Category: Gaming

Developers, including Totally Accurate Battle Simulator’s Landfall have begun signing an environment-focused anti-NFT pledge.

The pledge was set up by Climate Replay – a gaming-centred group made up of various developers raising awareness of the climate emergency – and six studios have signed it so far.

Alongside Landfall, KO_OP has signed the pledge (most known for the Lara Croft GO: The Mirror of Spirits expansion) alongside other developers Bearwaves, Godolphin Games, Cloudy Games LLC, and Brainless Labs. 127 individuals have also signed the pledge alongside the studios, featuring a mix of developers and fans.

Cory Scheviak, game designer and founder of Climate Replay, said the pledge has been well-received so far, and that developers see it, “as a way forward for the gaming industry to have a framework for responsibly implementing this technology. All in all, the response I’ve seen has been wholly constructive and well-received, both from fans of NFTs and critics,” he added.

NFTs aim to allow for ownership of digital items and some developers and publishers have already explored letting gamers own certain unlocks, such as Ghost Recon Breakpoint’s limited edition Quartz gear.

But implementing NFTs comes with certain gameplay risks, Climate Replay said on its website, as developers could alienate their player base, stop gamers just “playing for fun”, encourage bots, and more. More seriously, implementing NFTs and their blockchain systems (which track and allow the dealing of NFTs) requires serious energy consumption, and therefore emissions, that are also bad for the environment.

As a result, Climate Replay’s pledge is asking developers to only consider implementing NFTs if it’s right for the gamer and makes use of technology that doesn’t cause significant environmental damage.

Additionally, it says that implementing digital ownership technology should not: rely on unregulated cryptocurrency, disproportionately benefit early adopters or wealthier players, encourage informal jobs (grinding in a game solely to make money), or be implemented without full transparency.

The exploration of NFTs in games has been a widely controversial topic so far. Ex-Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé said last week that, while he’s a believer in blockchain technology, it has to be implemented to work for the gamer first.

“I bet I’d have some takers here today if I wanted to sell my Animal Crossing island from the latest Nintendo Switch version. I’d like to be able to monetise that,” he said. Though “it can’t just be an approach by the developer [who thinks] that it’s interesting or it’s a way for them to make more money.”

But that’s the problem according to executives at PlatinumGames (developers of Bayonetta and Nier: Automata), who said that companies investing in NFTs are doing so purely as money-grabbing schemes instead of player-focused incentives.

Specific developers who’ve received severe criticism for NFT implementation include Worms studio Team17, who announced a range of “MetaWorms” collectibles before cancelling it a day later, and the wave of backlash even prompted employees to speak out on their overall poor treatment.

Beating the 24 hour record, STALKER 2 developer GSC Game World announced and cancelled its NFT plans within an hour, saying that, “based on the feedback we received, we’ve made a decision to cancel anything NFT-related.“

NFTs were also banned from Steam as Valve president Gabe Newell said they were linked to “a lot of sketchy behaviours” and “out of control” fraud. This was reflected by smaller indie game marketplace itch.io, who called NFTs a scam and said anyone investing in them should re-evaluate their life choices.

Some companies such as GameStop and Ubisoft are sticking by NFTs though. The publisher’s aforementioned inclusion of NFTs in Ghost Recon Breakpoint – the “most expensive” of which could only be obtained after playing for 600 hours – was announced in December to further backlash, but executive Nicolas Pouard said that gamers just don’t get it.

“For now, because of the current situation and context of NFTs, gamers really believe it’s first destroying the planet, and second just a tool for speculation,” he said. “But what we are seeing first is the end game. The end game is about giving players the opportunity to resell their items once they’re finished with them or they’re finished playing the game itself.”

Ubisoft announced it was ending support for Ghost Recon Breakpoint in April 2022.

Battlefield and FIFA publisher EA, like Ubisoft, expressed early interest in NFTs, saying it thinks they’ll be “an important part of the future of gaming”. This had changed a few months later though as EA announced it was “not driving hard” in the direction of NFTs, though not necessarily ruling them out.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Mafia 3 developer Hanger 13’s studio head and founder Haden Blackman is stepping down from the company and 2K after seven years.

Blackman will be replaced by Nick Baynes, who has 30 years of industry leadership experience and joined Hanger 13 in 2018 to start Hanger 13 Brighton. He was responsible for launching Mafia: Definitive Edition and the Mafia Trilogy.

