Hearthstone Rise of the Mech due on 3 JuneBlizzard have announced that Hearthstone's upcoming update brings the Rise of the Mech event, a brand new Legendary Mech called SN1P-SN4P and a bunch of buffs. They also laid out the plan for Chapter 3 of the Dalaran Heist expansion.MAY 23
Magic: The Gathering too complex for AIYou've probably read a lot about the successes of artificial intelligence, or AI in short, in Starcraft, which was pretty impressive, but there's one game where AI algorithms obviously need some additional schooling - Magic: The Gathering.MAY 10
Hearthstone getting The Dalaran HeistBlizzard have announced that the Hearthstone expansion Rise of Shadows will be going with a slightly different recipe for the singleplayer component, and the game's first such adventure is called The Dalaran Heist and it comes on 16 May.MAY 9
Hearthstone: Rise of Shadows is now liveBlizzard have officially rolled out Hearthstone's expansion Rise of Shadows, which sees the game's previous baddies joining forces and wreaking havoc as The League of E.V.I.L. This also means retiring of some packs from the Standard mode.APRIL 9
Valve admit they messed up ArtifactValve have finally admitted they messed up with Artifact and now they are working to fix the game but it will apparently take some time as the issues are deep-rooted, according to an official blog post on the Steam Community page.MARCH 30
Gwent: The Witcher Card Game coming to mobileQuite a few news coming from CD Project Red's camp today, and the latest one is about Gwent: The Witcher Card Game and if you've been hoping for a mobile edition - today's your lucky day, as the company announced iOS and Android versions.MARCH 27
Blizzard nerfing five Hearthstone cardsBlizzard, or should we say Team 5, have announced that Hearthstone's upcoming update will be nerfing at least five cards. We're not talking about anything radical - just a few mana cost bumps, although they're likely to be felt by many.FEBRUARY 1
Artifact has lost 94,5% of its playersLate 2018 was filled with rocky game launches, anti-consumer practices and overall bad play experience. Artifact seems to have been one of those games and players apparently had enough of this treatment, as 94,5 per cent deserted the game.JANUARY 15
Valve nerf Axe, Artifact's most powerful cardValve have revealed update notes that include a nerf to Axe, the card that was the most powerful and the most expensive one on the roster. They offered a refund that may not cover the price some players paid, in some cases not even a half.DECEMBER 21
Artifact's Axe card costs more than the gameIt would be foolish to expect Artifact's cards to ignore the all-governing market concept of supply and demand but seeing that Axe costs more than the game itself, regardless of how formidable the card may be, does make one think.NOVEMBER 30
Artifact's critics and players contradictArtifact is slowly kicking off with rather positive reviews from critics, but they are offset by enraged players who are review bombing the game on both Metacritic and Steam. Most of these complaints are about Valve's monetisation approach.NOVEMBER 29
Artifact slightly changed due to backlashPotential players of Valve's upcoming trading card game, Artifact, have voiced discontent with the monetization model. Due to the sheer scale of the backlash, Valve took one, albeit minor, step back on the seemingly rather greedy road.NOVEMBER 20
Thronebreaker starts off slower than expectedEven though CD Project Red intended for Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales to be a game exclusive to their GOG distribution platform, the idea ultimately proved to be too romantic and the company ended up launching it on Steam as well.NOVEMBER 16
Hearthstone hits 100 million playersWhile Blizzard were busy making and hitting their Diablo shaped bumps in the road, Hearthstone has raced by the 100 million player mark so the company, or should we say Team 5, are giving out five free card packs from The Boomsday Project.NOVEMBER 6
Pokemon Ultra Sun and Pokemon Ultra MoonPokemon Ultra Sun and Moon will have an extra form of Rockruff evolution: Dusk Form Lycanroc. The Rockruff that has the ability to evolve into this new form will be a special early purchase bonus for owners of Pokemon Ultra Sun or Moon.SEPTEMBER 21
MTG Arena starts open beta next weekWhen it comes to trading card games, Magic: The Gathering is the one that started it all and its new digital version, Magic: The Gathering Arena is raring for an open beta next week, 27 September 2018, when everyone can get a proper taste.SEPTEMBER 20
Thronebreaker release date announcedCD Project Red have announced that Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales will release on 23 October 2018 for PC and 04 December 2018 for consoles. It will be a different take on adventuring in The Witcher world, with puzzles and cards.SEPTEMBER 18
Hearthstone dev shows more Boomsday cardsWith Hearthstone's The Boomsday Project launch just around the corner, the dev is teasing more cards from the set, including Supercollider weapon, Flobbidinous Floop, who is a cheap master of mimicry and wonderful Whizbang the Wonderful.AUGUST 16
The Elder Scrolls Legends crossplay is a mustBethesda's VP of global marketing and communications Pete Hines has given an interesting interview on QuakeCon 2018, where he revealed that cross-play for their card trading game The Elder Scrolls Legends is a non-negotiable term.AUGUST 13
Ben Brode, game director of Hearthstone quitsHearthstone has lost a giant of a man, quite literally, as Ben Brode is one big fellow, albeit he's more like a gentle giant. He decided to leave Blizzard in order to once more pursue his passion for making games. Well played Brode.AUGUST 5
Artifact's release date has been announcedArtifact, Valve's not-so-anticipated trading card loot box galore will be released on 28 November 2018. The game will be shown on PAX West first, which should offer more information on the Dota-themed TCG before its eventual release.AUGUST 2
Valve should invest in esports developmentBeancounters at SuperData have published their analysis of the esports sector, claiming that publishers, most notably Valve, should take on more proactive roles in setting up and maintaining secondary competitive leagues for their games.JULY 26
Germans cracking down on "coming soon" signsComing soon or available soon - the signs we've been seeing in just about every shop, especially gaming ones, will soon be a thing of the past in Germany as their government decided to crack down on the practice of giving vague dates.JULY 16
Hearthstone getting The Boomsday ProjectBlizzard's Team 5, the smaller internal team responsible for development of Hearthstone, has always had a flare for the goofy and dramatic and it's pretty nice seeing that Ben Brode's departure from the company hasn't changed a thing.JULY 10