Blizzard Entertainment announced delays for Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 during an earnings call earlier today. The company presented a slide that provided an update on its creative pipeline, which explained that content planned for next year would need “more development time to reach its full potential” due to changes in “key creative roles.”
Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 delayed pic.twitter.com/4pr9c0OEdz
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) November 2, 2021
“These are two of the most eagerly anticipated titles in the industry, and our teams have made great strides toward completion in recent quarters,” reads the slide. “But we believe giving the teams some extra time to complete production and continue growing their creative resources to support the titles after launch will ensure that these releases delight and engage their communities for many years in the future.”
Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 didn’t have definitive release dates. However, fans still had hope that the games would release sometime during 2022. In fact, the presentation mentioned that recent changes would mostly affect content for “next year,” so it’s possible that the two titles were slated for a 2022 release before the Activision Blizzard shake-up. At this point, the games will likely be in development until 2023.
It’s unclear what leadership shifts the company was referring to in its announcement. However, Jenn Oneal also said she was stepping down from her position as co-leader in a blog post on the company website the same day. She will transition into a new position before leaving the company at the end of the year. That leaves Mike Ybarra as the sole lead at a company already in hot water for its toxic company culture.
“I am doing this not because I am without hope for Blizzard,” Oneal wrote in her goodbye. “I’m inspired by the passion of everyone here, working toward meaningful, lasting change with their whole hearts. This energy has inspired me to step out and explore how I can do more to have games and diversity intersect, and hopefully make a broader industry impact that will benefit Blizzard (and other studios) as well.”
Blizzard reps didn’t specify when fans could expect to see more content related to Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4. Other leadership doesn’t seem to have publicly acknowledged Oneal’s imminent departure.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.