonstrated a rise in overall sales and profit despite a decrease in sales for Sega’s new titles.
That decline was offset by growth in pachislot and pachinko machines, however Sega had lowered its sales forecasts for the full financial year.
Here is a breakdown, courtesy of GamesIndustry.biz.
- Net sales: ¥349.9 billion ($2.3 billion, up 28.7% year-on-year)
- Operating income: ¥54.4 billion ($364 million, up 42.4% year-on-year)
- Ordinary income: ¥57.2 billion ($383 million, up 42.7% year-on-year)
- Net sales were up 130.3% to ¥120.2 billion ($805 million) in this segment
- Ordinary income increased by 521.3% at ¥45.7 billion ($306 million).
- Entertainment Contents segment, which includes video games, net sales were up 4.2% at ¥219.3 billion
- Profit decreased by 52.5% to ¥19.7 billion ($131.8 million) as a result of weak game sales
You can read a breakdown of the entire report at GamesIndustry.biz here.
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