Blackman spent his early game development years at LucasArts and was a producer on Star Wars: Galaxies, the project lead on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, and more. He also wrote several Star Wars comics, including Jango Fett: Open Seasons, Star Wars: Starfighter, and Darth Vader & The Ghost Prison.

While Blackman’s next move was not revealed, 2K did say that he is leaving the company to “pursue his passion at a new endeavor.”

2K shared the internal announcement of Blackman’s departure with IGN, which shares 2K’s gratefulness for “Haden’s leadership in establishing Hangar 13, building and uniting teams in Novato, Brighton and Czech, and releasing multiple studio-defining Mafia games and collections.”

“Hello team, It’s with mixed emotions that I share with you several leadership updates from Hangar 13,” 2K’s internal announcement reads. “Haden Blackman is stepping down as Studio Head of Hangar 13, and is leaving the company to pursue his passion at a new endeavor.

“We are grateful for Haden’s leadership in establishing Hangar 13, building and uniting teams in Novato, Brighton and Czech, and releasing multiple studio-defining Mafia games and collections. What Haden helped build will continue to carry forward and grow for years to come. We support all of our employees pursuing their passions, and we wish nothing but the best for him in what’s next.

“Nick Baynes, Studio Head of Hangar 13 Brighton will take over as Studio Head of Hangar 13. With 30 years of industry leadership experience, Nick joined Hangar 13 in 2018 to establish Hangar 13 Brighton, and has spent the last four years growing the team, building up the studio’s capabilities, and launching terrific projects like Mafia: Definitive Edition and the Mafia Trilogy.

“I hope you’ll join me in thanking Haden and wishing him the best, and congratulating Nick on a well-deserved promotion. While change can be challenging, it can also breed new opportunities and success.

“We are confident the studio is in great hands heading into the multiple projects currently under way, and the team has 2K’s full support.”

Mafia 3 was released in 2016 and, in our review, we said that its “strong characters and confident storytelling kept me engaged, even if the gameplay rarely delivered anything but bog-standard and repetitive open-world action.”

Hanger 13 was founded in 2014 by 2K with Blackman at the helm and Mafia 3 has been the only new title the studio has released since then. In 2018, Hanger 13 was hit with “significant” layoffs. The studio would continue on to work with Gearbox Software on Borderlands: The Handsome Collection and the previously mentioned Mafia Trilogy.

In 2021, a Bloomberg report shared that Hanger 13’s unannounced game Volt was cancelled after costing the company $53 million. The studio is currently hiring for another unannounced project.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

The summer gaming events season is starting to come into focus, but we still don’t know what PlayStation is up to! That’s why on this week’s episode of IGN’s PlayStation show, Podcast Beyond!, host Jonathon Dornbush is joined by Jada Griffin and Mark Medina to speculate about what our hopes are for PlayStation‘s next big showcase, whenever it is.

Knowing we haven’t gotten a PlayStation showcase since last year, and only a few States of Play in 2022, the trio dives into what our hopes would be for a potential PlayStation summer showcase, including guesses we hope you’ll hold us to when they turn out wrong about when a summer showcase might air, what games would be included, and more. We break down the likelihood of seeing a showcase in the coming months, what possibilities of God of War Ragnarok, PSVR 2, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 and other first-party games may be there, as well as our third-party picks ranging from Stray to Resident Evil Village DLC to much more.

Be sure to tell us your hopes for PlayStation’s next showcase in the comments or write into beyond@ign.com, and we’ll read some on the show!

After that, we also dig into some news for the week, primarily focused on Square Enix selling some of its studios to Embracer, as well as big franchises like Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, and more. Then, Jonathon speaks with some of the developers of the new indie game Trek to Yomi about their take on samurai action, and we wrap up the show with a Memory Card story, a new Trophy Test, and more!

00:00:10 – Intro & Housekeeping
00:09:18 – What’s PlayStation’s Summer Plan?
00:56:29 – Square Enix Sells Some of its Studios
01:12:28 – Trek to Yomi Dev Interview
01:34:56 – Memory Card & Outro

And if you’re looking for more places to enjoy this PlayStation podcast show, check out Podcast Beyond! on all available platforms: https://linktr.ee/podcastbeyond.

Jonathon Dornbush is IGN’s Senior Features Editor, PlayStation Lead, and host of Podcast Beyond! He’s the proud dog father of a BOY named Loki. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

Call of Duty: Vanguard and Activision Blizzard just can’t catch a break. Despite being the best-selling game in 2021, Activision is still unhappy with how the game has performed. Who have they identified as the culprit? World War II.

