CD Projekt Red confirmed at BlizzCon that both The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered and Cyberpunk 2077 will come to Battle.net, Blizzard's proprietary game storefront, before the end of the year. You should expect this to kick off a large wave of third-party Battle.net launches, though, as Blizzard told Polygon it's still being very picky about what will come to the service in the future.
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Blizzard doesn't want Battle.net to be the next Steam
Battle.net predates Steam, having launched in 1997 alongside the original Diablo as a platform for player chats and listings of multiplayer servers. Over time, it became the hub for buying Blizzard (and only Blizzard) games on PC. Things stayed that way until Destiny 2 launched on the service in 2017. In the years since, other Activision-published series like Call of Duty and Crash Bandicoot made their way to Battle.net as well.
Following Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Xbox Game Studios and Bethesda titles like Avowed, Sea of Thieves, The Outer Worlds 2, and Doom: The Dark Ages also made their way to Battle.net. Now that CD Projekt Red games are coming to Battle.net, you'd be remiss not to wonder if we should expect a flood of other third-party titles to come in the future.
Despite this trend, Blizzard's Andrew Guerrero quickly made it clear during a BlizzCon interview with Polygon that Blizzard has no ambition of taking on the likes of Steam.
'We're obviously not out there trying to do the Steam or Epic Game Store thing. We really look at ourselves as, you know, we have our audience. We have a passionate core of people that play Blizzard games and games similar to Blizzard, and if something makes sense for them, we'll get after it," Guerrero explained. "It's a much more focused approach, I'd say, of 'What do we think our players would absolutely love? What are the top-tier quality experiences out there that we might be able to get some more exposure to, and does it make sense?'"
The issues with Steam that Battle.net wants to avoid
Later in the interview, I asked Guerrero about what the addition of support for third-party games entails from a development standpoint. "If you look at Steam, they spend a lot of time making a platform that is explicitly for publishing games on the platform," he responded. "We didn't really build Battle.net for that, but we did spend some time getting it to a place where it's much more straightforward, and we can do it without it being completely bespoke."
That said, Guerrero said that he doesn't think Battle.net will ever get to "a place where it's, like, hit the self-publish button, everything flows through." He sees the game curation struggles that storefronts like Steam and Epic's face, and doesn't want to put games on Battle.net that Blizzard fans won't enjoy.
"We really value our players' time and attention," he said. "They're on our platform. They're looking at games that we're showing them. We really want that to be something that we're pretty confident is going to be appealing to them. If we went super, super wide, the curation just sort of becomes its own thing, and that's just not what we're trying to be."
While I'm not sure Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time is very Blizzard-coded, it's easy to see how CD Projekt Red RPGs like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077 better fit the bill. For now, we're in a wait-and-see state, waiting to find out how well those games do on Battle.net and want other titles Blizzard deems worthy of launching on it. %!s()
Israel’s culture minister has called for the Oscar-winning Israeli directors of NAZA, a documentary about the country’s mass killing of civilians in Gaza, to be stripped of their citizenship, accusing them of “treason against the state”.
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NAZA, which was produced by the Guardian, is named for an acronym used by Israel’s intelligence service to indicate how many civilians it expects to die in an airstrike on Gaza.
In the film, the Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor spoke to 24 different Israeli military or intelligence whistleblowers who outlined the AI-powered targeting systems used to bombard Gaza that have killed tens of thousands of civilians. In one interview, a source claims that approval had been given to kill 500 NAZA in order to kill one Hamas member.
The 80-minute documentary won a special jury prize at this year’s Venice film festival on Saturday, after receiving a 25-minute standing ovation – a festival record.
NAZA director says ‘it’s important Israelis watch this film’ after win at Venice festival – video
On Sunday Israel’s culture minister, Miki Zohar, accused the directors on X of being willing to “harm their homeland in order to receive applause from antisemites around the world”.
