Today we are announcing that we have made the difficult decision to transition the Minecraft Forum from an active website to a read-only archive. This decision has been made after careful consideration about how we can best serve the Minecraft community with the resources we have available. A read-only archive of the website will ensure that the valuable content contributed over many years is safe-guarded, remaining available for visitors to explore.

From everyone at the Minecraft Forum we are deeply grateful for our communities contributions to the forum over the last decade, big and small. Millions of members have shared tens of millions of posts that have been viewed billions of times, and everyone contributed something to make this forum great. Minecraft Mod creators helped expand the world of Minecraft, support volunteers worked tirelessly to provide access to that world and everyone together turned that world into a community.

Read only mode will be enabled on June 16th, 2019. From this date you will no longer be able to login to the Minecraft Forum and no new content will be created, however all links to the Minecraft Forum will continue to work as-is, all content will remain accessible. This change does not impact the Minecraft Wiki. The Minecraft Wiki will continue as an active website, we have no plans to archive the Minecraft Wiki.

We appreciate that this is a big change and that there will be many questions. I am available in the comments of this news post to answer any questions you may have, and you are welcome to reach out via Private Message if you have any questions you would like to ask privately.

Please use the comments as an opportunity to share your story about what this community has meant to you. We would love to hear about how the forum has impacted you, whether it inspired a passion for creating, helped build friendships or simply provided you somewhere to share your love of the game — any thoughts you may have are welcome.

– citricsquid

Newly announced Twitch distribution deal drives an average audience per minute of 408,000 for the opening day broadcast

IRVINE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– The Overwatch League roared to life last week at the Blizzard Arena Los Angeles, with four days of intense competition between all 12 teams of the world’s first major global city-based professional esports league.

Buoyed by a newly announced two-year deal with Twitch, the Overwatch League’s exclusive worldwide^[1] third-party digital broadcast partner, opening day drew an impressive average audience per minute of 408,000, and 280,000 for the week. More than 10 million viewers tuned in over the four-day period via Twitch, MLG, and Chinese streaming partners ZhanQi TV, NetEase CC, and Panda TV—not to mention the countless additional viewers at watch parties worldwide. On Twitch and MLG alone, the peak concurrent online audience of 437,000 hit during the highly anticipated day-one matchup between Dallas Fuel and Seoul Dynasty. In addition, tickets to Blizzard Arena Los Angeles were sold out for the entirety of opening week.

“We’re thrilled by the overwhelming response to the Overwatch League’s opening week of play,” said Pete Vlastelica, president and CEO of Major League Gaming (MLG). “But this is only the beginning. With more than 35 million Overwatch® players, the Overwatch League has the potential to become one of the most-watched leagues—of any kind—in the world.”

“Since we announced Overwatch League at BlizzCon 2016, we’ve been eagerly awaiting the day when the global competitive Overwatch community could come together under one banner,” said Nate Nanzer, Overwatch League commissioner. “Opening week was that coming-out party—for the fans, both in-person at Blizzard Arena Los Angeles and tuned in by the millions all over the world, and for the players, whose love for the game came through crystal clear.”

“We had high expectations for the inaugural broadcast of the Overwatch League on Twitch, given our platform’s passionate fanbase for Overwatch,” said Kevin Lin, COO of Twitch. “They really put on an amazing show and fans showed up en masse to support and celebrate Overwatch. Based on the response from the community, Overwatch League is off to a great start and we look forward to watching how the season progresses. This league demonstrates the power and potential of esports, and we’re thrilled to continue expanding our partnership with Blizzard.”

Viewers can tune in to catch all the action on Twitch, www.mlg.com, the MLG app (on iOS and Android), www.overwatchleague.com, and the Overwatch League app, which launched last week for iOS and Android. Blizzard gamers also can get easy access to the Overwatch League via a new Overwatch League tab in the Blizzard Battle.net desktop app.

The first season of the Overwatch League runs until June, with playoffs and finals scheduled for July. For the inaugural season, all regular-season games will take place at Blizzard Arena Los Angeles, a state-of-the-art live-event venue in Burbank, California, custom-renovated for Blizzard Entertainment esports events. Fans can purchase tickets to attend matches, which will be played each Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. A full schedule and information about ticket sales can be found at www.overwatchleague.com.

About the Overwatch League^™

The Overwatch League^™ is the first major global professional esports league with city-based teams across Asia, Europe, and North America. Overwatch® was created by globally acclaimed publisher Blizzard Entertainment (a division of Activision Blizzard—Nasdaq: ATVI), whose iconic franchises have helped lay the foundations and push the boundaries of professional esports over the last 15 years. The latest addition to Blizzard’s stable of twenty-one #1 games,^[2] Overwatch was built from the ground up for online competition, with memorable characters and fast-paced action designed for the most engaging gameplay and spectator experiences. To learn more about the Overwatch League, visit www.overwatchleague.com.

© 2018 Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. OVERWATCH, OVERWATCH LEAGUE, BLIZZARD and BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT are trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. MAJOR LEAGUE GAMING is a trademark of Major League Gaming Corp.

