Do you love Heroes of the Storm as much as we do? Well you’re in luck. In collaboration with Mionix and Blizzard, we’re giving away 50 keys for the Heroes of the Storm beta.

If you’re not familiar with the game, Blizzard describes it as “a raucous online team brawler starring your favorite Blizzard characters. Build and customize heroes from across every Blizzard universe to suit your play style. Team up with your friends and engage in fast-paced mayhem across varied battlegrounds that impact strategy and change the way you play the game.”

So if you’ve ever wanted to pit your favorite characters in the different Blizzard universes against each other, this sounds like the perfect game for you.

Currently Heroes of the Storm is in closed beta with a release expected later this year. So far over 9 million players have signed up for the closed beta.

Using the widget below you can enter to win one of 50 beta keys for the game.  For an extra chance at winning, visit www.mionix.net/HOTS. The contest closes on April 11 and the keys will be distributed then to the lucky winners via email. The contest is only open to those that reside in the EU, as the keys will not work outside of that geographical area.

Heroes of the Storm beta key giveaway

The post Win a Heroes of the Storm Beta Key from VR World and Mionix appeared first on VR World.

With impending release of Blizzard’s (NASDAQ:ATVI) new expansion for World of Warcraft, Warlords of Draenor, what better way to celebrate than with a custom case mod?  Mnpctech’s pro case modder Bill Owen takes an Antec Eleven Hundred case and builds a case worthy of the Iron Horde.

The new expansion for World of Warcraft is Warlords of Draenor, and it comes out on November 13th.  There is no doubt that tonight will be a sleepless night for millions of World of Warcraft players.  In fact crowds are forming in-game at the Dark Portal waiting for the expansion to go live.  What has been a good way for players to channel their anxiety of the upcoming release?  Well tributes to the game are a good place to start, and there are few tributes to PC games better than case mods.

Antec Eleven Hundred pre-mod

Nothing says dedication in the PC enthusiast arena more than well thought out custom case mods.  This is something the average person can do to their case to make it unique and stand apart from others.  The best time to really take in case mods is at an event such as a lanparty where many people bring their custom works to display and play on.  There is a big industry catering to those who chose to create unique PCs, and one of those companies is Mnpctech.  It sells supplies, tools, and other parts to mod PCs with, and they also have a staff that are expert PC modders.  Their work has been featured in many magazines and websites around the world.

Bill Owen, the founder of Mnpctech and pro modder created a case to celebrate the new expansion.  He did so with an Antec Eleven Hundered, parts from his company, and a lot of hard work and paint.  The build log is a fun one to look at and see how the build came together.  The end result looks amazing and the case ends up looking like it was built from a blacksmith out of iron.

The post World of Warcraft Tribute Case Mod For The New Expansion appeared first on VR World.

SteelSeries has announced an exclusive Heroes of the Storm Mouse and QcK Mousepad, which were designed in collaboration with Blizzard Entertainment.

“Heroes of the Storm has been such a highly anticipated title that we were excited to create a product exclusively for the game. We knew that Blizzard and players would want a mouse designed for versatility and that would evoke the aesthetics from within the game. The SteelSeries Engine is such an important component of this mouse in that players can save an unlimited number of profiles and settings for each that would reflect the type of character you’re playing; assigning illumination settings to each of your profiles to differentiate between characters is another way the mouse can enhance gameplay.”

-Tino Soelberg, SteelSeries CTO

The SteelSeries Heroes of the Storm Mouse is based off of the SteelSeries Sensei [RAW] mouse, and features LED illumination and an officially licensed Heroes of the Storm design.

The Heroes of the Storm Mouse has bright blue LED illumination in 3 zones, and can be configured with multiple levels of pulsation. It utilizes a laser sensor and has a CPI range from 1 to 5700. The mouse also features a 6.5 foot anti-tangle black and purple braided nylon cord.

The Heroes of the Storm Mousepad displays the game’s logo on a cloth material designed to guarantee smoothness and glide, while the non-slippery rubber underside holds the mousepad in place.

The SteelSeries Heroes of the Storm Mouse and HotS QcK Mousepad will be available later this year for $69.99 and $14.99 respectively.

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Activision-Blizzard surprised investors and analysts with a better than expected earnings report for its second quarter.

In Activision-Blizzard’s newly released second-quarter earnings report, the gaming giant reveals that its revenue for the second quarter has surpassed original projections by $60 million. The company managed to top $970 million in revenue for the second quarter ending on June 30, 2014, pulling in a profit of $204 million citing continued growth in digital market as a major source of profits.

However, while these better-than-expected figures pleasantly surprised analysts and investors when put in a broader context it shows that Activision-Blizzard’s revenue and profits are on an overall decline. Compared to the same quarter last year, earnings are down 37% while revenue is down by 8%.

Shares, however, were up about 3% in after-hours trading on better than expected news.

