In no particular order, I would like to start off with Blizzard’s Overwatch. In the year of 2018 Blizzard released a special skin for the character of Mercy. This stylish pink skin was available from May 8th to May 21st with a price of $15 (USD). Blizzard Entertainment would go on to donate 100% of the proceeds to Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The guaranteed minimum donation started at $250,000 (USD). In July of 2018, Blizzard announced a total of $12.7 Million was raised by the players.

Overwatch

https://youtu.be/BIQBvOGspmw – Video : Pink mercy l Support BCRF l Overwatch

In 2021 Capcom partnered with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation to release two different skins for the fan favorites of CHUN-LI and RYU. This event would run for an entire month from October 12th to November 12th. Both characters got a pink skin with a reversed highlight option for the price of $5.99 (USD) each or $9.99 (USD) as a two-pack. The guaranteed minimum donation started at $25,000 (USD). In June of 2022, Capcom would go on to announce that a total of $75,000 was raised by the players.

Destructoid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJgBYSLNbgM – Video: Street Fighter V – BCRF x SF 

Behemoth decided to release their own DLC in 2011 that would help support Breast Cancer Awareness. A brand-new character that goes by the name of the Pink Knight was released for $1.99 (USD) on February 8th for the PSN. This charismatic character was also released alongside a Lollipop and four other brand-new weapons. 100% of the revenue was stated to be donated to charities involved with breast cancer research. The Pink Knight is still purchasable on Steam for $0.99 (USD). However, it is unknown if the partnership is still ongoing. It is also unknown how much money was raised.

2014 was an exceptional year for Bandai Namco as they decided to launch their Ms. Pac-Man Ribbon Campaign to benefit the National Breast Cancer Foundation. During the month of October, Bandai Namco released a Pink Maze for their Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man mobile games. This Pink Maze cost $0.99 (USD) with 100% of the proceeds set to go to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. It is unknown how much was raised during the month of October.

2014 was an exceptional year for Bandai Namco as they decided to launch their Ms. Pac-Man Ribbon Campaign to benefit the National Breast Cancer Foundation. During the month of October, Bandai Namco released a Pink Maze for their Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man mobile games. This Pink Maze cost $0.99 (USD) with 100% of the proceeds set to go to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. It is unknown how much was raised during the month of October.

SCS Software created their own DLC in 2019 to also support Breast Cancer Awareness. On October 1st of 2019 a $1.99 (USD) Pink Ribbon Charity Pack was released for Euro Truck Simulator 2. 100% of the proceeds were stated to be donated to reputable Breast Cancer research and awareness charities. The Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the Alliance of Women with Breast Cancer were the two named research/charities. The Pink Ribbon Charity Pack can still be purchased to this day and the partnership is ongoing.

These are just a few of the many video game publishers that have helped in the fight against Breast Cancer. I hope many of the huge name publishers see how much of a difference they can make with their following.

Diablo 4 may be on some unknown horizon, but Blizzard wants to make sure you’re aware that it’s still out there.  They have released (via IGN) an official trailer teaser featuring “Cannibals” with the caption “Check out the gruesome monster family coming to Diablo 4, the Cannibals.”  In it, the camera slowly pans around numerous frozen characters presumably showing up as enemies in the future release.

The fact that this is labeled a “teaser trailer” implies that a more robust trailer is coming down the line, but I have to say that I question the purpose of such a trailer in the first place.  All it does is pan back and forth across those frozen models for 90 seconds.  That hardly seems like a teaser since it hasn’t made me or anyone I know more excited about these depicted people.

Blizzard hasn’t made much in the way of news since the terrible launch of Warcraft III: Reforged.  Outside of the news that they would offer unconditional refunds for the much-criticized re-release, the company seems to be trying to stay out of the mainstream gaming media until they can offer something to improve their standing.  However, after so many negative announcements and recent releases, many have lost hope that Blizzard can redeem itself.