[1] Not including China.
[2] Sales and/or downloads, based on internal company records and reports from key distribution partners

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements: Information in this press release that involves Blizzard Entertainment’s expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future, including statements about the dates, events and features of the Overwatch League, are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause Blizzard Entertainment’s actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include unanticipated product delays and other factors identified in the risk factors sections of Activision Blizzard’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Blizzard Entertainment and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and neither Blizzard Entertainment nor Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Blizzard Entertainment or Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180117005551/en/

Overwatch League
Mark Van Lommel, 949-955-1380 x61147
MVanLommel@overwatchleague.com

Source: Overwatch League

News Provided by Acquire Media

Hei, Outlanders.

Post-war Norway was quite a ride over the last months. As Vigor went free-to-play during the gamescom announcement, new Outlanders started to flow in. We are humbled by the number of players who decided to give Vigor a try. There were already over 2.5 million players who tried Vigor since the start of Xbox Game Preview, which means over 1.3 million players jumped in within the first month after the full release. The numbers far exceeded our expectations and, sincerely, we were not prepared enough for it. Finally, we recovered, and now plan to update the game more on a regular basis. We took our time to find and fix the most pressing issues (so called “ghost bullets” and impenetrable bushes, for example), as well as adding one big thing we were working on for a long time.

New Map

Brodalen Bridges. A new area for your encounters – a huge map with new approaches to verticality. If you considered Fjellkanten vertical, wait for the bridges on the new map. I cannot count how many times someone tried to snipe me from the top, or how many times I was doing the same during our playtests. Still, keep in mind bridges aren’t the only thing about the new map. It’s a distinctive setting with rural areas for long-range firefights, combined with eerie woods and sparse houses providing some close quarters engagements. It’s the valley along the meandering river with waterfalls and hidden caverns. And indeed, it has a ton of places to gather precious loot and fight for the airdrop.

Loot Rebalance

As I mentioned the loot… there’s more to loot than meets the eye. We went through all the maps and made them more distinguishable in terms of which resources you are able to find in each location. Common sense dictates there’s more wires along the Viktorsen Station, or possibly more fertilizer on the fields of Brodalen Bridges, and that common sense should be reflected even more than before. Together with that, we decided to make loot boosts even more pronounced to clearly show the difference. As the boosters stack, the amount of loot spots, and items in each of them, increase even more than before.

Buried Cache

If you’d prefer to look for some hidden treasure while on the loot run, we have you covered. There’s a new event in all the maps – we call it a Buried Cache. For this, you can find photos with clues around the map, and if you’re able to recognize and find the destination fast enough, a nice reward awaits you hidden underground. Keep in mind that while you may be the only one looking for the cache, other Outlanders could still be wandering the area. Stay alert and you’ll get a nice prize.

Weight Influence

You may have noticed that sprinting is rather easy in Vigor. No matter how much you carry, the Outlander is able to sprint easily. This is no longer true as the weight of your inventory reduces your available stamina. Thinking of outrunning others while taking the airdrop crate? Keep in mind that the crate is one of the heaviest items. And stamina isn’t the only thing affected by weight, as your footsteps will now be louder when you’re carrying a lot. On the other hand, we’ve made some quality of life improvements – interacting with loot, Shelter improvements, and various other things like using doors and ladders should be more intuitive than ever before. You don’t need to bow down to collect things on the floor anymore and there should not be cases where you need to be at a specific angle.

Threat and Team Killer distinction

We keep looking for your feedback, checking your streams and videos on various channels. One of the pressing issues, and often exploited features, was becoming a Threat after killing your teammate. We decided to make a proper distinction between these and added a Team Killer status. It clearly shows others what cruel deeds someone has done, and tracks the Outlander a lot more often compared to the Threat. Also, killing your teammates for challenges will no longer count, which should also help to severely limit this form of grieving. We are still vigilant about team killings and observe our data on the subject on a daily basis. The same goes for any other feedback – we are really happy for all of the posts and comments and we plan to evaluate them even more often from now on.

Game Updates

That leads me to other news – we have a solid plan for regular game updates. We would like to provide something new to the game ideally on a weekly basis; mostly new customizations. You can check the Featured Store every Wednesday for something new and we are yet to announce the new ways of showing new content. Not only that, we would even like to add more weapons along the way to provide more things you can aim for. And generally, while these minor updates should spice up the waiting, we aim to have a major update roughly every two months, the same as we did with Update 1.1: Bridges. Each of these major updates should provide a ton of tweaks and improvements accompanied with some bigger new feature.

Vigor is available now as a free-to-play tile for Xbox One on the Microsoft Store. Click here for additional details.

Unity has announced new pricing for its Unity Pro and Unity Plus subscriptions, giving both plans a slight price hike at the beginning of the next year.

Developers with existing Unity subscriptions won’t be affected by the change, but those that sign up, add additional seats, or renew expired custom agreements after January 1, 2020 will end up paying a little bit extra.

The current monthly rate for Until Pro is increasing from $125 to $150, while Until Plus will rise from $35 to $40 a month. In a blog post and accompanying FAQ, Unity says that it doesn’t routinely raise rates like this and doesn’t plan to do so regularly, but will “periodically review pricing and consider making adjustments” when appropriate.

“The price has remained the same for over three years and we are making these increases in order to continue investing in new technology, features, and services that will benefit all Unity creators,” explains the post. Unity Personal, the version of the engine open to developers with revenue or funding below $100,000 within the last year, is set to remain free.

These changes go into effect on January 1, leaving developers a few months to add seats to a current subscription or sign up under the Pro or Plus plans for the existing, slightly cheaper monthly rates.