Blizzard Entertainment

The War Within Beta is now live! Sign up for the beta opt-in or purchase The War Within Epic Edition for instant access. Learn more: blizz.ly/458grAF

Last week, our Asian & Pacific Islander employee network transformed Blizzard's courtyard into our first-ever Day Market for a celebration of culture and community to close out API Heritage Month. 🌸 Festivities included a fire dance, lei making, API-owned and inspired food trucks, and a market where employees could showcase their work!

Meet Aramis Ramirez, Associate PR Manager, Warcraft 🐉 "For a long time, I never felt I could be open about who I truly was. As a gay teen, I didn’t feel comfortable coming out to my family. Then I joined the Navy, during the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ era. Video games became my escape. The World of Warcraft community accepted who I was without judgment. I made friends who cared about me even when I was deployed in war zones. After the Navy, I went back to school, freelanced as an esports writer, and met some folks from Blizzard. I got invited to the intern program, and I’ve been on the PR team ever since. Much like my time in the Navy, I work with the most passionate and diverse people in the industry who hail from all over the globe, from Australia to Sweden! They have selflessly supported me in my growth and learning from the day I joined. We share awesome experiences (and food!), work on the franchises that changed my life, and I learn about myself each day. It feels like a dream sometimes! For me, Pride is a time to reflect on my personal journey, and celebrate others on theirs. We’re all at different stages of learning to accept ourselves, and those around us. That journey never ends. Now, because I get to work in such an inspiring, accepting and positive culture, this journey is no longer scary for me like it used to be. To anyone wishing to get into gaming, let me pass on some wisdom from my mentor: Go seek out those who are doing your dream job. Connect with them. Listen to their advice. Spend time building up that network. If you’re lucky, you might find a mentor. Oh, and when you do make it to where you want to be, pay it forward. Be the mentor you needed when you were coming up. Make a difference." #BlizzardPride

Pride Month is here and we’re ready to celebrate with the entire #Overwatch2 community 🏳️🌈 In our latest blog, learn more about the upcoming LGBTQ+ creator streams, the return of Calling All Heroes, and the all-new Venture comic ✨ 📝 blizz.ly/3VmeSf0

What makes every lunch break better? Cats 😸 In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, the Blizzard Women's Network partnered with Cats & Comics Rescue to bring kittens available for adoption to our Irvine campus. Employees had the opportunity not only to meet and adopt some adorable cats, but to support a local women-run organization in their animal rescue efforts. And as a result, five cats were adopted from just this event, and so many more folks signed up on the waitlist for more! 🎉

Meet Kim Centeno, VP of Marketing, Overwatch ⚡ “Back in 2014, I attended my first BlizzCon. I can still vividly remember how it felt when Overwatch was announced: the electric energy; people were so in awe of this new universe, full of heroes. I was impressed by how passionate the fans were. It was unlike any community of players I’d witnessed before. Since that day, I’ve held a number of leadership roles throughout the gaming industry on different live-service games and I’ve been fortunate to work on games that make hundreds of millions of people happy. But when Blizzard reached out to me about leading marketing for Overwatch, I jumped at the opportunity. It’s an incredible, once-in-a-generation, super-special world. As a marketer in gaming, I love that I work on projects that we are passionate about. I get to let our players know about the cool things our dev team is working on, and it’s so rewarding to see the community’s positive response. Some of the projects I’m most proud of include our Cowboy Bebop collaboration–our team recently debuted an anime throwback trailer for the project and it trended # 2 on YouTube worldwide! We also unveiled a life-sized Porsche Macan EV-inspired mech at the SXSW event, and we now have two Porsche-inspired skins in the game. It doesn’t get more fun than this! I’m proud to have grown up Filipina, in the Philippines. Not only is our heritage absolutely rich and beautiful, it's also shaped my values and my approach to every aspect of my life. My culture is a core part of my identity, of what makes me who I am. The great news for anyone looking to get into the gaming industry is there are so many professions here. So, pursue the work you love. And just be a sponge. Learn about the work behind the games you love. Ask questions, network… and remember this industry is always looking for passionate and capable talent.” #APIHeritageMonth

In our 2nd Annual VFX Challenge, participants were tasked with taking a provided image of a ball, adding some of their own magic, and then returning it to its original state so that it can be “passed along” to the next artist.   The VFX Challenge is not a competition—rather, it is an opportunity for VFX artists to exercise their craft, build up the VFX community, and celebrate the amazing creativity we have at Blizzard. In that spirit, this year we invited everyone company-wide to participate and a third of our submissions came from non-vfx artist contributors!   Check out the amazing results now 👇

The Shorty Awards, celebrating the best of digital and social media, were announced on May 22, and we are so excited and honored to be recognized alongside such creative and talented peers! 🐉 World of Warcraft’s Wowifying the World was the winner in X Presence. 🔥 Diablo IV received two Bronze Honors for Howling Success - Wolf Pack In-Game Reward Activation in Memes, Gifs & Emojis, and Liberation Letter - A Sinister Symphony of Engagement in Copywriting. 🌴 And Overwatch 2 was nominated for Overwatch TikTok in TikTok Presence, and Overwatch Mauga Twitter Takeover, in Community Management. Congratulations to everyone on the game teams and Creative Design & Content teams for this amazing recognition! Learn more here!👉 https://lnkd.in/gUPMzX-3

Meet Tiffany Wat, Production Director on Diablo IV 🔥 “World of Warcraft came out when I was in college, and I met so many people through my guild who were going to school to become game developers. It inspired me to follow my passion and get into the gaming industry too.    I got my start in the QA department at Activision, testing and shipping all types of games. It taught me about shared development practices and the common issues game studios run into.   I’ve been fortunate enough to achieve so much in my career, but the most meaningful thing to me is how I’ve developed as a person at Blizzard. It took me a long time to embrace my Chinese cultural heritage; there weren’t a lot of people who looked like me where I grew up. Being a part of a company with such an inclusive culture has helped me become much more comfortable with my identity. This is such a welcoming place! Now, I’m proud to talk about how my heritage has shaped who I am today.   If I were to offer someone advice about joining the gaming industry, I would say believe in yourself. You’re capable of more than you think. Don’t be afraid to forge a new path and break the mold. Oh, and good luck! This is a great industry to be in, and Blizzard is one of the best!” #APIHeritageMonth

Azeroth is born anew in flame! Cataclysm Classic is now live 🔥