I still have some hope that the company can get Diablo 4 to a state that both launches better than Diablo 3 and is as enjoyable and robust is it needs to be to stand out.  There was a time when ARPGs were sparse, but developers are now embracing the fun of hacking and slashing enemies in ways that advance well beyond what Diablo popularized.  If Blizzard wants to “wow” anyone with this next release, they’re going to have to do more than spin a camera around a diorama.

Are you excited for Diablo 4?  Do you think Blizzard can bounce back before the game attempts to launch?

There are no guarantees in life, but it’s really starting to feel inevitable that Blizzard will announce Diablo 4 at BlizzCon 2019. Aside from the avalanche of rumors that hint at the game’s pending reveal, there’s also the fact that people are still talking about how badly Blizzard botched the reveal of the mobile game, Diablo Immortal.

Combine that controversy with some other recent controversies involving Blizzard and Hong Kong and…well…let’s just say Blizzard could use a win.

Until now, much of the talk surrounding Diablo 4 has been pretty standard. Most people expect it to be similar to Diablo 3 in most respects but bigger and hopefully better. Because Diablo 4 needs to be a big win for Blizzard, people don’t think they’ll try to reinvent the wheel with this sequel.

Yet, there are some who wonder if now isn’t the perfect time for Blizzard to change the Diablo formula just a bit. Specifically, some are wondering if Diablo 4 should be more like Dark Souls.

Before we break down what that means, let’s clear the air a bit. There was a rumor that started floating around about a year ago which suggested that an early version of Diablo 4 was in fact modeled after the Dark Souls formula. However, it was also reported that the Diablo team didn’t like how that game was coming together and decided to abandon it in favor of something more traditional.

That would seem to close the lid on the idea that Diablo 4 may resemble Dark Souls, but that suggestion ignores a couple of points. First off, we don’t know how much of that original build of Diablo 4 may have survived the transition. It’s possible that Diablo 4 could still be a third-person game and not an isometric RPG, for instance.

More importantly, the question isn’t whether or not Diablo 4 will be more like Dark Souls. The quest is, “Should Diablo 4 be more like Dark Souls?”

That question is much more interesting. Until now, the Diablo series has followed a pretty straightforward formula that hasn’t changed much over the years. They are isometric action-RPGs that see you level up a character and acquire increasingly better gear off random and pre-determined drops. They’re mostly known for their simple (but deep) gameplay, dark tones, and hours of content.

That’s all well and good, but it’s been seven years since the release of Diablo 3. A lot has happened since then. Games like Path of Exile have replicated the Diablo formula and added so much content over the years that there’s no way Diablo 4 could conceivably match it out of the gate. We’ve also seen titles like Destiny come along and offer core elements of the Diablo formula as part of an evolved package that features changes like first-person shooter gameplay and persistent online multiplayer options.

Yet, the most important thing that has changed since the release of Diablo 3 was the reveal of the aforementioned Diablo Immortal.

Early reports indicate that Diablo Immortal is actually pretty similar to a traditional mobile game but on mobile devices. That makes a lot of sense, actually, when you consider that Diablo doesn’t demand much from a technical standpoint that couldn’t be accomplished in the ’90s and early 2000s.

That’s kind of the point here. What happens if Diablo 4 offers pretty much the same experience as Diablo Immortal but features a few more mechanics and some slightly refined graphics? You get the feeling that might kind of “expose” the ways in which Diablo has aged and inspire some to suggest that Diablo 4 was negatively impacted by Blizzard’s desire to make mobile games.

That being the case, you’d think that Diablo 4 might benefit from going the Dark Souls route in some ways. Specifically, it could incorporate a more dynamic third-person combat system, feature larger open environments, and even ramp up the difficulty and dark themes (two missing elements some fans took the retail release of Diablo 3 to task for). Diablo 4 could borrow aspects and innovations from Dark Souls, feel new, and still feel like a Diablo game at the core.

It sounds good, but it probably won’t happen. The truth is that far more people will probably be upset if Diablo 4 is anything but the “more Diablo” they’ve been seeking for years. We’ll see how those fans react to a game that may just be an improved Diablo 3, but right now, Diablo 4 is most valuable as a PR win for Blizzard and an almost guaranteed sales hit. Diablo Immortal proved that a Diablo game that offers something even a little different may not get them both of those things.