The company recognizes that the franchise is still one of the most successful entertainment franchises, at least, but their 2021 premium didn’t meet their expectations. In their annual report to investors, Activision Blizzard wrote, “The game’s World War II setting didn’t resonate with some of our community.”

Back in November, we reported that GameIndustry.biz, in collaboration with PAX and EGX, concluded people weren’t playing Vanguard because they were too busy playing other games. In fact, World War II even got a mention with 24% of those polled saying they also weren’t interested in games set during that time.

The company also says there was a lack of “innovation” in the 2021 mainline Call of Duty game, though what exactly that means is unclear.

Furthermore, Activision Blizzard’s 2021 was marred by high-profile sexual discrimination and it’s been reported that Activision Blizzard is facing even more complaints. This time on rushing the sale of the company to Microsoft to help dodge fallout from the sexual misconduct reports.

Perhaps the recently announced Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will fare better than Vanguard.

In our review of the single-player campaign, we called Call of Duty: Vanguard “highly polished” but “brief” with a “lack of variety.”

Casey David is a Freelance Writer for IGN.

Dexterity games have a place in the wider canon of tabletop games because, well hey, they’re played on a tabletop. But in other respects, they’re odd fish. While most board games want to flex a combination of chance and strategic skill (see our list of the best strategy board games), most dexterity games are entirely about physical skill, literally a totally different ball game.

Combining that physical skill with a modicum of strategy is thus a bit of a golden goose when it comes to dexterity games but success stories are few and far between. The most successful is actually a classic older game called Crockinole but that demands an expensive wooden board. Flick of Faith, by contrast, is trying to do the same thing for $35 (see it on Amazon).

What’s in the Box?

Before you get into the box, it’s worth taking note of its size and shape. Unlike almost every other game on the market, Flick of Faith comes in a long, narrow box that isn’t going to fit on a standard shelving unit or stack with other games.

Levering the lid off makes it plain why: inside there’s a big, rolled-up vinyl mat to use as a play surface, depicting four islands surrounded by clouds. You might presume this kind of mat isn’t smooth and shiny enough to slide the included wooden disks across, but it facilitates the flicking just fine.

Aside from your small flicking disks, there are a number of chunky wooden temple cylinders. Other components include a deck of cards, some stickers to decorate the disks with and a sheet of cardboard tokens. It’s all illustrated in a well-executed semi-cartoon style that fits the silly theme of mythical deities flicking prophets across a map.

Rules and How it Plays

Flick of Faith is a really simple game, making it well suited for families, friends and accessible play (see the best family board games). Your aim is to flick your five prophet discs across the map and get them onto the four islands. If you can land it within the small city circle on an island you get to replace it with a big temple disk, which is permanent. At the end of each round you get a point for each island where you have at least one disk and three for each island where you have a majority of disks.

Each round starts with a vote between two law cards, which changes the rules either for the round or for the remainder of the game. These range from the ludicrous, such as having to flick two prophets at once, either stacked atop each other or with separate hands, to the strategic. The latter includes effects like King Ape which adds a single disk to the map that you can push around with your own shots, and it nullifies scoring for any island it ends up on.

Players also start the game with a special god power. These cards are two-sided and you can pick which effect you prefer. The Egyptian card gives you a choice between Ra, who replaces one of your prophet discs with a bigger, beefier sphinx disk, or Anubis, who lets you re-shoot the first prophet that drops off the map each turn. These powers are not well-balanced. In particular, Dagda’s Hand of God ability, which lets you hold a cardboard hand on the map vertically as a backstop, makes it very easy to get temples and is extremely powerful.

Those temples are the key element with which Flick of Faith seeks to elevate itself above the competition. They’re essentially scenery, like the pins on Crockinole, as they’re too big and heavy to move with flicks from other disks. And when you place one you can put it anywhere on the island, which is a strategically interesting choice. They can be placed to protect islands from easy entry shots by a leading player, or to stop or ease access to the temple space itself. Where you put them depends on the game state and the relative positions and skills of your opponents.

In other respects, Flick of Faith resembles any number of popular flicking games, like Carrom. Getting your prophets where you want them is only the basic skill required, and that’s hard enough to master. Once you gain more confidence, you can try things like shooting for temples, knocking other players’ discs out of position, or leveraging whatever laws are in play for maximum advantage.

Another common trait it has with its peers is that it’s often raucous and loud entertainment. There are plenty of silly laws to give the game variety and excitement. No one can predict what’s going to happen when you take a shot, whether it’ll hit the target, crawl half an inch or go careering across the mat, scattering disks madly in its wake. The more people you add, the tighter the board is and the louder and better the game gets, up to the maximum of four.

