Category: Games

Jeff Kaplan served as, until his recent departure, the Vice President of Blizzard Entertainment. But for Overwatch fans not tuned into Activision-Blizzard’s corporate hierarchy, he may most humbly be known as “Jeff from the Overwatch team.” That’s how he introduced himself at the start of every Developer Update video, a greeting that downplayed his status as Game Director, and emphasized that Overwatch was a team effort. But while he didn’t shout them from the rooftops, his achievements speak for themselves: Jeff Kaplan was, for 19 years, one of Blizzard Entertainment’s most vital and important innovators.

Blizzard recruited Kaplan in May 2002 specifically to help it expand into a whole new genre: the MMORPG. Back at the start of the millennium, the studio’s experience was predominantly in the real-time strategy space, and the team lacked the expertise to help inform the company’s next venture. And so Rob Pardo, one of Blizzard’s lead designers, looked to the most obvious place to find an MMO expert: an MMO itself. At the head of EverQuest’s prominent Legacy Of Steel guild, he found exactly the kind of person Blizzard was looking for: a player named Tigole, a passionate (see: outspoken) and well-known member of the game’s community. Outside of EverQuest, he was known as Jeff Kaplan.

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Pardo invited Kaplan to a series of lunches. “With hindsight, what I didn’t realize at the time was that those guys were interviewing me for a role with World of Warcraft,” Kaplan recalled during an interview with Game Informer.

Six months later, Kaplan joined the World of Warcraft team, helping design quests for what would eventually become the genre-defining MMORPG. A significant part of the reason behind World of Warcraft’s success was its approach to questing, something Kaplan helped shape. Previous MMOs, like EverQuest, had very few scripted quests and were largely freeform, player-directed games. But Kaplan, along with his design partner Pat Nagle, forged World of Warcraft’s questing system as a near-constant supply of hand-crafted missions.

Player testing only reinforced the need for numerous quests. “Our old estimates for how many quests we thought we were going to do versus how many quests we ended up doing were radically off,” Kaplan told Edge. And so the world of Azeroth was designed that it would always have new stories for you to explore, even if that was just killing six rats for a farmer.

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Kaplan left World of Warcraft behind the day after Wrath of the Lich King shipped. His new calling was, naturally, Lead Game Designer on a new MMO that was in the works. He was the guy Blizzard employed for his MMO expertise, afterall. This new project was going to be the most ambitious thing Blizzard ever made, and its working title reflected that: Titan.

But Titan would never see the success that World of Warcraft did. In fact, Titan infamously would never see the light of day. In the desperate struggle to make something – anything – from the ashes of Titan’s design, Kaplan came up with what is, undoubtedly, his greatest achievement at Blizzard: Overwatch.

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Kaplan was enamoured with the class designs and RPG abilities that fellow designer Geoff Goodman had created for Titan. “I started thinking about a more tightly scoped game using that Geoff Goodman concept of dozens of classes with abilities,” he explained to Edge. Kaplan envisioned a game in which these faceless classes became playable heroes with names and backstories. But rather than an MMO, this would be a PvP shooter.

“Team Fortress 2 was just mega in my mind,” Kaplan told Game Informer while discussing Overwatch’s genesis. “There was such inspiration from that, so as we were rolling off of Titan and we were coming up with ideas that we as a team were super passionate about, we really chased our hearts more than anything else.”

Kaplan’s vision was embraced by the team, which led to them pitching it to Activision. “They were super polite and super nice to us, but you could sense this undercurrent of, ‘Oh god, of all things, what are you idiots doing?’” Kaplan recounted to Edge. But while perhaps another shooter alongside Call of Duty was not part of Activision’s original plan, Kaplan says the character designs won over CEO Bobby Kotick. “What that bought us was that we had until March to put together a core combat demo of the game,” said Kaplan.

A successful demo led to full development, and Overwatch would eventually be revealed at BlizzCon in 2014. Its fresh new world and innovative rethinking of MMO and MOBA-style class abilities as shooter mechanics quickly won the hearts of fans.

