14 DAY TRIAL // Blizzard has confirmed that Heroes of the Storm, its long-awaited multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) title, will come back online on October 7 in most parts of the world and October 9 in Europe, after the studio takes it down for the move to new servers.
Heroes of the Storm was finally rolled out to the world last year, with Blizzard confirming the actual details about its contender in the MOBA genre. What's more, the studio also delivered a technical alpha stage to a select number of fans, allowing them to jump into the early version of the game and try out its limited number of characters, maps, and features.
The alpha was a success and Blizzard kept adding new things to the test phase, until it confirmed last week that it would soon shut it down, albeit temporarily, to prepare for the next trials.
Heroes of the Storm goes down on September 29
Now, on the official website, Blizzard has confirmed that the actual offline period for Heroes of the Storm is set to begin on September 29, when all player and hero progression is going to be reset for all those who are currently participating in the technical alpha.
As such, all gold earned and purchases made will be deleted, while the real-money acquisitions will be refunded to each player's Battle.net balance.
However, all those who spent actual money on the multiplayer will be given a token of gratitude from Blizzard, in the form of a unique mount named Wonder Billie, which you can admire above.
The game is back online in early October
Fret not, however, as Heroes of the Storm will be back online in early October on new production hardware, meaning better servers that can accommodate even more players at the same time. This translates into the fact that Blizzard will be able to invite even more fans into the experience, provided they've manifested their interest on their Battle.net account pages.
The actual game will be once again playable on October 7 in most regions of the world, and October 9 in Europe. Other territories should also receive the MOBA experience in the weeks to come, according to Blizzard.
"After we fully transition to production hardware, the final phase of the Technical Alpha for Heroes of the Storm will commence, and we will invite even more players from around the world to test the game. At this time we are targeting the game to be patched and playable again in North America, Latin America, South East Asia, Australia, and New Zealand on October 7, and in Europe on October 9," the studio says.
"We anticipate that Korea, Taiwan, and China will be available again for play in the weeks thereafter, and as always, we will ensure we keep players informed of any updates on this extended downtime."
Expect to hear much more about Heroes of the Storm in the following weeks.