However, despite all these good aspects, Flick of Faith is let down by the basic problem of only having five shots per round. With four islands, there’s no real decision making on how to use your prophets. Most of the time you want one on each island, saving the last to see where you might be able to get a majority. Laws and special powers mess up the formula but five shots is simply too few to do anything tactically interesting with, especially when you consider the likelihood of misses. And while temples are the most interesting aspect of the game, it’s hard to make the required shots so they tend to be too few to make much difference.

Furthermore, while the game is best with more opponents, additional players tend to result in one of them being a runaway leader. Ganging up to take them down can be part of the fun, but the combination of few flicks per turn, plus unbalanced laws and god powers, can make it very difficult for other players to do so, draining the game of tension. On the rare occasions the win does come down to the final couple of shots, however, the excitement and pressure can ramp up to epic proportions.

Where to buy

Arkane Studios might have canceled Ravenholm, the working title for its Half-Life 2 spinoff, over ten years ago, but that won’t stop video game historians from digging up footage of the game. Today, the video game documentary channel Noclip shared a video with nearly an hour of unfiltered footage from the abandoned zombie shooter project.

The footage is contextualized by Danny O’Dwyer, who explains the development process as well as the game’s environment and characters in between sections of narration-free gameplay. As O’Dwyer begins playing, Lieutenant Shepard (the player character) gains consciousness in an abandoned hospital and is guided by Father Grigori, who’s known for his role in Half-Life 2. It doesn’t take long for the action to kick in, as the hospital is soon invaded by zombies.

O’Dwyer notes that the game, while still playable, is visibly unfinished. It’s apparent that the game has some rough edges — as many commenters noted, some of the zombies are comically wearing shirts that say “I’m a placeholder.”

The game was canceled for unknown reasons after development taking place between 2006 and 2007. Previously, footage of the game was revealed for the first time by Noclip back in 2020 in a documentary on Arkane.

Most recently, the Half-Life series was expanded by Half Life: Alyx, which IGN gave a perfect score. Other than Alyx, Valve hasn’t done much work on the Half-Life series since the 2000s, but fans have recently taken matters into their own hands with Black Mesa, the fan made Half-Life remake that we praised for its skillful (yet slightly outdated) improvements to the original game.

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.

Update 11:53am PT: Activision Blizzard has issued a statement in response to the New York lawsuit, which it has shared with IGN:

“We disagree with the allegations made in this complaint and look forward to presenting our arguments to the Court.”

Original story: Multiple New York City funds have banded together to file a complaint against Activision Blizzard, alleging that CEO Bobby Kotick and the board may have breached their fiduciary duty in their dealings with Microsoft to be acquired, and harmed the company’s value.

As reported by Axios, the suit was filed on May 2 by the New York City Employees’, Board of Education, and Teachers’ retirement systems, as well as pension funds for the city fire department, and police — all of which hold stock in Activision Blizzard. The plaintiffs are claiming their right to inspect various Activision Blizzard records to determine if any wrongdoing was done through the acquisition process, citing a number of concerns to back their demand.

Activision Blizzard Lawsuit Timeline: The Story So Far

Per the suit, the same plaintiffs had originally requested to inspect the company’s books in October of last year following the numerous reports of an unsafe working environment for minority and women employees at the company as well as CEO Bobby Kotick’s apparent knowledge and dismissal of said environment. Activision complied with some of their requests, but not all.

While all this was going on, Activision announced its pending acquisition by Microsoft, but this only furthered concerns. Plaintiffs point out that if the merger goes through, it will “have the effect of extinguishing these highly valuable derivative claims against Activision’s Board” as well as Kotick, who will be “able to escape liability and accountability entirely.”

Further, they note that Kotick was allowed by the board to negotiate the deal with Microsoft “despite his potential liability for breaches of fiduciary duty,” and despite the fact that he stands to benefit substantially from the merger aside from the direct benefits from the purchase price.

With all this, the plaintiffs conclude that it is “unsurprising” that Activision ended up “seriously undervalue[d]” at $95 per share — only a 1% premium over its stock price before the initial California discrimination suit. They note that the price was rapidly negotiatied largely by Kotick himself, who “without Board authorization or an actual offer from Microsoft” suggested an offer between $90 and $105 per share. They accuse Kotick and the board of speeding through the deal in an effort to “escape liability for their egregious breaches of fiduciary duty.”

