14 DAY TRIAL // This week saw the return of April Fools and, especially in the gaming industry, it was a day where anything needed to be examined with uncertainty, from actual news to made up facts and projects.
As with most pranks, the ones coming from video game developers and publishers can manifest in a variety of different ways, and some are more resourceful than others.
You can opt to go with the completely made up fake announcement route, much like Blizzard did with Blizzard Outcasts: Vengeance of the Vanquished. The new title was presented as a fighting game, a first for the studio best known for strategy and RPGs. What's more, it included a variety of secondary characters from Blizzard's different franchises, like Starcraft or Diablo, all with hilarious descriptions and abilities.
Blizzard even went as far as to create a clunky controller for the fictional fighting game, complete with dozens of buttons and a credit card slot to facilitate easy access to microtransactions.
Other great fictional announcements included the renaming of Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void into Herald of the Stars, due to the popularity of the HotS acronym, or the preview of World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor patch 6.0, which came with all sorts of huge changes.
Last but not least, Blizzard also presented Pajamathur, a baby version of Abathur from Heroes of the Storm, complete with a fully working in-game model and a list of hilarious abilities.
Another great route for April Fools pranks is to actually make changes to a game or produce a working prototype of your idea.
Blizzard once again stepped up to the plate and revealed Happy Reaper, a clone of mobile phenomenon Flappy Bird, only with a distinct Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls focus, as you controlled Malthael, the Angel of Death.
This time around, other developers joined in on the fun, including Infinity Ward. Just like it did with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 some time ago, it decided to rename the different multiplayer game types in the Call of Duty: Ghosts online mode to wacky new things, including Pew Pew, YOLO, and other such things.
Riot Games, the developer of the hugely popular League of Legends MOBA title, opted to introduce a new way of playing the title, in the form of Ultra Rapid Fire, which removed resource costs and cooldowns, allowing players to constantly spam their powers. This really hectic experience is still available until next week, so all LoL players can join in on the fun.
While there were plenty of different other pranks pulled by game developers this week, by far the most active was Blizzard.
The developer once again treated its fans to pranks based on practically all of its current games, from Starcraft 2, to World of Warcraft, Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls, and Heroes of the Storm. Throw in the Blizzard Outcasts: Vengeance of the Vanquished, and the studio made sure that its pranks covered all possible bases.
Out of all the different April Fools announcements of this year, which one really stood out? Share your favorites in the comment section below.