Overwatch Beta Test Weekend April 16–17 AEST

From Saturday, April 16 at 2:00am AEST through to Sunday, April 17 at 2:00pm AEST, we’ll be hosting our second invitation-only Beta Test Weekend! For a limited time, we’ll be opening up the Overwatch beta test to a much larger number of players in the Americas (which includes Australia and New Zealand), as well as Europe, and Asia gameplay regions for another round of stress testing.

The objective: help us get the game, and our infrastructure, ready for release!

During the Beta Test Weekend, all players (including those currently in the Closed Beta) will have access to the full roster of 21 heroes and a limited selection of maps: Hanamura, Route 66, and Nepal. Certain features will also be unavailable during this Beta Test Weekend, such as Weekly Brawl! and Competitive Play. Since this is a stress test, we’re primarily interested in technical feedback, like how Overwatch runs on players’ systems, critical bug reports, and other game-impacting problems. One of our goals is to push our hardware to the limit, so players shouldn’t be surprised if they experience performance issues or run into unexpected downtime—that’s all part of the process.

To help us get the most out of this testing phase, we will be flagging accounts for the Beta Test Weekend on the morning of Friday, April 15, Australian Eastern Standard Time. Once flagged, we encourage all new recruits to download and install the beta game client so they are ready for action once the test officially begins. Those selected to participate in this Beta Test Weekend, will see an Install button appear in the Overwatch tab of the Battle.net desktop app as well as an Overwatch Beta licence in the YOUR GAME ACCOUNTS section of Battle.net Account Management. Players will also receive a Beta Test Weekend invitation via email to their registered address; however, please note that these messages can sometimes be slow to arrive.

For more information about the Overwatch Beta Test Weekend, including installation and play instructions, feedback/bug reporting and frequently asked questions, please visit the Battle.net blog here.

ACTIVISION BLIZZARD MEDIA NETWORKS ANNOUNCES RECORD ESPORTS VIEWERSHIP

Audiences Set New CS:GO Major Records With 45 Million Hours Watched and Record-Breaking Concurrent Viewership

Sydney, Australia. – April 13, 2016 – Activision Blizzard Media Networks, a division of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), today announced that Major League Gaming’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship (CS:GO Major) set new viewership records during its March 30 – April 3 broadcast from Columbus, Ohio. Audiences generated 71 million video views,[1] watched a record-breaking 45 million hours of live broadcast[2] and set a new record of 1.6 million concurrent viewers[3] across OTT, web, mobile and in-game streaming during this year’s event.

This breaks the previously-reported CS:GO Major record of 34 million hours viewed and 1.3 million concurrent viewers set at the 2015 CS:GO Major in Cologne, Germany.[4]

“Last year, more than 225 million people watched competitive gaming, and the passion, engagement and size of this audience only continues to grow,” said Mike Sepso, Senior Vice President of Activision Blizzard Media Networks and Major League Gaming (MLG) co-founder. “As this year’s CS:GO Major numbers show, Activision Blizzard Media Networks’ commitment to broadcasting premium content and creating incredible events is resonating with players and fans around the world.”

With the goal of building on its competitive gaming leadership and becoming the ESPN of esports, Activision Blizzard announced its Media Networks Division in October 2015, and recruited former ESPN CEO Steve Bornstein and MLG co-founder Mike Sepso to serve as the division’s Chairman and Senior Vice President, respectively. Activision Blizzard acquired the business of MLG in December 2015 to further its ability to deliver best-in-class fan experiences and premium broadcast content across games, platforms and geographies.

This year’s CS:GO Major was the first held in North America, with the world’s best CS:GO teams competing for a $1 million prize pool. The historic competition, held at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, drew a sold-out crowd of over 10,000[5] fans for each of the three final days of live competition. The Columbus event concluded on April 3 and peaked with a record 1.6 million concurrent viewers[6] as the Luminosity Gaming team claimed top honours and the majority of the prize pool. Overall, MLG produced 68 hours of premium content broadcast in 15 languages during the event.

