Rally your fellow heroes and get ready for battle, because the portal to the Nexus is about to bust wide open! Blizzard Entertainment announced today that Heroes of the Storm will officially launch on June 2, following an open beta testing period beginning May 19. The free-to-play online team brawler brings together a diverse cast of iconic characters from Blizzard's far-flung realms of science fiction and fantasy, including the Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo universes, and challenges them to compete in epic, adrenaline-charged battles.
Heroes of the Storm invites players to customize heroes to suit their style and then team up with friends for some all-out mayhem. The game features a variety of gameplay modes for players of every skill level, including Cooperative, in which players team up against computer-controlled opponents, and Quick Match, an accessible way to jump in and play versus others. Experienced players can also join forces against other teams of players in highly competitive, draft-style ranked play.
"With its focus on team play and fast-paced fun, Heroes of the Storm is a fresh take on a very popular genre," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We've built Heroes of the Storm in a way that makes it accessible to new players, but also challenging enough for veterans who really want to put their skills to the test. We can't wait to see what Heroes brings to the co-op and competitive scenes once the Nexus opens up to everyone."
Heroes of the Storm will launch with more than 30 playable Heroes and 7 dynamic Battlegrounds, each with unique challenges to overcome—and even more Heroes and Battlegrounds are on the way. Players can customize the look of their Heroes with a variety of skins, as well as switch between a stable of special mounts that help them cover ground on the battlefield more quickly.
To celebrate the launch of Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard will be holding a live-streamed event on June 1 in London, UK. Further information will be made available as the event draws closer.
The Heroes of the Storm open beta test will follow on the heels of the epic finale of the Heroes of the Dorm collegiate eSports tournament. Students from more than 400 schools across the U.S. and Canada have bashed and brawled their way through the brackets, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in tuition and other prizes on the line. On April 26, the Heroes of the Dorm championship match will be hosted at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall in Los Angeles and televised live in prime time on an ESPN network and also accessible via WatchESPN—further details on the telecast will be announced at a later date.
Heroes of the Storm has received a Teen rating from the ESRB. In addition to the English version, the game is available fully localized into Spanish (European and Latin American), Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Polish, Italian, Russian, Korean, and Chinese (Traditional and Simplified). To learn more about Heroes of the Storm, head over to the official website at www.heroesofthestorm.com.