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But it was really Kaplan’s innovative approach to communication that made him such an effective face for Overwatch. His Developer Update videos are, to this day, the gold standard example of direct transparency with a game’s player base. On a semi-regular basis, Kaplan would explain in clear detail the changes coming to Overwatch, and why those changes were being made. He used straightforward language, so the updates felt like a friend talking with you, rather than a marketing team talking at you. All this made it easy to understand the thinking behind Overwatch’s many alterations, and invited players to feel like they were part of the decision-making. There’s perhaps no better example of this than Role Queue, the team composition system created after years of back-and-forth debate between players and the Overwatch team.

Combined with being ever-present on the Blizzard forums, there was a constant sense that Kaplan cared about Overwatch’s players, or at the very least was actively listening to them. And even in moments when the conversation could become exceptionally heated – the Mercy resurrection rework was a particularly rough time – Kaplan would be there answering questions. It always felt as if players were part of Overwatch’s development. It’s hard to imagine this would be the case without Kaplan’s particular approach, and Blizzard would be ill-advised to abandon the strategy going forward, especially in regards to Overwatch 2.

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No matter what approach the company takes going forward, though, Blizzard won’t be the same place without Jeff Kaplan. But it’s also important to remember that Kaplan never saw himself as the ivory tower leader on his projects. He was always Jeff from the Overwatch team, never Jeffrey Kaplan, Game Director. His Developer Updates would regularly champion his colleagues, be that the design decisions of Aaron Keller, the heroic creations of Geoff Goodman, or the lore drops from Michael Chu. Kaplan was a team player, and, at least as far as outsider perceptions go, seemed to foster that approach among his peers. And as Keller steps up as Game Director, it seems sensible to expect at least some of Kaplan’s spirit to remain.

Over 19 years, Jeff Kaplan has been one of Blizzard’s most important voices. Recruited for his passion, his work helped shape one of the core pillars of not just World of Warcraft, but modern MMO design. His strength of vision helped rescue Blizzard’s most notable disaster, and turn it into what is arguably the developer’s most significant mainstream game in Overwatch. And as the head of that project, he refined communication between developers and players in a way few other studios have been able to replicate. He will be missed. But, just like Blizzard superstars Mike Morhaime and Chris Metzen, who also stepped away from the company in recent years, Jeff Kaplan leaves behind him a legacy of hugely successful creativity and innovation that has inspired not just those at Blizzard, but studios all over the world.

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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. 

Here’s some good news for fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender–a new wave of Funko Pops has just gone up for preorder on Amazon. The standard-size figures cost $10.99, while a super-sized Aang All Elements figure runs $19.99. All the figures will release July 23, but you can lock in your preorders now.

And you might want to, because there’s no telling if they’re going to sell out.

Preorder New Avatar: The Last Airbender Funkos

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The figures in question include the previously mentioned white-eyed, floating Aang, which is how he looks when he’s locked and loaded with all the elements and ready to destroy everything that stands in his way. Other regular-sized figures in the new wave include Suki, Ty Lee, Ozai, and Admiral Zhao.

They all look great in the classic big-head Funko style. Zhao’s armor looks rad. Suki’s face paint is on point. Ozai is surrounded by a pool of fire, and Ty Lee is ready to rumble in a martial arts stance.

These are far from the first Avatar Funkos, though. You can check out more previously released characters here.

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Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert at IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.

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Xbox has detailed its plans to make online multiplayer in free-to-play games available to Xbox users who don’t have an Xbox Live Gold subscription.

A blog post on the Xbox website explains that, starting today, players will be able to access online multiplayer in over 50 free-to-play games with no Xbox Live Gold membership required. You can check out the full library of free-to-play games here.

At present the list includes games like Fortnite, Apex Legends, Rocket League, Roblox and Destiny 2. Brawlhalla, Warzone, It Takes Two and World of Tanks also make the cut. Xbox says that the list of free-to-play games will be updated “as more free-to-play games launch.”

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Back in January, Microsoft announced plans to increase the price of Xbox Live Gold, but then quickly reversed its decision after fans voiced their opinions on the move. As part of its response to the backlash, Microsoft said that it would be working to make free-to-play games available without Xbox Live Gold, which has led to this announcement.

In other Xbox news, it was revealed earlier this week that the Series X and Series S are set to receive improved Quick Resume features in the near future, including the ability to see and delete save states within the UI.

