Issue 125: All eyes were on Gamescom this week (well, they were if you were a gamer). Blizzard is probably the reason there is so much attention given to the conference this year, which many might have ignored in the past since its all the way over in Germany. I tend to start these posts prior to the actual events, unless all there is to talk about are the daily posts by the common places I read gaming news, so I have no titillating sentences to get you excited for the major headlines because, chances are, you already know what I am going to cover in this issue.
I should warn you this post is going to be longer than normal because everyone is getting in on this years Gamescom, I guess they realized that if Blizzard is going to make a major announcement then there is going to be a much larger audience watching. We have news not only from Blizzard but also Microsoft, Bioware, Square Enix regarding various titles from X-Box games to Star Wars Battlefront, Final Fantasy, Star Wars The Old Republic and much much more! It’s almost hard to keep up with the news that keeps coming in!!! I think there is something here for everyone. KCGO.
Microsoft’s Gamescom Keynote
ars technica article
WoW Subs Drop Considerably
Posted 8.4.15 – Blizzard reported their Q2 earnings at their Gamescom press conference (no, this wasn’t the WoW press conference) and it looks like subscriptions have dropped quite a bit, down 1.5 million. I can’t remember the last time WoW had only a mere 5.6 million subscribers. Blizzard didn’t appear too concerned about it; in fact they seemed pretty confident that the expansion announcement and the upcoming movie will bring that number back up. Personally I think the fact that Warlords of Draenor was a pretty weak expansion is part of the reason for the big drop.
Blizzard Watch post
Heroes of the Storm Getting New Stuff
Blizzard Watch post | Official Preview Page
Star Wars Battlefront’s Dogfights
Posted 8.5.15 – As if you weren’t already excited enough about the new Star Wars Battlefront, now they have added a dogfight mode where you can take to the skies in iconic Star Wars spacecraft and fight ship-to-ship above planets. There is a trailer and it looks damn awesome. I may have to find some money in the budget to snag this game come November 17th because it just looks spectacular. I hope it lives up to the hype!
polygon article
SWTOR Expansion Trailer
Massively Overpowered post
Wait! There’s a FFXV Trailer???!
Posted 8.5.15 – I think Square Enix has made all the Final Fantasy fans out there squeal as they unveiled a trailer (already!) for their upcoming title Final Fantasy XV (that’s 15 for those that are not Roman Numerically inclined). But wait! There’s more!! They also announced that the game will be released next year, though they make it sound like it might be later in the year. They plan on announcing more details at PAX Prime which is at the end of August. Gamespot put together, what appears to be, a comprehensive list of details unveiled at Gamescom about FFXV.
Gamespot post | “DAWN” Trailer
New Overwatch Hero and Maps
Blizzard Watch post
New DA:I DLC Coming Very Soon
Posted 8.5.15 – Bioware didn’t forget about you Dragon Age fans out there. They announced at Gamescom that new DLC for Dragon Age: Inquisition will be dropping … next week! The new content is called The Descent and is expected to be available to download August 11th. There is a trailer to watch and it will be available for all platforms (no PS4 delays this time). They didn’t mention a price but the previous DLC was $14.99 with 10% off for EA subscribers.
polygon post
Guild Wars 2 Expansion Update
Massively Overpowered post
WoW: And The New Expansion Is …
Posted 8.6.15 – Legion – Features Include: Level Cap Increased to 110, New Zone: Broken Isles (from Warcraft 3), New PvP Honor System, Artifact Weapons (which look frakkin cool!!!), Class Order Halls (ex: The Silver Hand), and the coolest thing of all (which I called) new hero class the Demon Hunter!! Dalaran returns, which I think is cool because its probably my favorite city and the Emerald Nightmare and “glimpses of the Emerald Dream”!!! There is so much that is cool you will have to check out the links to see it all. This could be enough to turn subscription rates around! I’m excited as hell!!
MMO-Champion | Massively Overpowered | Official website