“I will act immediately to revoke the Israeli citizenship of these despicable creators for treason against the state,” Zohar wrote on X.
Other Israeli ministers also took aim at the directors, who won an Oscar in 2025 for their film No Other Land about Israeli settler violence in the occupied West Bank.
“You are a disgrace and an embarrassment to the entire people of Israel. Go away!” the far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said on X.
“I am certain that your friends, that is to say our enemies Hamas in Gaza, will welcome you with open arms.”
The revocation of nationality is legally possible in Israel, although it is rarely applied. In 2022 the supreme court confirmed that the state may strip people of their nationality if they have failed to show “loyalty”, for example by committing acts of espionage or treason.
The law was also expanded in 2023 to apply to people convicted of “terrorism”.
The law requires the interior minister to submit the revocation request, the justice minister to approve it and judges to validate it.
Abraham’s family home was targeted by a rightwing mob after the world premiere of 2024’s No Other Land, which spotlighted Palestinian resistance in the occupied West Bank.
“We’re taking risks in a system that privileges us, that has Jewish-Israeli supremacy as its founding characteristic,” he told the Guardian, adding: “For so many Palestinians, it’s not a rightwing mob that’s coming to their home: it’s US-funded bulldozers and weapons.
“Imagine if a Palestinian journalist in Gaza tried to do what we did and called up senior Israeli officials. There is no comparison. They would most likely be murdered.”
The Israeli military has responded to NAZA by saying it “categorically rejects” the allegations made in the documentary and criticised the use of anonymous testimonies, saying the identities of the whistleblowers “cannot be verified”.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an Agence France-Presse tally based on official Israeli figures. Hamas militants also took 251 hostages to Gaza.
The Gaza health ministry has reported more than 73,000 deaths in the subsequent three years of Israeli bombardment, the vast majority of which have been civilian casualties.
– Agence France-Presse contributed to this report%!s()
Warm start to week to make way for wetter and windier conditions
Image source, Richard Baker/Getty
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BySarah Keith-Lucas
Lead Weather Presenter
ByMatt Taylor
Lead Weather Presenter
Changeable autumnal conditions are set to continue through this coming week, with spells of wetter and windier weather developing at times.
Monday will bring a short-lived burst of warmth and sunshine before temperatures drop to levels more typical for September later in the week.
A strengthening jet stream will bring deeper, low-pressure systems as the week goes on, with the potential for minor disruption towards next weekend.
Higher pressure looks set to build again for the end of the month, but prospects of a late-September heatwave remain uncertain.
Strengthening jet stream to bring windier weather
The jet stream is a ribbon of fast-moving air high in the atmosphere, around six miles above our heads, and its shape, speed and position help dictate what type of weather we experience.
Image caption,
A flatter and stronger jet stream, with speeds of more than 170mph, will bring deeper areas of low pressure to the UK later in the week.
During the start to the week, the jet stream will be relatively weak and loop to the north of the UK, allowing higher pressure to develop and a warm south-westerly airflow to take hold.
Later, the jet stream will take on a more southerly path, flowing faster and straighter towards our shores. This will mean lower pressure will form, bringing rain and brisk winds at times, and temperatures will drop.
A cooling trend this week
Monday will be the warmest day of the week, with the air coming in from a south-westerly direction.
Many areas will stay fairly cloudy, with some rain around coasts and hills in the west. Despite this it will feel warm and rather humid, with temperatures climbing above 20C in many places.
Where the sun does break through, in central and southern parts of England, temperatures could reach as high as 26C.
Image caption,
A change in wind direction will bring a drop in temperature though the week, but only closer to the seasonal average of 14-20C
By Thursday the winds will turn more westerly or north-westerly, bringing a fresher air mass and a cooler feel to the weather. Temperatures by this stage will reach around 14 to 16C in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and 17 to 20C in England and Wales.
Will we see September out with a heatwave?