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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

MLB The Show 21 is a historic game: For the first time since the series began as a PlayStation exclusive in 2006, both Xbox and PlayStation owners can take their favorite teams head to head in Sony San Diego’s consistently excellent baseball simulation. And it’s even on Game Pass! With that in mind, this year’s addition of three distinct difficulty modes and in-depth tutorial cards makes a lot of sense for helping new players break into its complex game modes. It also has an enticing new custom Stadium Creator, and the ability to export your Road to the Show player across modes, which fans have been asking for for years. That said, moment-to-moment gameplay isn’t meaningfully different from the most recent iterations, and it doesn’t look like a generational leap forward, so it’s not quite a home run for series veterans – especially if you aren’t playing on a DualSense controller.

The biggest new feature of the year is the flexible Stadium Creator, which brings a new layer of depth and creativity to MLB The Show. You can alter seating arrangements, change the height and location of your walls, and even create entire cities in the background. But like most first drafts, it has some areas that need improvement: The controls are tough to get used to and can often seem misleading, especially if you’re trying to make your way through its confusing menu system. It’s also weird that none of your custom ballparks have a nighttime variant, so evening games that should extend into the night remain bathed in perpetual sunlight.

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Of the returning modes, the Road to the Show campaign mode has received the most significant changes from last year’s version. For starters, your character is a “two-way” player by default, meaning that they can be a hitter and a pitcher without you needing to create a new save file in order to switch between the two roles. Eventually, anyway – you need to play several games before you’re even allowed the option to specialize the way you want, which is a little annoying. The story in this year’s Road to the Show is still barebones, but if you’re playing on PS5 or Series X you’ll get video commentary on your performance from sportscasters like Ben Gellman. It’s certainly a neat addition that vaguely calls out your decisions on the field, but it still manages to fall flat in its delivery.

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Another nice touch is that when you take your custom Road to the Show player into Diamond Dynasty or Franchise mode you can finally pair them with your own custom teams. The bummer here is that you can no longer move your save file forward from previous games in the series, meaning you need to start fresh. Given how insubstantial the changes are to the mechanics of how characters work in MLB The Show 21 this is surprising – I can’t imagine what’s so different about this year’s version that would prevent a feature that’s carried over for years.

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When it comes to content, there is still no baseball simulator on the planet that is as attentive to its teams and rosters, as meticulous with the momentum of its on-field baseball simulation, or as awash with diverse and interesting gameplay modes as MLB The Show. The list of modes hasn’t gotten any longer this year and pretty much everything is carried over from MLB The Show 20, but there are a handful of notable improvements.

• March to October mode isn’t too much different this year than last, but it still lets you take the reins of your team of choice and participate in vignettes where your decision as a pinch hitter can change the dynamic of a ballgame. Additionally, its momentum system that makes your team play better or worse based on your performance is still great and leads to some exciting comebacks.

• Over in the Diamond Dynasty card collection mode, things are a bit friendlier this year. It offers the same diverse set of modes like last year’s fantastic Showdown, Battle Royale, and more. The main difference is that it’s much more generous: you can carry your Road to the Show player over with all their stats intact, and it introduces the new Community Parallel cards, which let you level up each player card up to five times to keep them relevant for longer.

• And of course, MLB The Show 21’s Franchise mode benefits greatly from custom stadiums and the ability to bring your Road to the Show player into your custom teams. However, it’s disappointing that there is still no way to take your Franchise mode team head to head with others online, especially given that this year’s addition of cross-platform multiplayer in standard play seems like a perfect opportunity for that.

MLB The Show 21 can also lay claim to the cleanest main menu screen in the series’ recent memory. Where previous years’ modes were unintuitively jumbled together, this time I could easily figure out exactly where I wanted to go for the experience I wanted to have, and all of the most feature-rich modes are right at the top. It really ties everything together.

Upon loading up for the first time, you immediately have a selection between Casual, Simulation, and Competitive modes, which means you can fine-tune the amount of challenge you want right off the bat. For a game as complex as MLB The Show 21, it’s probably wise for most people jumping in for the first time to dabble in Casual to find their footing before cranking it up to the more intensive levels. Everything you need to know about each of MLB The Show’s controls and game modes is broken down for you into convenient tutorial cards until you deem them no longer useful and decide to turn them off or switch to a harder difficulty mode.