Yet, you can’t help but wonder if we’re at a point when it is in fact time for Diablo 4 to grow and even change.

Not long after Overwatch released in 2016, Chris Metzen stepped down from his role in Blizzard. While he had not been a founder, he had become a core component in the foundation of the company. He created many character designs and animations, provided many story concepts for their main franchises, and even voiced several important characters within those stories. His exit, along with other long-time leaders in the company, seemed to be a turning point in how Blizzard would function.

Blizzard’s desire to join in on the throngs of games reaching for always-online “games as a service” platform came to the surface with the launch of Diablo 3. A game franchise that previously had been just as viable to play completely offline since online now required a constant internet connection even when solo. This fell apart at launch as players installed the game and tried to log on only to see errors and failures to connect. The game was unplayable by some people for days.

On top of this, Diablo 3 featured an auction house where players could spend real money (with Blizzard taking a cut) to buy in-game weapons, armor, and other items. This worked off of a design where players would receive loads of gear not relevant to their character so they would have to dump it on the market and purchase loot that would actually help them. These issues were ultimately addressed, but clearly, Blizzard had started down a path of poor decisions based on profit.

Blizzard’s use of “loot boxes” in Overwatch is often cited as the starting point for the normalization of the practice in mainstream full-priced games. While the company denies any negative attributes of this practice, it has undoubtedly left a lasting negative impact on the gaming community. Again, the profitability of the company was prioritized over the quality of the game.

Last year at Blizzcon, the announcement of a mobile Diablo game shocked and angered many longtime fans of the franchise. Diablo Immortal would be developed in conjunction with a Chinese developer and shared many similarities with an existing game they had created, Endless of God. This whole process was Blizzard’s attempt to tap into the massive Chinese mobile gaming market, which has for years been the largest in the world. With this newfound pile of money to chase after, Blizzard was more than willing to capitulate to the Chinese government in recent events.

Blitzchung, a professional Hearthstone gamer, recently shouted on a Blizzard Taiwan stream “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our age.” This, of course, referencing ongoing protests in Hong Kong that are vehemently opposed by the Chinese government. In response, Blizzard stripped the player of his winnings, banned him from tournaments for a year, and fired the hosts of the stream despite them only being adjacent to the announcement.

It is to be expected that they would at least remove the VOD (video on demand) of the event from Twitch, but the fact that they took such egregious measures to punish someone for standing up for freedom is just simply sad. These are the actions of a company so desperate to drive their stock price back up that they’re willing to dish out unjust punishment based on ambiguous policy. It is the cherry on top of the frozen shell that Blizzard has become. A company that once exemplified the best parts of gaming has seemingly lost everything that once made it so great.

While some may trace Blizzard’s downfall back to their merge with Activision, it has become more obvious in recent years that the vision of the company isn’t what it used to be. I expect in the coming years, they’ll continue to cash in on the nostalgia of their fans by continuing to release things like a remastered StarCraft and Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft Classic. Meanwhile, I believe the franchises going forward will keep trending toward monetization-heavy experiences that lack the quality of previous games. It would take nothing short of a miracle to turn them around at this point.

For me, Blizzard is a lost cause. I can’t see myself being invested in any of their games in the future given current circumstances. Will you still be interested in future titles like Diablo Immortal? Do you plan on continuing to play games like Overwatch and Hearthstone? Has any of this changed your perspective on Blizzard?

Hearthstone, Blizzard’s entry into the CCG genre, isn’t dead. It still earns a fair amount of money, it’s still played by quite a few people, and it still has some presence on streaming and video platforms.

In the eyes of many who once loved the game, though, Hearthstone is effectively dead. What was once one of the world’s most popular games has been reduced to a relative shadow of itself? What happened? You can’t blame the game’s problem on

10. Mean Streets of Gadgetzan Expansion

Hearthstone‘s Mean Streets of Gadgetzan expansion introduced some of the most broken/annoying cards in the history of the game (Patches the Pirate and Jade Idol) and threw the balance between the game’s classes completely out of whack.

