14 DAY TRIAL // Blizzard has just introduced its first April Fools prank, focusing on Starcraft 2 and confirming that its third upcoming expansion, Legacy of the Void, has been renamed into Herald of the Stars, in order to match the HotS acronym seen in Heart of the Swarm or Heroes of the Storm.
Blizzard has always delivered some pretty impressive and detailed April Fools announcements over the years and 2014 is no exception.
The studio has just confirmed that in order to respect the recent new releases with the HotS acronym, it's decided to rename Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void into Herald of the Stars.
According to the studio's rather lengthy explanation, its fans have grown to love the aforementioned acronym after first seeing it in Starcraft 2's second expansion, Heart of the Swarm, and then in the new MOBA title from Blizzard, Heroes of the Storm.
"While the motivation for this change ultimately stems from our desire create the most epic gaming experiences ever, there’s more behind this decision. As you might expect, Blizzard Entertainment is constantly researching the aspects of our games that our community of players enjoy," the studio said on Battle.net.
"One thing that has unexpectedly come to our attention is our audience’s love for the acronym HotS. With recent successful titles Heart of the Swarm, Heroes of the Storm, and Hearth (of the) Stone, we took notice of players’ absolute love for this particular string of letters. This caused us to reconsider everything, and the results were nothing short of spectacular."
The studio then offered details about Herald of the Stars, which will focus on Artanis, the Hierarch of the sage Templar, which will have a "revolutionary non-linear campaign."
"It can be played backwards, forwards, with any mission in any order, or not played at all, while still delivering the exact same life-affirming storyline. New weapons! New units! New armors! New hairstyles on the Stalkers! Customize the color of your lasers so long as you’re okay with 10 different shades of blue! A dance editor? Yes. Sure! A dance editor!
Several quotes from different Blizzard employees working on Herald of the Stars are also included in the official announcement, detailing even funnier aspects of the change and how the new expansion will answer popular questions from the community, like whether or how the Protoss aliens breathe.
You can expect more April Fools announcements from Blizzard later in the day.