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On the other hand, the graphics aren’t quite as revolutionary, which is kind of a letdown from the first iteration of a Sony-developed game appearing on the PlayStation 5. The field looks as good as always, but there’s really nothing much about this that jumps off the screen if you’ve played any of the other recent MLB The Show games on a PS4 Pro. Player models are well beyond showing their age, and most textures still look like they were picked directly out of the previous games. This problem extends to reused animations and even voiced lines as well. Granted, that’s fairly typical of an annualized sports series; I don’t expect a full do-over every year but the launch of a new console generation demands substantial improvements, and MLB The Show 21 has not kept up.

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One of the most noticeable graphical issues is the uncanny valley vibe when a character is speaking during a close-up shot. Heidi Watney looks just as much like a mannequin as she did in MLB The Show 20 on the PS4 Pro. When you compare this to other recent Sony-developed games like Spider-Man: Miles Morales or The Last of Us Part 2 it leaves much to be desired.

It’s also notable that, when playing on PlayStation 5, there doesn’t appear to be an option between performance or graphics modes, meaning that you are locked to 60 frames per second at 4K without an option for 120 frames per second. This is disappointing, given that 120fps is one of the marquee features of the PS5 and Series X for those with TVs that support it.

That’s not to say MLB The Show 21 isn’t worth playing on PS5 if you have the opportunity. The DualSense controller and Pulse 3D headphones combine to create the most immersive stadium experience yet. Feeling the DualSense pulse between my palms as the pitcher winds up their pitch to the backdrop of music and crowd cheers echoing around the stadium is sublime. This is especially great when your controller emulates the crack of your bat upon contact with a flyball. You know immediately when you’ve landed a home run, and having experienced it I dread the thought of playing without it now.

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After seven movies featuring parents trying to kill their children, children trying to kill their parents, nuns trying to kill nuns, and dolls trying to kill… everyone, it’s a bold claim to call The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It darker than any of its predecessors, but it’s a claim that director Michael Chaves (who helmed 2019’s The Curse of La Llorona) stands by.

“In a lot of ways, this is the biggest Conjuring movie,” Chaves tells IGN. “I showed the final cut to [star] Vera [Farmiga] and her husband and they agreed, and they were like, ‘This is the darkest Conjuring movie.’ It digs into some really dark material. This is definitely a case where there’s real consequence, there’s real victims.

Check out the exclusive new images from The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It in the gallery below:

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“One of the things that [series creator] James [Wan] and I connected on while making The Curse of La Llorona was sharing a lot of the same favorite movies, and one of them is Se7en,” says the director. “We both love that movie, and so when he came to me with this script, he basically was like, ‘It’s Se7en, but in the Conjuring universe.’ And he knew that was like catnip for me.”

Considering the oppressive bleakness and heavy personal toll the characters pay there, don’t expect Patrick Wilson’s Ed Warren to be breaking out the guitar and crooning Elvis this time around.

The new film’s expanded scale and more ominous tone comes down to an early decision on the part of producer and franchise steward Wan to abandon the haunted house setup of the first two Conjuring movies, pivoting to one of the Warrens’ most famous cases in America: the murder trial of Arne Johnson, played here by Irish actor Ruairi O’Connor. In 1981, Johnson killed his landlord and, at trial, became the first person in American history to claim demonic possession as a defense. The Warrens’ involvement in that case came after their high-profile investigations of the Amityville and Enfield hauntings (both featured in The Conjuring 2), and provided the filmmakers with an opportunity to open up the storytelling in a way the more limited scope of previous films didn’t allow for.

“This is really taking the Warrens into uncharted places,” says Chaves. “Being a fan of the franchise, I was honestly really nervous at first breaking with convention, breaking with a lot of things that are tradition, but I think that what we’ve done is really woven the language and the things that you do want from a Conjuring film – the scares, the Warrens, their relationship – [and [pushed them] to the limits in this really fresh and exciting new direction.”