The bad decisions of this expansion combined with Blizzard’s slow responses to fix the problems (more on that later) are seen by some as the beginning of the game’s downturn.

9. Rise of Battle Royales/Auto-Battlers

Not all of Hearthstone‘s struggles can be blamed on the game.

The fact is that the rise of the battle royale an auto battler genres have cut into Hearthstone‘s exposure/potential player base. Of course, that might matter less if it wasn’t for Blizzard’s bad decisions.

8. Mass Streamer Exodus

The quality of Hearthstone is directly related to this, but the game has certainly suffered from a mass exodus of popular streaming personalities.

Many of the game’s biggest streamers from 2-3 years ago have publically vowed to not play Hearthstone again or at least play if far less often. This has directly impacted the games exposure and the feeling of being part of Hearthstone‘s “community.”

7. 2018’s Content

2018 will certainly go down as Hearthstone‘s worst year yet (maybe ever) for in-game content.

After 2017 introduced some of the more powerful (and interesting) cards in the game’s history, 2018 failed to introduce enough new cards that drastically changed the game. The result was that many players spent a couple of years playing roughly the same decks and cards.

6. Struggling Competitive Scene

This is certainly not the game’s biggest problem, but it deserves to be mentioned.

Hearthstone‘s competitive scene has been suffering in recent years due to a combination of bad/confusing rule changes and an inconsistent seasonal format. These problems have reduced the number of people who see Hearthstone as a viable competitive option.

5.  Cancellation of Tournament Modes and Other Features

For quite some time, Blizzard revealed they were working on an in-game tournament mode that ranked among Hearthstone‘s most requested features. Not long after, they revealed they were no longer working on it.

That cancellation infuriated a legion of fans who felt betrayed by what seemed to be confirmation that Blizzard would never deliver that (and other long-awaited) features would never be added to the game.

4. The End of Adventures

There used to be two kinds of Hearthstone expansions: full expansions and adventures. Adventures were $20 releases that added single-player content, as well as about 40 new cards that anyone who played the adventures would eventually receive.

Starting in 2017, Blizzard phased adventures in favor of releasing three full expansions a year. This was a huge blow to budget players who relied on these adventures as a (relatively) cheap way to regularly get new cards. That brings us to our next couple of points…

3. The Real Cost of Expansions

In a perfect world, you’d pay about $60 for a new Hearthstone expansion and get every card. In a better world, you’d get every card from the $80 bundles Blizzard offers before the launch of new expansions.

In the real world, you’ve got to pay about $130-$150 an expansion in order to have a real chance to get every new Hearthstone card. That’s a price point that ensures only Hearthstone whales will be able to really explore the possibilities of each new expansion.

2. Terrible “Dust” Economy

In Hearthstone, you have the ability to turn cards into “dust.” Dust can then be used to craft new cards. It’s the broken backbone of Hearthstone’s economy.

In order to craft a Legendary Hearthstone card (the game’s highest rarity), you’d need to dust four other non-golden Legendary cards. Basically, dusting a card of a certain rarity allows you to craft one card from a lower rarity. This makes it incredibly difficult to craft decks and high-tier cards organically even if you’re willing to sacrifice your collection.

1. Slow Updates

Did you know that almost all of the above problems likely wouldn’t have led to Hearthstone being in the state that it is if it weren’t for the fact that the Hearthstone team have been notoriously slow when it comes to updating their game?

There was a time when you would have to wait months and months for clearly problematic Hearthstone cards to be altered. There was a time when players wouldn’t get any new content between the release of expansions. Blizzard has gotten a little better about this recently, but at a time of weekly updates, Hearhstone‘s sporadic content schedule can leave the game feeling broken (or worse) for weeks and months on end.

In another classic “Jeff from the Overwatch team” video , an announcement and briefing about the new method for matchmaking in Overwatch shook the foundations of what the game has been for the past three years. Soon, rather than queuing up and trying to form a cogent team through varying levels of heated debate or outright rage, you’ll be queueing up as either a tank, support, or damage. Each of these will have their respective queue times depending on how many people are playing, but more interestingly, they’ll also have their own matchmaking rating. This means you could be the world’s greatest tank and the world’s worst support and get in matches that correspond to your skill level in each.