The industry leader’s catalog of AAA hits continues to bolster their earnings, with a number of new IP’s such as the popular free-to-play iPad/PC release Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft gaining momentum across the gaming sector.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick reveals that digital sales have been particularly strong in the digital front:

“Our better-than expected performance was driven by continued strong digital sales from Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, Diablo III: Repear of Souls and Blizzard’s newest franchise, Hearthstrone: Heroes of Warcraft, which recently launched on the iPad and continues to be well received by audiences around the world, as well as digital sales from Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty [franchise].

“Based on our results, we are raising our full-year outlook and we expect to grow our non-GAAP revenues year-over-year and deliver record non_GAAAP earnings per share for the full year.”

In light of these earnings and the upward trends of digital sales, Activision now expects to make $4.24 billion in revenue  for 2014’s fiscal year — an increase of $20 million above May’s initial projections. With the help of an array of planned launch games based on strong franchises no-doubt the company can hit this mark.

Destiny marks one of Activision’s largest endeavors in a new gaming IP, and launches Sept. 9 across PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PS3.

Blizzard has also reported tremendous success with Diablo III, with the definitive APRG earning the prestige of the “#1 PC game in dollars in both North America and Europe”. Combined with its hot-selling Reaper of Souls expansion, the PC game has sold more than 20 million digital and retail copies to date.

Sales will undoubtedly rise with this month’s release of the Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition, the cross-platform console port that brings the original game and its celebrated expansion to the console market.

Activision is poised to expand upon their AAA dominance with a number of upcoming cross-platform titles, all of which will further their leading sales revenue and industry presence.

The publisher’s 2014 catalog includes Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, Skylanders: Swap Force accompanied by a fresh batch of action-figure tie-ins, and Bungie’s hotly anticipated MMOFPS Destiny, which Activision predicts will be the “largest new IP in gaming history”. Company CEO Bobby Kotick has also highlighted Destiny as the publisher’s next billion-dollar franchise.

Armed with a diversified retinue of hit games and a wave of incoming AAA releases, Activision’s future remains solid. With key development studios like Blizzard and Bungie and a swarm of big-name IP’s under their banner, the company can safely cover new ground in developing sectors of the market.

Maybe we’ll see Activision further its free-to-play model backed on the success of Hearthstone, or a swath of new digital content (DLC, digital exclusives, etc) thanks to the earnings of key titles.

It’ll be interesting to see how the earnings for the next quarter pan out after the release of Destiny; the publisher has already reported that pre-orders are “tracking toward an industry record for a new intellectual property”.

The post Growth of Titans: Activision's Q2 Earnings Surpass Predictions appeared first on VR World.

We’ve been asking around, trying to figure out what will be going on on and off site this year and we’ve been sure to hit up all of the usual suspects in terms of gaming and hardware companies to see what they’ll be doing at Comic-Con this year. This year, Legendary will be having a pretty major focus on World of Warcraft, as they’ll be having a signing with the upcoming movie’s director, Duncan Jones. The signing will occur at 2pm on Saturday (likely immediately following their Hall H panel) and in order to get a poster and in line for the signing you need to stand in line at 11am at Blizzard’s booth (NOT Legendary’s) to get ‘tickets’. So, if you want to see the panel you won’t be able to get a signing from the director, which is kind of lame.

Legendary Booth
Booth Location: #3920

legendary booth SDCC

Legendary will also have a film panel in Hall H on Saturday, where I believe we’ll definitely see some serious World of Warcraft footage as well as some other films they’re working on. That will be on Saturday at 12:35. During the panel, Legendary will be live tweeting from Hall H at @Legendary.

Blizzard will also have a booth at Comic-Con, however their booth will mostly be for merchandise (Booth# 115) and the Director’s signing.

We’ve also caught wind of two laser tagging events that will be going on during Comic-Con, one is being put on by Nerdist Industries in partnership with 2K games (and Gearbox) and the other is by Comedy Central. The one being put on by Nerdist Industries (which we’ll be attending) is to promote the new game by 2K games and Gearbox, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. The event itself is open to the public and will be held at Petco Park from Thursday July 24th through Saturday July 26th at from 11am to 5pm. Priority will go to San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) badge holders, however everyone will be able to play as there will be two teams of 25 playing for a short period of time. There will also be special guests like Chris Hardwick, Gearbox president Randy Pitchford as well as prizes for Borderlands cosplayers and much much more.

The Comedy Central laser tag event (funny that there are two this year) will be to promote their new show Moonbeam City. This event will also be open to the public (and off-site) and will be located at The San Diego Wine & Culinary Center and will also include the Comedy Central GIF booth, Giveaways and more, running from Friday July 25th through Saturday July 26th from 11am to 8pm.

San Diego International Comic-Con

We also spoke with Intel to see what they’ll be doing at Comic-Con this year and they’re sponsoring a lot of various events and giveaways throughout the course of Comic-Con.

