Heroes of the Storm Release Date Announced, Open Beta Coming Soon

by Kyle Hanson
Blizzard Entertainment Heroes of the Storm

Blizzard’s highly anticipated foray into the MOBA, or Hero Brawler as they refer to it, genre finally has a release date. Heroes of the Storm will launch on June 2, 2015. Before this fans will have a chance to try out the free-to-play game in an open beta, which will begin on May 19th. Heroes of the Storm has been available until now only as a closed beta, with many fans going to extremes to get an invite to the game.

Heroes of the Storm combines the many universes of Blizzard, with characters from Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft, and others all coming together to do battle in the “Nexus”. Using the same business model as other MOBAs like League of Legends and DOTA 2, players can join the game for free, but some items, including new Heroes will have to be purchased or earned via gameplay.

Games play out in five versus five team matches, there will be three different gamemodes, with some featuring player versus player action, while others are player versus computer. Different Heroes will be cycled out for players to try for free, and if they wish to keep them they will have to pay for them via in-game or real world money. There are currently seven maps available for the game, with six involving the tried-and-true three lane setup of other MOBA levels.