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Another tradition The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It de-emphasizes is the introduction of flashy supernatural foes to be spun off into their own franchises (we haven’t heard about that Crooked Man movie in a while…). Chaves describes his initial approach to The Devil Made Me Do It as being from a fan’s perspective. “What’s gonna be our iconic scary monster, what’s gonna be our Annabelle or our Nun?” he says. “And from the very beginning, James and the studio wanted to do something very different, basically treat this as a new decade for the Warrens, a new chapter where we’re introducing new themes, new ideas, and taking these characters to places that they’ve never gone before. Let me just say their adversary is unlike any adversary they’ve faced before, and not just in the sense that it’s another iconic character. There’s something fundamentally different with this one and I think that’s honestly what I’m most excited about.”

The nature of that mysterious adversary may be hinted at in one of our first-look images from The Devil Made Me Do It, which features a character known only as “the Occultist.” For all the agents of the Catholic church and skeptics that the Conjuring films have featured, there have been relatively few earthbound antagonists actively working against the heroes. Annabelle, the first Conjuring spinoff, stands as a notable exception and featured members of a Satanic cult known as the Disciples of the Ram who exalted the doll’s power and connection to the underworld. It’s unclear at this point whether that group resurfaces in The Devil Made Me Do It, but as we know by now The Conjuring franchise thrives on the interconnected lore the films have spun out since 2013.

While The Devil Made Me Do It might eschew the Conjuringverse’s haunted house roots, the central dynamic of Ed and Lorraine’s relationship remains intact going in. But Chaves teases that their bond will be tested like never before, with permanent consequences lurking around the corner, particularly for Patrick Wilson’s Ed.

“This takes them to the limit,” Chaves says. “There’s real events and real tragedies that happen to the Warrens. Something happens to Ed, to both of them, that they struggle to recover and we kind of have to wonder, are they gonna be the same? After this event and even going into future movies, what will the repercussions be?”

The director does admit that the fact that the real Ed and Lorraine survived well into the 21st century poses storytelling challenges when asking viewers to buy into the mortally perilous stakes the fictional Ed and Lorraine deal with. Chaves is banking on the audience’s connection to the Warrens, fostered over eight years and four franchise appearances, to help fuel the tension.

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“That is one of those things you have to navigate with real-life stories, keeping them engaging,” Chaves says. “Patrick and Vera are so awesome and so charismatic that it kind of defies that. When they are in danger, when they are in vulnerable situations, the real-life facts start to disappear in your mind because you really get pulled into their story and the characters they’ve created.”

One of the true-to-life encounters that Chaves is most excited for audiences to see is the film’s opening scene, which recreates the exorcism of 11-year-old David Glatzel (played by The Haunting of Hill House’s Julian Hilliard). “Arne Johnson was there,” says the director. “He was a family friend and the Warrens were working with [Glatzel’s] family. It goes horribly wrong and it sets into motion all of these events that play out across the rest of the movie. Honestly, that’s one of the sequences that I’m most proud of in the movie. I think it’s really scary, it’s really unsettling, and a lot of it’s based on real events.” That exorcism isn’t the only one that influenced the new Conjuring movie. In another of our first-look images, we see a character arriving at a house in a shot that evokes the granddaddy of all possession films, 1973’s The Exorcist, which was “absolutely” on Chaves’ mind as he directed The Devil Made Me Do It.

The Conjuring remains one of the most successful horror franchises of all time, largely thanks to the stranger-than-fiction case files of the Warrens, which Chaves is confident will continue to inspire and expand the mythology as the story progresses into a new decade of the Warrens’ lives. “There’s some really interesting case files in the ’80s and, without giving any of those away, I think it’s also interesting to see the Warrens more and more as these public figures under scrutiny, skeptics coming at them, them working with police departments. What [The Devil Made Me Do It] hopefully does is open up this new chapter for the Warrens. This has a very unique ending to the Conjuring films. I would be excited to see where it could go from here. What could the Warrens get into? What’s happened to their careers? I think there’s so many possibilities after this.”

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It premieres on HBO Max and in theaters on June 4, 2021.

Clark Kent is officially passing on the mantle of Superman to his son. As revealed by The Hollywood Reporter, DC is officially making Jon Kent the new Man of Steel in a new ongoing series dubbed Superman: Son of Kal-El.

Son of Kal-El is written by Tom Taylor (Injustice: Gods Among Us) and drawn by John Timms (Harley Quinn). The new series will debut in July 2021, replacing the current monthly Superman title.