Forecasts are showing that areas of high pressure should have more influence on the weather for the last week of September. This may mean longer dry interludes and the chance of returning to above-average daytime temperatures, but the degree of temperature rise will depend on the positioning the high pressure relative to the UK.
While long-range forecasting is fraught with uncertainty and details are subject to change, there is currently nothing to indicate that a heatwave is on the cards.
Indeed, as autumn advances and the nights become longer, high pressure overhead could lead to some rather chilly mornings.
You can keep an eye on the temperatures where you are by checking BBC Weather online and the app. %!s()
Fugitive developer Jean Nassif details feud with David Elliott
Penry Buckley
Returning to Jean Nassif‘s appearance at the NSW Icac, questioning has focused on the property developer’s feud with centre-right Liberal figures, including David Elliott, who he says were “rejecting all my properties across the suburbs and putting blocking on it”.
… %!s()
Asked about comments by Elliott in 2019 about constituents complaining of defects in apartments built by his company Toplace, Nassif describes Elliott as “a racist person and ... corrupt politician”.
Nassif says: “I want to stop at that for now, because I’ve got plenty to say”.
Elliott, who has told the commission that Nassif began to target him after he opposed his developments, is not accused of any wrongdoing.
Counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC asks how Nassif came to know with Jeremy Greenwood and Christian Ellis, who, alongside Charles Perrottet, are alleged to have taken $2m in prohibited donations from Nassif. Greenwood and Charles Perrottet have rejected that payments were for political outcomes, while Ellis, who has moved to the UK, is not expected to give evidence.
Nassif says he spoke at a function to the Liberal figure JP Abood and the former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott, during which he says he complained to Abbott about “my problems with the centre-right”, including federal and state Liberal MPs.
Nassaf says Abood suggested he speak to Ellis and Greenwood, claiming Abood said: “They might take over the Hills soon, so talk to them and see if they can help you.” Abbott is not named as a person of interest in Icac’s inquiry and is not accused of any wrongdoing.
Jean Nassif is giving evidence to a NSW Icac inquiry from Lebanon. Photograph: Icac
Key events
23m ago
Australia records first bird flu case in pelican
38m ago
Three Australians found dead in Bali in suspected murder-suicide
1h ago
Fugitive developer Jean Nassif details feud with David Elliott
1h ago
Hundreds of jobs cut at Whyalla steelworks in SA
1h ago
Australia’s old tech is vulnerable to AI hacking, top intelligence chief says
1h ago
Sussan Ley appointed to Snowy Hydro board
2h ago
‘I’m not even the decision maker’: Albanese denies involvement in golf club grant
2h ago
Albanese says Coalition’s golf club grant question ‘wasn’t so much a question as a smear’
2h ago
Jean Nassif tells Icac ‘I’m going to speak my heart’
2h ago
Question time begins
2h ago
Fugitive developer Jean Nassif appears at NSW Icac inquiry
3h ago
Hastie says expected closure of Whyalla steelworks is a ‘brutal blow’
3h ago
Australia must reject Pauline Hanson’s ‘toxic agenda’, Indigenous Australians minister says
3h ago
Coalition still unhappy about digital duty of care bill
4h ago
Middle East escalation to drive up petrol prices
5h ago
OpenAI says it wants to train models in Australia
6h ago
Hastie says Australia will be ‘supplicant state’ without US AI deal
7h ago
First female high court justice Mary Gaudron remembered
7h ago
Victorian premier vows ‘no more buck passing’ after motorcyclist’s death
7h ago
Hanson’s comments on Albanese’s mum ‘inappropriate’: Taylor
7h ago
What’s in One Nation’s migration policy?