Though it is unclear what, if any, actual wrongdoing might be revealed should New York gain access to the numerous documents it is requesting, as Axios points out, there is already a traffic jam of lawsuits piling up against Activision Blizzard both related to the accusations of discrimination as well as activities related to the acquisition.

At the latest count, this included a federal harassment suit, the California discrimination suit, a class action lawsuit, four shareholder lawsuits, eight lawsuits related to the merger, this complaint from New York as well as another like it, an SEC investigation, and investigations into insider trading. Several of the suits are either in appeals or have been dismissed or consolidated, but plenty of others are still rolling onward as Activision Blizzard inches closer to finalizing its acquisition by Microsoft, though a planned review by the FTC may halt things further.

For the full context of the Activison Blizzard discrimination lawsuit, you can follow our timeline of events.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Blizzard has shared early impressions of the Overwatch 2 beta and outlined what changes are coming as a result of player feedback.

The biggest change is coming to support heroes, with Blizzard accepting feedback that there’s much more interesting new content for tank and damage players to explore.

“We believe the most effective way to tackle this issue is to add exciting new support heroes to the game,” Blizzard said in a blog post.

The development team is also working on updating current support heroes though, similar to how Doomfist and Orisa received reworks, which could be added to this beta but will more likely be inclusions in later testing periods.

Blizzard also confirmed that more brand new heroes will be joining Sojourn ahead of the official PvP launch, alongside more maps and features. The beta’s UI, including menus, player profiles, and so on will also receive “a significant amount of overall polish and refinement” ahead of the full release.

The refreshed scoreboard – which removed both the Fire and Medal systems from Overwatch 1, and presents stats more traditionally – will be staying put, but Blizzard has further tweaks planned. A “damage mitigated” section will be added to track things like the amount of damage blocked or reduced by abilities including Ana’s Nano Boost and Baptiste’s Immortality Field.

Blizzard also clarified that, like the overall UI, the current scoreboard is not final and the development team is regularly testing different styles and layouts.

Finally, major changes are coming to ranked play but Blizzard didn’t give much information about what these will be. “We’re planning some significant overhauls of our core ranked and competitive mode systems,” it said, but “those are not yet ready to test publicly at scale.”

The sequel has certainly proved popular so far with Overwatch gameplay hitting its peak Twitch viewership following the beta’s launch.

The closed test began on April 26 and runs until May 17, giving select players a chance to try out the new hero Sojourn and four new maps, plus revisions to older characters such as Bastion and Sombra.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

It’s not the biggest discount in the world, but if you were waiting for Elden Ring to go on sale before buying it, now is your chance. Elden Ring has finally dropped in price and can now be purchased for $49.94 from Amazon, Walmart, or GameStop.

That’s over $10 off the original list price, and a great deal for those who haven’t picked up the Game of the Year contender just yet. Unfortunately Xbox fans, this is restricted to just a PlayStation sale, but I’m sure a discount will be around for you soon enough.

Elden Ring is Now $50 at Amazon (Save $10)

Elden Ring continues to prove itself as somewhat of a cultural phenomenon since its launch. Modders are already adding in Star Wars mods, while others have found new ways to beat the game. One player got the Fisher-Price toy controller working, while another has made a VR version of Elden Ring. We awarded Elden Ring a 10/10 Masterpiece in our review, with the game certainly living up to the hype attributed to it.

If this is your first Soulsborne game and you need a bit of help along the way, check out our guide that features everything you could ever hope to know about Elden Ring, including collectable locations, boss strategies, and more. IGN’s Elden Ring Wiki also contains a might amount of useful information for early, mid, and late game.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

You will probably be able to tell if Blizzard’s new mobile game Warcraft: Arclight Rumble, a “tower offense” game, as they call it, is for you within ten seconds of looking at it.

Warcraft: Arclight Rumble doesn’t seem to be trying to hide the fact that it’s Blizzard’s foray into the kingdom of mobile strategy games that generally have an icon of some sort of wacky pack warrior yelling at you from the app store. It’s stylized and whimsical even beyond the likes of Hearthstone, with familiar faces like Tyrande Whisperwind and the trusty orc grunt rendered in simple, garishly colorful, Saturday morning cartoon caricatures.

But credit where credit is due: some interesting things are going on here. The basic premise is that you have a gold bar at the bottom of your screen that fills up over time, similar to mana in Hearthstone. You then spend the bars to summon units from a pool of six “minis” that you collect and select to assemble a team ahead of time.