DC readers already got a taste of John’s new role during the recent Future State event, which jumped forward to reveal the state of the DC Universe ten years in the future. Future State also featured Brazilian heroine Yara Flor as the new Wonder Woman and Lucius Fox’s estranged son Tim as the new Batman.

Son of Kal-El isn’t a continuation of the Future State storyline, but is instead set in the present-day DCU and shows Jon first grappling with his new responsibility. But given that we’ve already seen the future, it would seem DC has every intention of maintaining this new Superman status quo.

This isn’t to say the original Superman will be hanging up his cape and tights. Clark will continue to headline Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Daniel Sampere’s Action Comics series and appear in Brian Bendis and David Marquez’s Justice League. Action Comics will also draw on the events of Future State, following Clark’s journey as he intervenes in a conflict between Atlantis and Warworld.

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All-Star Superman writer Grant Morrison is also making his big return to the franchise in July. Morrison will team with artist Mikel Janin (Batman) for Superman and the Authority, a four-issue limited series that sees Superman take the reins of this ruthless metahuman team. The Authority’s ranks will include familiar faces like Apollo and Midnighter as well as unlikely recruits Manchester Black, The Enchantress and Natasha Irons.

Interestingly, though Superman appears visibly older on the cover to issue #1 (reminiscent of his appearance in Kingdom Come), the series is also set in current DC continuity and will impact the events of Superman: Son of Kal-El and Action Comics. Does this mean DC is permanently aging characters like Superman and Batman?

Along with Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s limited series Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (which launches in June), these books look to make up the new Superman line going forward. Needless to say, a lot is changing for the Superman family in the months ahead.

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DC fans interested in a slightly different take on Jon Kent should check out Superman & Lois, The CW’s newest Arrowverse series. Superman & Lois features the titular duo moving to Smallville to raise their teenage sons Jon and Jordan.

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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Though Disney Plus has been the streaming home for the Marvel Cinematic Universe and entries from other Marvel series like X-Men and Fantastic Four, Sony’s Spider-Man movies have been a conspicuous absence from the platform’s library — until now. Future Spider-Man titles, along with other Sony films, will join Disney’s library in the future, as Disney and Sony have reached a new licensing agreement.

The deal comes almost two weeks after Sony Pictures and Netflix have signed a multi-year contract to give Netflix first-run rights to Sony films after they play in theaters. The new Disney deal covers the period after that, meaning theatrical releases from 2022 to 2026 will head to Disney’s streaming services and other television networks (FX, ABC, etc) after they leave Netflix. The package only covers U.S. markets.

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Library rights to other Sony franchises, like Jumanji and Hotel Transylvania, are covered by the agreement, as well as numerous other titles. One key point to note: Hulu will gain access to titles from Sony’s library beginning as early as this June.

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“We are thrilled to team up with Disney on delivering our titles to their viewers and subscribers,” said Keith Le Goy, president of Worldwide Distribution and Networks for Sony Pictures Entertainment. “This agreement cements a key piece of our film distribution strategy, which is to maximize the value of each of our films, by making them available to consumers across all windows with a wide range of key partners.”

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J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.

Pokemon Go developer Niantic is tweaking the game’s upcoming Friendship Day event. As the studio announced on Twitter, it is removing the event’s Global Challenge. In its place, Niantic is increasing the amount of XP you’ll receive from completing the Friendship Day Collection Challenge, from 100,000 to 175,000.

Friendship Day takes place this Saturday, April 24, from 11 AM to 2 PM local time. Various Grass-type Pokemon such as Chikorita, Cottonee, Foongus, and Sunkern will appear in the wild more frequently than usual throughout the event, and you’ll see green confetti raining down on the map screen.

Niantic is also offering a few friendship-themed bonuses during the event. First, you’ll be more likely to receive a Lucky Pokemon in a trade. To make it easier to exchange monsters with other players, Niantic is temporarily increasing trading distance to 40 km.

On top of that, you’ll receive triple the usual amount of Stardust each time you catch a Pokemon during Friendship Day. Finally, any Lure or Incense you use during the event will remain active for three hours. You can read more about Friendship Day on the official Pokemon Go blog.