8h ago
Pensioners to pay for half of Labor's $3bn private health savings
8h ago
Joyce stands by Hanson’s comments disparaging Albanese’s mother
9h ago
One Nation reveals ‘net-negative’ migration policy
10h ago
Bumper weekend for auctions
10h ago
Labor announces $300m grants for crisis accommodation
10h ago
Save $5,000 by electrifying, organisations say
Federal government announces $10 million dollar support package for Whyalla workers
The federal government has announced a $10 million joint support package for the 500 Whyalla workers who face losing their jobs, their families and the broader community affected by the decision to abandon efforts to restart the plant’s troubled blast furnace.
The package will provide career support, transition assistance, skills recognition and funding for workers who want to upgrade or expand their skills. Wellbeing services and financial counselling will also be available.
Speaking in Canberra, employment and workplace relations minister, Amanda Rishworth, said that while it was “a very difficult day”, the decision was not unexpected and support measures had been planned.
double quotation markThe Peter Malinauskas and the Albanese Labor government have been working to plan for the event if this was to occur, so we’ve been able to immediately stand up worker support.
This package has been thought through and will provide support to those workers and, importantly, their families, because we know that these workers are not the only ones affected.
Importantly, we will be working with the South Australian government to ensure that workers who are affected and will no longer have work as a result of this closure get other job opportunities.
Photograph: Aaron Bunch/AAP
Australia records first bird flu case in pelican
Donna Lu
Australia has recorded its first case of H5N1 bird flu in a pelican, South Australian authorities have confirmed.
The pelican was found at Edithburgh on the Yorke Peninsula, one of five detection events included on Monday in the state’s latest testing update.
It comes after South Australia recorded the first bird flu death of an endangered Australian sea lion on Sunday.
On Sunday, the state’s environment minister, Emily Bourke, said the sea lion was found dead at Seal Bay on Kangaroo Island, Australia’s third-largest colony of the animals.
As of the latest federal figures, Australia has recorded more than 500 confirmed events of H5 bird flu in more than 30 species of wildlife, the vast majority of cases in greater crested terns, a common native seabird. South Australia accounts for nearly 300 cases.
Australian pelicans in South Australia. Photograph: Auscape/UIG/Getty Images
Three Australians found dead in Bali in suspected murder-suicide
Nick Visser
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) is assisting the family of three Australians who died in Bali.
The ABC reports Balinese police are investigating the deaths as a suspected murder-suicide after a man and his two children were found dead inside a home in Kuta on Sunday morning. Dfat said in a statement:
double quotation markWe send our deepest condolences to the family at this difficult time.
Owing to our privacy obligations we are unable to provide further comment.
The ABC says a welfare check was conducted at a bungalow rented by the family after the man’s wife had left for Jakarta. On arrival, authorities discovered the bodies. A city police official told the broadcaster:
double quotation markInvestigators are carrying out enquiries, including crime scene analysis, reviewing CCTV footage and interviewing witnesses, including the victim’s wife to establish the exact cause of death.
The Guardian has reached out to Balinese police for comment on the matter.
Achol Arok
Thanks to Krishani Dhanji for being our guiding light through this jam-packed day.
I’ll be here to guide you through the rest of this afternoon’s news.
Krishani Dhanji
Thank you all so much for following along on the blog today!
I’ll leave you with the fabulous Achol Arok and see you here bright and early tomorrow.
Fugitive developer Jean Nassif details feud with David Elliott
Penry Buckley
Returning to Jean Nassif‘s appearance at the NSW Icac, questioning has focused on the property developer’s feud with centre-right Liberal figures, including David Elliott, who he says were “rejecting all my properties across the suburbs and putting blocking on it”.
Asked about comments by Elliott in 2019 about constituents complaining of defects in apartments built by his company Toplace, Nassif describes Elliott as “a racist person and ... corrupt politician”.
Nassif says: “I want to stop at that for now, because I’ve got plenty to say”.
Elliott, who has told the commission that Nassif began to target him after he opposed his developments, is not accused of any wrongdoing.
Counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC asks how Nassif came to know with Jeremy Greenwood and Christian Ellis, who, alongside Charles Perrottet, are alleged to have taken $2m in prohibited donations from Nassif. Greenwood and Charles Perrottet have rejected that payments were for political outcomes, while Ellis, who has moved to the UK, is not expected to give evidence.
Nassif says he spoke at a function to the Liberal figure JP Abood and the former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott, during which he says he complained to Abbott about “my problems with the centre-right”, including federal and state Liberal MPs.
Nassaf says Abood suggested he speak to Ellis and Greenwood, claiming Abood said: “They might take over the Hills soon, so talk to them and see if they can help you.” Abbott is not named as a person of interest in Icac’s inquiry and is not accused of any wrongdoing.
Jean Nassif is giving evidence to a NSW Icac inquiry from Lebanon. Photograph: Icac
Tl;dr here’s what happened in question time (already feels like an eternity ago)
The PM was pressed on the $6m grant awarded to a golf club in his electorate that he is an honorary member of.
Asked if the grant was making his property down the road more valuable, he said it wasn’t so much a “question as a smear”.
Andrew Wallace brought a fat stack of papers to the chamber with 10,000 signatures on it calling for a reduction in private health rebates for over 65s to be reversed.
Independent Dai Le asked if the government would cut the fuel excise to give people more cost of living relief.
And shadow treasurer Tim Wilson was the sole MP to face Milton Dick’s wrath today – kicked out around the two thirds mark for making too much noise.
Hundreds of jobs cut at Whyalla steelworks in SA
Jonathan Barrett
About 500 Whyalla steelworks employees will lose their jobs after officials abandoned efforts to restart the plant’s troubled blast furnace.
The decision is expected to put about 500 out of work, according to the plant’s administrators KordaMentha, taking the workforce from the steelworks, the port and the associated mine down from about 1,700 to about 1,200.
The decision to abandon further revival efforts shuts down Australia’s sole local manufacturer of rail steel and idles one of only two integrated steel facilities in the country.
The Whyalla steelworks were part of British industrialist Sanjeev Gupta’s metals empire until early last year, when the South Australian government tipped the operations into administration after years of underinvestment.
The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, said today that the blast furnace’s “days were numbered”.
double quotation markThere was always the intention that it would close. We would have liked it to last a little bit longer, but, alas, it hasn’t been able to.
Last year, the federal and state governments unveiled a $2.4bn support package to keep the plant running, pay employees and creditors, upgrade infrastructure, and ultimately entice a new buyer to reinvigorate the plant.
The coal-fired blast furnace has been offline since April. Administrators are seeking a buyer to restore operations.
Australia’s old tech is vulnerable to AI hacking, top intelligence chief says
Luca Ittimani
One of Australia’s top intelligence agencies has warned that old technology is leaving Australian businesses and governments vulnerable to AI attacks.
Abigail Bradshaw, director general of the Australian Signals Directorate, has told the Sydney Dialogue to take note of Anthropic’s recent warning of AI agents and hacking risks. She said the ASD did not know how many agents were on the internet:
double quotation markI think that prospect of getting some sort of definition or calculation of how these agents are out there is really remote, and I would just say a lot.
She said Australian systems faced “enormous” hidden costs of maintaining outdated technology but said they needed to be addressed:
double quotation markIf we don’t move fast enough, almost certainly it would be legacy technology which is first compromised in a major AI-enabled attack.
Government and business had the same issue and neither had the funding to replace all of its old systems, she said. But she said partial replacement had to start immediately and that would mean taking down systems that Australians expect to be available all the time.
double quotation markWhat AI calls for, because of the ease and speed in which vulnerabilities are detected, and the need now to patch not every Tuesday, not every two weeks, but potentially within 48 hours, means that we are asking people to make a different decision. We are asking private owners of infrastructure to actually optimise security over system availability. And that means we’re all going to have to be a little bit patient and do it.