From tanky gnoll warriors to madcap gnomish inventors, these can all level up by gaining experience in PvE matches. Unique leader characters like Thrall or Tirion Fordring anchor your squad and change up your playstyle.

FLIP THE TABLE

Each board is different, but you’ll typically be trying to capture towers and summoning stones which let you spawn minis closer to your enemy’s side while doing battle with their own minions and eventually taking out their leader.

Depending on the complexity and difficulty of the board, this could take as little as a minute, or as many as five or six. There’s also a wrinkle in that gold veins will spawn which can be mined to fill up your coffers faster, but you’ll have to invest in mostly defenseless kobold miners to take advantage of them. It’s a choice between focusing on a stronger early game army or overwhelming the enemy with a larger force at a later moment.

On top of all this, there is a rough rock-paper-scissors element going on where melee troops beat ranged, ranged beat flying, and flying beat melee. I was fairly satisfied by the amount of strategy involved, though it can still be tricky to keep track of everything that’s going on with some boards even given the very readable graphics.

Sometimes you have to click on arrows on the map to switch what lane your auto-attacking minis will go to, and it could be a little bit like herding cats to figure out when to hit it to get an oncoming group to split up the way I wanted it to.

THE LANDS BETWEEN

The main mode is a PvE tour of the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor that puts you up against some recognizable quest mobs from World of Warcraft like Princess and Hogger. You can unlock new minis and new, more difficult zones as you go.

Game Director Tom Chilton said Blizzard is committed to not having any kind of stamina system, so the limiting factor eventually ends up being the power of your minis. I hit a point where my team just wasn’t leveled enough to take on the next challenges, and skill can only go so far to make up for this when you venture into the more dangerous regions and three-map-long Dungeon challenges inspired by some WoW favorites.

The most efficient free way to level your minis is by doing quests, which you only get a certain number of each day. While currently, you can’t purchase more quests, nothing stopping you from grinding out boards you’ve already beaten. But it’s not a particularly efficient use of your time.

This is the main way Arclight Rumble prevents you from “no-lifing” it through the entire campaign in a handful of days. Senior 3D Artist Justine Hamer estimated it would take months for an average player to finish the entire world map, but things are still being adjusted.

SHOW ME THE MONEY

That brings us to the most obvious question for a free-to-play mobile game: what are the plans for monetization? Chilton was careful not to give any specifics other than that the team wants to sit back and observe, listening to player feedback throughout testing to find what works best.

Currently, in the alpha, you can buy 500 coins for $3.99 (which is enough to buy one new mini from a limited, rotating selection and still have a bit leftover) or 800 coins for $9.99 (which is enough to buy two minis). Purchases in the alpha use real money but will be credited to your in-game account when and if any resets happen leading up to launch.

You also get gold by winning battles and completing quests, however. So far, there is nothing that can only be purchased with real money and no secondary premium currency. Experience tomes can also be purchased with gold, so if you really wanted to go full Whale Mode, it would be possible to level up your minis very quickly using real money with no restrictions that I’m aware of.

This won’t give you an advantage in the 1v1 PvP mode, though, as all minis will have their stats normalized, ignoring their PvE level.

Two-player cooperative raids that are meant to provide an even tougher challenge are also on the horizon. Blizzard hasn’t currently announced any plans for modes involving more than two players, either in PvP or co-op. I also asked Chilton if there are any plans for a PC version after the originally mobile-focused Diablo Immortal was recently announced to be getting one.

“There are reasons to do it and there are reasons not to,” he said. “But ultimately it will be driven by what players want.”

Hamer hopes this will be a game for Warcraft fans of any stripe, even the black-clad edgelords who only play Death Knight, leaning against the back wall in the grungy taverns of Orgrimmar. But I think the experience of playing it speaks a bit louder to what it is. And it’s certainly not “casual” in the sense of lacking in challenge.

In fact, I was impressed with the depth of strategy it can offer. But it is still basically a Warcraft spin on a type of mobile strategy game that’s much more geared toward finding something to do while you wait for your lunch order to be called than the sort of life-devouring adventures Blizzard is most known for. And you know, that may not get me vibrating with excitement, but it’s perfectly fine as long as they can avoid some of the worst tendencies of mobile game monetization that would make even Trade Prince Gallywix wince. The fun is there, even in this early build.

There’s no release date yet, but if you’d like to sign up to be a tester yourself, you can do so over at the official site.

Leana Hafer is a Freelance Writer for IGN.