In the meantime, Pokemon Go’s Sustainability Week event is currently underway. As part of the event, you have your first chance to catch Binacle and Shiny Trubbish in the game. After that, Pokemon Go is holding a New Pokemon Snap event to celebrate the launch of the Switch spin-off. That runs from April 29 to May 2 and features many of the monsters found in New Pokemon Snap, as well as Shiny Smeargle.

Blizzard’s mobile entry into the venerable Diablo series, Diablo Immortal, has now entered closed alpha. The test is limited to Australia only, will run for at least a month, and sees a host of new additions above and beyond what we saw in the well-received technical alpha at the start of the year. The Crusader, for instance, has been added to the four previously playable classes and the level cap has been raised to 55 (just shy of the max level of 60). Alongside the ability to reach higher levels are two new zones to put those character to the test: Mount Zavain, home of the monks of the Sanctified Earth Monastery and Frozen Tundra, snowy wastelands in which scattered Barbarian tribes live. The latter also houses a new dungeon: The Cavern of Echoes.

A number of new systems also debut, such as the Helliquary, which unlocks between levels 41–45, and allows players to locate and defeat boss demons in order to not only power up their characters, but also to benchmark their power. The closed alpha will have one boss initially, with another to be added later, while the eventual live game will see a boss added each month.

By far the biggest new addition, however, is the Cycle of Strife, a server-wide faction-based PVP endgame system. Anyone can participate in it, and at its center is a battle between the Immortals and the Shadows. Who are they? Principal game designer Scott Shicoff outlined the lore behind it in a recent media briefing.

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“A long time ago,” he told the participants, “there was a powerful individual called Daedessa the Builder… she wanted to protect Sanctuary from demonic invasion but she wasn’t a fighter. She was, however, a master crafter, and she created a powerful artifact called the Eternal Crown. She gave it to her son Kion… and charged him with forming a group whose sole purpose would be the protection of Sanctuary from the Burning Hells. Kion took this powerful artifact and created a guardian group which he called the Immortals.

“Daedessa knew that power, especially that kind of power, can lead to complacency and corruption for even the best or most well-intentioned individuals like her son. So she gave her daughter Akeba a secret heavy burden. It would be Akeba’s job to make sure that the Immortals would never falter or waver. That they were always worthy and capable of defending Sanctuary, as they were charged. So working in secret, Akeba found those brave enough to help her constantly test and challenge the Immortals. They would look for cracks and weaknesses and they would do everything they could to make sure the elite defenders of Sanctuary were always up to the task. She called this group the Shadows.

“And should the Shadows ever prove stronger and more capable, they would overthrow the current reign and take up the Eternal Crown as the new Immortals. Which, of course, they eventually did, with Akeba becoming the next Immortal. But Akeba could never get too comfortable because she knew that as she rose up, so too would new Shadows to make sure she was always worthy of her station. And thus the Cycle of Strife was born.”

That then, is the Cycle of Strife, and it boils down to a seasonal tug of war between the Immortals ad the Shadows. That battle, however, will be a long way from symmetrical. There will only ever be one group of Immortals on a server, with up to 500 members. There’s no limit to how many Shadows can be on a server, on the other hand, and they will all be vying to displace the current group of Immortals.

How does that happen? Well, Shadows players can form and join Dark Houses, which are basically like sub-guilds. The Dark Houses are all effectively in competition with each other, fighting to be at the top of the sub-guild rankings. The more each Dark House’s members are actively engaged with Shadows activities, the higher their house will be in the rankings.

This all comes to a head when the Shadows reach a point in their overall progression that triggers a new event called the Rite of Exile. This is where the Shadows and Immortals fight it out to see if the Immortals are still worthy of holding onto their vaunted position. The Rite of Exile sees the top ten Dark Houses sending their eight strongest members to fight the best the Immortals have to offer. It sees ten separate simultaneous 8 v 8 battles and if at least half of these are won by the Immortals the status quo remains. If it least half are won by Shadows fighters the Dark House at the top of the Shadows ranking will become the new Immortals and a new cycle begins.

It’s a pretty interesting sounding system that rewards both PVE engagement and PVP skill, and is a focal point for this test. Indeed, the prospective length of the alpha is all about testing the Cycle of Strife. “The last technical alpha,” says game director Wyatt Cheng, “was three weeks. We are looking for this closed alpha to be quite a bit longer. We want it to be at least a month. We want to see a group of players become the Immortals. And we would love to see those Immortals get overthrown by a Dark House of Shadows. So, since each overthrow cycle probably takes about a month, we’ll see how long that takes. Of course, this is a very early look at the feature. And so, if the tuning is off, then it could disrupt some of our master plans. That’s one of the things that we’ll be testing is how long does it actually take versus our theoretical paper design?”

