Stay tuned throughout the week for our Blizzcon Related coverage! We will be covering each of the major announcements in much more detail.

BlizzCon 2014 rolled in with a significant number of questions in regards to Blizzard Entertainment’s future plans in the gaming space. I, myself, have been an avid fan of Blizzard properties since I was 8 years old with the launch of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans. In the subsequent years, Blizzard has launched hugely successful franchises with Diablo and Starcraft and developed arguably the largest cult / mainstream following in gaming history. While Blizzard has continued to iterate and innovate on their core franchises, we have not scene truly new or fresh IP from Blizzard since the release of Starcraft in the late 90’s.

This raised some significant concerns for me as we have been rolling into a mature MMO with WoW, a recovering eSports scene with Starcraft and Heroes of The Storm. A more casual but still vastly popular Hearthstone scene, and some initial struggles with the realms of Diablo. With the widely reported cancellation of Blizzard’s new MMO IP, Project Titan, I was worried about Blizzard’s ability to keep everyone interested in the same core franchises. I am glad to report that Blizzard Entertainment came out swinging with not one or even two big announcements, but FOUR big reveals. This is on top of the highly anticipated World of Warcraft expansion, Warlords of Draenor in the coming days.

From smallest to largest, gamers can look forward to the following:

Hearthstone’s first major expansion pitting the titans of the Horde and the Alliance in CCG combat… Players will be able to throw down with brand new cards and gameplay mechanics before year’s end with Hearthstone: Goblins and Gnomes. This expansion will be functionally different than the previously released “adventure pack” The Curse of Naxxramus. The new gameplay mechanics take a central focus and aim to add another layer of complexity to the game which should make for even more interesting combinations of cards as well as more dynamic gameplay.

HearthstoneGvG

Next up, Blizzard announce their upcoming but widely public MOBA, Heroes of The Storm, will transition from Technical Alpha to a more available Closed Beta stage, with new heroes, at least 2 new battlegrounds and the introduction of ranked gameplay. This is happening sooner than many thought with a target date of January 2015. With a lot of effort going into polish, the new battlegrounds will feature more attention to detail and add in many new and familiar locales from the worlds created by Blizzard.

HeroesOfTheStorm

Pushing the envelope, with an even larger announcement. Starcraft: Legacy of The Void was revealed with teasers, trailers, panel talks, as well as playable builds to check out. Blizzard confirmed that LoTV will bring Starcraft 2’s story to a close with no info on what the future holds for the franchise. That being said, players can look forward to the standard high quality Blizzard single player campaign, in addition to substantial changes to existing units, and new units. There are also significant changes to the standard Multiplayer gameplay which will truly change the flow of games at all levels of play from casual to professional. While release data is still nebulous, Blizzard appears to be targeting a 2015 beta.

StarCraft_II_Legacy_of_the_Void_Logo

And last, but most definitely not least. After 17 years Blizzard has announced a brand new UNIVERSE…with completely new IP, with an accompanying game due much sooner than expected. The new universe simply titled Overwatch, was introduced with a Pixar-esque cinematic which introduced the world. While I’ll go into Overwatch in more detail in a follow-up article, the initial polish and attention to detail look to be up to Blizzard’s exacting standards. The universe features a wide variety of characters in a futuristic Sci-Fi setting. Gameplay wise, players can expect a Team Fortress / Counter-Strike hybrid class-based first person shooter. Even more surprising, Blizzard avoided their standard coy “when it’s ready” release statements with an immediate target of a 2015 beta. On top of this, hundreds of gameplay machines were available for players to try out gameplay on a number of maps.

Overwatch

So while we may not see many releases In 2015, it definitely appears to be The Year of The Beta, with 2016 tracking to be very active and interesting for Blizzard. Check out the follow up articles for further details and impressions of the announced titles as well as a general convention retrospective.

ABOUT >> Tabin Ahmad
  • ACCOUNT NAME >> PanicSwitched
  • BIO >> Tabin has been involved in gaming since before time began. In addition to his management roles at AC, he dabbles in Photography, Livestreaming and supporting various Esports endeavors.
  • CONTACT >>

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