This is going to come with some upheaval to the way people put together their team structures. More coordinated teams, especially in competitive, use team setups that have a variety of different roles and hero use. Having to conform to the “2-2-2” (two tanks, two supports, and two healers) design will mean that individual character choice will have a larger impact than simply stacking healers or tanks. This also means some characters will need to be rebalanced. Some of the more recent characters that could be defined as “cross-role”, such as Brigitte, will be rebalanced to better fit into their primary roles. Brigitte will be shifted more toward healing and have less survivability in order to be better at keeping the team alive when only one other healer is available. This could extend to other characters as well and be a defining factor in those developed in the future.

What this means to me, and probably many other people who have moved on from a game that that seemed to get a bit stagnant, is that we finally have a new reason to get back into it. It has the potential to limit toxicity from reactions to what heroes players pick and will streamline the team forming experience as a whole. While it obviously will still be necessary to switch characters on the fly if things aren’t going well in a match, there’s now going to be less of those moments where you question how you ended up with four damage heroes. In addition, if you have a hero you enjoy playing and practice with a lot, you have a much better chance of playing them as much as you’d like. That’s a huge positive for people who don’t want just may not be into other types of gameplay. I am still curious about a couple of things, such as which characters are going to be rebalanced and how pro teams are going to adjust, but I’m excited nonetheless.

Will you be jumping back in Overwatch to try this out? Does it make it sound more appealing if you’ve never tried the game before? I’d like to hear how other players who have moved on are reacting to this change in the fundamental matchmaking process.

It has been nearly 11 years since Blizzard (as a part of Vivendi) merged with Activision and became Activision Blizzard. Since that time, the value of the company has steadily climbed, even as some of its core franchises were met with public criticism. Nearly every game developed primarily after this merger (StarCraft 2 was already in development) has had public perception issues—usually relating to monetization. Diablo 3’s in-game auction house led to a game with a loot system built to drive a desire to buy and sell products for real money. Hearthstone was the company’s first real “Free to Play” game, a monetization method generally designed to coerce players into heavily investing in microtransactions. Overwatch became one of the first games to popularize the concept of buying a full price game and having optional in-game loot boxes and microtransactions. Then, most recently, Diablo Immortal became Blizzard’s first fully mobile game to the stunned silence of the audience at Blizzcon 2018.

Blizzard seems to have shifted its corporate culture from creating games that appeal to specific fanbases to one that places a much stronger emphasis on building profitable games. Being a brand on the face of the stock exchange will do that to any company. Where once Blizzard was only scrutinized by their customers, now the value of their company can be at stake from a game that doesn’t perform as well as they had predicted. With that perspective in mind, the choice to take Diablo to mobile makes a lot more sense. Mobile games are one of the largest gaming markets in the world, especially in China. That is why Diablo Immortal is being co-developed by the Chinese company NetEase. The country has well-established laws prohibiting foreign publishers from operating games there, meaning the partnership is most likely a method to enable access to that market, giving them the ability to reach millions of Chinese gamers. With the right game, it could be a very successful endeavor.

Does Blizzard have a path to climb out of this downward spiral? Has the negative reaction to Diablo Immortal and the recent cancellation of an unnamed StarCraft first-person shooter caused them to rethink their strategies? Well, one of the reasons this StarCraft game was canceled was to focus resources on creating Diablo 4. They’ve obviously seen how little the American market desires for the franchise to go to mobile, so things may be turning around in that particular area.

Of course, that doesn’t mean Diablo 4 won’t have its own set of design or monetization issues, but we do have to consider what happened with Diablo 3. After its troubled launch, the developers committed to building a game worthy of the franchise history. With the removal of the paid auction house and the addition of a significant amount of content, the game was much improved. A solid expansion was released and even now seven years later, the game still has content being released. Diablo 3 is a more rich and enjoyable experience in 2019 than it ever was in 2012. Multiple consoles have even had adapted ports of the game and each has been well received. Contrary to the perspective given by the development of Diablo Immortal, Blizzard still shows signs of understanding their core customer base.