The Immortals/Shadows system is also entirely opt-in. Players can choose not to take part and simply be designated as Adventurers. It’s also worth pointing out that when a new cycle starts, everyone aside from the Shadows that become the new Immortals will be reset back to Adventurers and can thus choose whether to join the Shadows and align with a Dark House all over again.

There will be a variety of activities for both Immortals and Shadows to really ensure each faction feels distinct. One example for the Immortals is called Kion’s Ordeal, which is a 48 person raid and sees four groups of 12 players each simultaneously fighting four bosses. “You want to try and kill these bosses as close to the same time as you can,” says Scott Shicoff, “because as each one dies, the other gets stronger.” Beating Kion’s Ordeal helps keep the Immortals ahead of the Shadows and gives a faction-wide buff called the Blessing of Daedessa which increases rewards for Elder Rift runs for every non-Shadow player on the server. Most interestingly of all, riches and equipment from Elder Rift runs those players do contribute to an Immortals vault, which gets handed out to Immortals at the end of the week… unless the Shadows can stop it.

This ties into a Shadows activity called Raid the Vault. This lets a team of four Shadows attempt to steal from the vault. It starts out as PVE against NPC enemies in the vault, but if the Immortals find out someone is attempting to breach their defenses, they can send players in to defend it and the activity transitions to PVP. If the Shadows are defeated, they leave with nothing. If they defeat the Immortals they have a grace period to continue raiding the vault.

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There’s a lot more to discuss when it comes to Diablo Immortal’s closed alpha, but for now I’ll just leave you with Wyatt Cheng’s thoughts on class design for Diablo Immortal, including some specific info about the Crusader class that will now be playable. “Whenever we sit down for any class,” he says, “we say, ‘What is the marquee skill that really defines the class?’ And when you picture the class, you say, ‘Well, it has to have this skill or it’s just not right.’

“And for example, in the case of the Barbarian, a lot of people would say, ‘Oh, well, a Barbarian has to have whirlwind. It’s just not the Barbarian without whirlwind.’ And on the Demon Hunter, a lot of people would say, ‘multi-shot. When I think Demon Hunter, I think multi-shot.’ And so that answer varies from person to person. In the case of the Crusader… the Steed Charge ability is iconic Crusader. And being able to throw your shield, and have it ricochet off of enemies is also this iconic Crusader ability. And so you can see both of those.

“Falling sword has [also] received [a] facelift from Diablo 3… it’s gotten a little bit of an upgrade. We were looking at Heroes of the Storm, and the way that Heroes of the Storm does some of its skills, and Johanna in particular in Heroes of the Storm. So falling sword in Immortal allows you to throw your sword, which then marks a location. And for the next six seconds, that sword will actually pulse damage to enemies around the sword. And then you can activate the skill a second time during that window to then teleport and drop at that location. And so it becomes a two-stage activity with two presses.

“And then the final note I’ll make on Crusader skills is, as with all of our skills, there’s some skills that seem familiar, but because of our mobile controls, have an opportunity to take on new life, because of the charge up mechanic. In Diablo 3, pressing and holding a skill to charge it up, actually just viscerally doesn’t quite feel correct. We tried it during Diablo 3 development, and the players are just more looking for a fast paced button mashy feel. But on Immortal, our charge up skills feel great, because you’re using these touch screen controls. You’re aiming the skill. You’re building up this power while you aim it. And then when you release, you unleash the power of the skill, and it feels great. And so the Crusader makes use of that input mechanic as well.”

While the closed alpha is currently limited to Australia and may remain that way (“We are looking at other regions,” says Wyatt Cheng, “but Australia is the only region that… we’re announcing right now”), your time may yet come, as Cheng confirmed that there will be at least one more testing phase before release and that phase will let players hit level 60.

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For more on Diablo, be sure to read my Diablo Immortal technical alpha impressions (or watch the video above) and watch our Diablo II Resurrected performance preview.