Australian Signals Directorate chief Abigail Bradshaw. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
Sussan Ley appointed to Snowy Hydro board
Tom McIlroy
The Albanese government has named the former Liberal leader Sussan Ley to the board of Snowy Hydro Limited.
Ley, who quit politics after being rolled as opposition leader by Angus Taylor in February, was appointed by the energy minister, Chris Bowen, and the finance minister, Katy Gallagher.
Snowy Hydro, the massive hydroelectricity project in regional New South Wales, is a government owned corporation.
The government also appointed Merryn York, the former chief executive of Queensland’s Powerlink and a former executive with the Australian Energy Market Operator.
Former opposition leader Sussan Ley. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
After a final dixer to Chris Bowen on cheaper home batteries, the PM calls time on QT. %!s()
'My experience with traditional RPGs has definitely been a strength,' Diablo 5 writer Jennifer Hepler tells Polygon
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Image: Blizzard Entertainment
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While Diablo 5 has made a big splash at BlizzCon 2026, some role-playing game fans may have missed the pedigree of some of its developers. Not only are series stalwarts like game director Joe Shely and production director Tiffany Wat working on the follow-up to Diablo 4, a notable former BioWare developer is serving as Diablo 5's narrative director: Jennifer Brandes Hepler.
That's great news for Dragon Age fans, who will get another taste of Hepler's narrative work in 2029.
Who is Jennifer Hepler?
Diablo 5 executive producer Matt Zitterman (right), Jennifer Hepler (center), and game director Joe Shely (right) at a BlizzCon 2026 group Q&A.Image: Polygon
Hepler was previously a senior writer at BioWare, where she contributed heavily to the first three Dragon Age video games. In particular, Hepler really fleshed out the dwarven side of Thedas and many of Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age: Inquisition's most beloved characters. If you enjoy the writing and characters of the original Dragon Age trilogy, her involvement with Diablo 5 makes the game's narrative potential much more interesting.
While Dragon Age 2 is fondly remembered nowadays, at the time of the game's release, players did not take kindly to the sequel's reduced scope and issues with the combat. Shortly after Dragon Age 2's release, comments made by Hepler years prior about combat in video games were weaponized by online provocateurs, who tried to pin Dragon Age 2's biggest flaws on Hepler's involvement.
As a result, Hepler experienced a vitriolic wave of harassment and threats. She would go on to leave BioWare in 2013 for family reasons, contributing to other games and books about women in the video game industry. Her work on Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age: Inquisition has stood the test of time, and public opinion on Dragon Age 2 has also greatly changed. In 2025, Hepler joined Blizzard Entertainment's Diablo 5 team as narrative director, marking her return to AAA RPG game development.
When asked to expand on the player's connection to Diablo in the new game at a group Q&A, she teased that "it's going to be a very core part of the story, and we want to really let the player feel like it is their own story to shape."
Does Diablo 5 have any Dragon Age connections?
Image: Bioware/EA
So far, Blizzard has teased that Diablo 5 is set in a world where Diablo has won and taken over the western continent. Much of the narrative will be set around a tight-knit caravan of characters fighting back against those nefarious forces. The talk of caravans and well-written companion characters certainly harkens back to Dragon Age, so I asked Hepler how her work on Dragon Age and other RPGs informed Diablo 5's narrative.
"Definitely the caravan, I think, brings some of the best elements of traditional RPGs into Diablo's ARPG format, of giving you that sort of Baldur's Gate or Dragon Age campsite where you can interact with your followers," Hepler said in response. "They're not going to be Dragon Age followers where you level up their skills and give them clothing and stuff, but they will be followers with personalities and coming back to them. So I think that my experience with traditional RPGs has definitely been a strength in building that out."
Diablo 5 will be released in spring 2029. No new Dragon Age is confirmed to be in the works, as BioWare is focused on the next Mass Effect game. %!s()
Image source, Richard Baker/Getty
Image: Blizzard Entertainment
Image: Bioware/EA