Heroes of the Storm is out now

I'm all for open betas, but they can make the language of a game's launch somewhat underwhelming. Compare "Heroes of the Storm is out now!" to "Heroes of the Storm has been out and publicly available for weeks, but now, for whatever reason, Blizzard is saying it's out. Like, y'know, out of beta out. Proper out."

It's just not the same.

As of today, though, Blizzard's free-to-play lane-pusher is proper out. You can go and download it, for free, right now, and be safe in the knowledge that this is the release version as the developers intended it and not the release version of two weeks before that.

Okay, in order to add some pomp and circumstance to this, the official launch, Blizzard has prepared a couple of rewards for those who log in over the next week. Play the game before Saturday, June 9 and you'll receive an exclusive player portrait and a 25% XP boost.

That XP boost is set to rise over the next three weeks. After June 9, players will get a 50% boost until June 16, and then a 100% boost until June 24. That's a chuff of a lot of XP.

Also, to mark the game's release, Blizzard has added another hero: Johanna, Crusader of Zakarum. You can see what she's all about via the trailer below.

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.