Counter-Strike competitions have been held globally for the past 16 years, with game developer Valve instituting a CS:GO Major system in 2014. The Columbus championship is the eighth CS:GO Major event held since 2013, and the first produced by MLG.

With over 225 million unique viewers, the esports audience is estimated to be bigger than audiences for many professional sports leagues. Creating premium content for these audiences will provide significant opportunities in ticket sales, advertising, sponsorships, licensing and merchandising. By 2017, esports is projected to have over 300 million viewers.[7]

Previous matches in the MLG Major can be viewed here

About Activision Blizzard

Activision Blizzard, Inc., a member of the S&P 500, is the world’s most successful standalone interactive entertainment company. We delight over 500 million monthly active users around the world through franchises including Activision’s Call of Duty®, Destiny and Skylanders®, Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft®, StarCraft®, Diablo® and Hearthstone®: Heroes of Warcraft™, and King’s Candy Crush®, Pet Rescue® and Farm Heroes®. The company is one of the Fortune ʺ100 Best Companies To Work For®ʺ. Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Blizzard has operations throughout the world, and its games are played in 196 countries. More information about Activision Blizzard and its products can be found on the companyʹs website, www.activisionblizzard.com.

[1] Data provided by MLG.tv, Twitch and GOTV

[2] Data provided by MLG.tv, Mars.tv, Twitch and GOTV

[3] Data provided by MLG.tv, Twitch and GOTV

[4] ESL Press Release

[5] Ticketmaster

[6] Data provided by MLG.tv, Twitch and GOTV

[7] NewZoo

THE MILITARY HARDWARE OF THE FUTURE COMING TO ARMORED WARFARE

Update 0.15 Adding Tier 10 Vehicles, New Maps and Much More

Amsterdam, The Netherlands – April 12, 2016 – Developer Obsidian Entertainment and global publisher My.com are delighted to announce Update 0.15 will be bringing the first Tier 10 vehicles for Armored Warfare. Command the Challenger 2B Main Battle Tank, or outrun and outsmart your enemies in the SPHINX Armored Fighting vehicle. All of these six vehicles are cutting edge prototypes and concepts that might appear in service in the upcoming decade[S1] , but will be coming to Armored Warfare very soon.

Check out the Tier 10 tanks preview HERE: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTpuPz705b4

Features introduced with Update 0.15:

• The first six Tier 10 vehicles:
  • T-14 Armata (Main Battle Tank)
  • PL-01 (Light Tank)
  • Leopard 2A7-140 (Main Battle Tank)
  • SPHINX (Armored Fighting Vehicle)
  • XM1A3 (Main Battle Tank)

• Challenger 2B (Main Battle Tank)

• Two new PvE missions: Operations, Prometheus, and Meltdown will bring new challenges for players teaming up in Armored Warfare’s co-operative gameplay mode.
• Garage UI Update: A revised User Interface based upon player feedback will enable players to efficiently filter which vehicles are shown among other enhancements.

Read the full preview on more upcoming features HERE: aw.my.com/gb/news/general/update-015-preview

Armored Warfare is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online tactical military game that puts the player into the world of modern warfare. In Armored Warfare, players get a chance to try the most powerful tools of destruction invented by mankind – from modern main battle tanks, to scouts and wheeled vehicles. Using modern defense systems like anti-missile protection and smoke grenades, various types of armor and ammunition, players can jump into fast paced battles both in PVP mode and a vast amount of PVE missions.

Download Armored Warfare for free today, visit: aw.my.com.To learn more about Armored Warfare, please visit aw.my.com, ‘Like’ it on Facebook, and follow its development on Twitter @ArmoredWar for all the latest developer updates and news.

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ABOUT MY.COM

My.com comprises myMail, MAPS.ME, myTarget, and online and mobile games. Its mobile communications and entertainment services and apps facilitate people in pursuing their business goals – and let them relax and have a good gaming time in-between. Copyright © 2015 My.com. For more information, visit my.com/