Still, Activision Blizzard laid off 800 people a few months ago – even after announcing record profits. Moves like this can be demoralizing to development staff and, depending on the target of these layoffs, it could inhibit the actual development process directly. While virtually every company has an ebb and flow of employees, a volatile workplace is not a productive workplace. Especially for one that requires creativity as well as tolerance for the tedium of working out bugs.

Blizzard will undoubtedly continue efforts to focus on its existing intellectual properties and build games that expand upon them for as long as possible. Blizzard is still a huge company with thousands of employees, so they’re not going to disappear overnight no matter how bad things get. The factor that determines whether they’ll continue to be relevant down the line is how committed they’ll be to delivering the type of games that made them so popular. I don’t mean remaking StarCraft and WarCraft, but building on their franchises with new exciting content. Diablo 4 might be the first step back on the right path, but it could also be one that takes them further toward a future of being forgotten.

However during this time of rejoicing, there was another blow dealt to the scene. The IPL run by media giant IGN has been officially cancelled and disbanded. The IPL5 tournament was canceled and tickets refunded. With one of the most professionally done tournaments closing its doors after it had posted it’s most successful numbers, people were once again concerned about the future of the game.

Compounding on this worry was new rumors that the GSTL, GOMTV’s premiere team league, was entering its last season due to new contracts with blizzard. Smaller teams would be affected by this the hardest, and many would not be able to pay the $100,000 fee to enter into the OGN team league. With the calamity going on, there was great concern as to what was going to become of the game just weeks after the community thought it had been rejuvenated.

Then on April 4th, a large press conference was called by Blizzard Entertainment in South Korea on the future of Starcraft and their plans to keep it moving forward to become the e-sport it was designed to be.

Blizzard will be co-opting/working with already existing tournaments to build its Starcraft WCS(World Championship Series). With this new system, a player once entering into a region for the WCS, will now only be able to compete in that regions WCS matches. In North America, Major League Gaming will be providing the stage for WCS season one, two and three, while still having its own independent seasons in which Europeans and Koreans can still participate. The North American Star League will continue to be independent.

In South Korea, GOMTV’s season 2 (premiering on the 4^th) will be the first season of WCS South Korea. After that KeSPA’s Proleague will provide season 2. Season 3 will be under GOMTV’s control once again with GSL season 3. This means that the chances of seeing Foreigners participating in GSL is now highly unlikely. Participating against players in their own countries will now provide just as much of an incentive as participating overseas.  The OGN Proleague and the GSTL will still exist for team leagues, crushing any of the rumors of the GSTL being disbanded. Finally Europe will conduct its own WCS seasons in conjunction with ESL, while the IEM season remains separate.

Qualifications will begin in NA and EU using the Grandmaster Ladder as an invitation list for an online qualifying tournament. Seeded players from GSL and KeSPA’s league will make up the GSL season 2. On top of this there are a few more rules. No non WCS tournaments can take place on any day that there is a WCS event going on in that region. In NA and EU round of 32 will be played online, and round of 16 will be played in studio.  On top of this, something everyone has been waiting and praying for. Free 720p streams of all WCS events on TWITCH.tv. That means you get to watch Flash crush players beneath his heal in hi-def glory, all for free.

This will bring some new viewers to the game, and boost rating numbers through the roof. Three new tournaments, with Starcraft matches going on 5 nights a week with free 720p streams will result in a much more accessible sport and product for your casual viewers. Hats off to Blizzard! They learned from RIOT’s successful model of e-sport management, and it’s apparent that they really want to see this game thrive, and when developers support their games, their games last forever.

The Diablo III beta has been a source of joy for many and anguish for the people that have yet to participate. But that all changes for this weekend as everyone will get a chance to get in on slaughtering demons. Diablo III will be holding an open beta from 12pm April 20th to Monday April 23 at 10am. Check out the Battle.net blog for more information and the links to download the beta client. I’ll see you in the beta this weekend–give me your feedback of the beta in the comments.

Diablo III Open Beta Sign-up