Intel is a sponsor of the 2014 Nerd HQ at San Diego Comic-Con. In the booth, Intel will feature tablets, 2-in-1s, PAIOs and the “Created by You and Intel” photo app. In addition to the photo app in the booth, Intel will be mobile with tablets and a never-been-done-before portable green screen to connect with additional Comic-Con fans.  Intel will also be prizing 1 Xidax gaming tower & peripherals ($1,523), 20 Core i7 Extreme processors ($1,000 each), and 4 Acer Iconia A1-830 tablets ($160 each). They are also providing 80+ Intel-based tablets, 2-in-1s, and PAIOs for Intel as well as for many of the exhibitors at Nerd HQ.

Intel is also the sponsor of the Nerd HQ and Operation Smiles “Smiles for Smiles” photo booth – featuring 2-in-1s for photo sharing. YouTube personality iJustine will be supporting onsite and via social with a photo-based Instagram contest.  Intel will also be providing 8 Core i7 Extreme processors to Makers for onsite co-marketing promotions and the same to Nerd HQ. They will also be running a retail offer with Newegg to give out coupons for $25 off Acer tablets.

Unfortunately, AMD and Nvidia will not have any presence this year at Comic-Con, so the amount of hardware that’ll be given out will likely be much less than last year. After all, a few years ago AMD gave out hundreds of APUs.

Microsoft will be attending again this year, as will Sony, however Microsoft will have both an Xbox booth and an Xbox lounge with tons of Surface Pro 3’s and Xbox Ones for relaxing and gaming.

It should be an interesting Comic-Con this year and we’ll do our best to report on what we find interesting and of course post pictures of all the cosplayers.

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Blizzard just announced the dates for their much awaited Blizzcon conference that occurs every year in Anaheim, California at the Anaheim Convention Center. Based on the announcement, the dates for Blizzcon 2014 will be November 7th and November 8th, later this year, with ticket sales opening up on May 7th, exactly 6 months before the event. In past years, ticket sales for Blizzcon have gone by so quickly that the players hoping to attend Blizzcon are usually disappointed by their inability to get tickets. There are simply too few to get ahold of and they go far too quickly, much like Comic-Con does these days. However, Blizzcon is hoping to smooth the process out a bit by selling Blizzcon 2014 tickets on Eventbrite this year, rather than what they’ve done in previous years.

Blizzcon fans at Blizzcon 2013 (Image Credit: Blizzard)

Prices for admission are $199 for general admission, and $750 for the benefit dinner + admission. For general admission, there will be two sale dates, May 7th and 7am and May 10th at 10am. The benefit dinner tickets will also go on sale on May 14th, possibly as a way to enable people that couldn’t get ahold of either general admission ticket sets to spend a little more and do it for charity as well. While I don’t know how many people will pay the $750 for the benefit dinner, I have a feeling that it will be well worth it to real fans of Blizzard’s creations and will go towards a great cause. The benefit dinner itself will be for donating money to the CHOC (Children’s Hospital of Orange County) and will likely result in hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars going towards the Children’s Hospital. However, we can’t estimate the amount accurately because the amount of tickets being made available for both general admission and the benefit dinner are both listed on Eventbrite as “N/A” so we simply have no idea what to expect.

There will also be a third and final option, called Blizzcon Virtual Ticket, which will allow users to follow the events of Blizzcon from the comfort of their own homes if they can’t attend or couldn’t get tickets to attend. However, the details for this Blizzcon Virtual Ticket are very sparse and don’t talk about exactly what they’ll cost or what you’ll get beyond a short description. They state that you can, “Watch BlizzCon 2014 at home via the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, offering comprehensive live coverage of the event to viewers around the world via a multi-channel Internet stream. Further details on Virtual Ticket pricing and availability are coming soon.” So, there you have it. Blizzcon is official for 2014 and we will probably be getting more details relatively soon about the Virtual Ticket and how many tickets will go on sale for both the general admission and benefit dinner.

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However, mainstream media didn’t exactly show in droves to see more several thousand people that waited in Zagreb and hundreds of people in several other cities in Croatia – these people waited for World of Warcraft: The Wrath of Lich King add-on. The price was set at $60 for the regular and $120 for the Collector’s Edition – and yes, there were many happy faces walking off with the Collector’s Edition.

The line went on and on and on...

However, during the great wait, it was funny hearing people discussing how much fun you can get from WoW and how much fun you can get fron an iPhone… luckily, political topics were a big no-no, and that shows growing up of this burdened country. Organization of the event was impeccable as always, since guys’n’girls in Algoritam have a lot of experience with midnight sales (Harry Potter, WoW). What really surprised me wasseeing more people gathered for this add-on than for the previos add-on, The Burning Crusade. But contrary to typical geekhood that usually stand in lines, it wasn’t a rare sight to see the whole family… or a particularly attractive females… next time you’re talking to a Tauren, be warned, he might be a (hot) she.

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We only wonder how much time NPD will spend to finally start tracking online game sales… that would be a major contributor to the actual fact sheet – as we all know, games are selling online like hotcakes, while PC retailers are lagging behind. And yet, in the “lagging behind” segment, Spore and Warhammer beat favorites in sales.
Once more, these stats are for North America only (received some comments in the past about WW rankings, had to clarify).

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