Posts Tagged ‘blizzard’
World of Warcraft movie gets its name changed
Out of all of the video game movies that have been rumored to come out, one of the one that seems the most likely to actually make it to the big screen is the one based on World of Warcraft.
When the movie was first conceived it was listed as just Warcraft however, a recent update to the title’s IMDB listing let us know that it will officially be called Warcraft: The Rise of the Lich King. This leads us to believe that either they scrapped the original idea and went for a more Lich King approach or just had this story from the beginning.
Either or, you’re sure to be hearing more about this movie as its release date grows closer, whenever that may be.
via thatvideogameblog
Blizzard COO buys stake in the Pittsburg Steeler
COO of Blizzard, Paul Sams, is looking away from Blizzard’s usual method of money making (ex. World of Warcraft) and onto less conventional things such as the NFL.
This news was made known after it was noted that Paul Sims and his family (wife and 3 kids) have been listed as part-owners of the Pittsburg Steelers. Sure, this news may not have much relevance to the video game industry but perhaps we can expect to see the Steelers appearing in Cataclysm? Then again, maybe not.
via kotaku
Additional instances error fixed in North American WoW servers
Over at the World of Warcraft forums, a Blizzard representative gave word that they have successfully changed how the infamous “Additional instances cannot be launched” error works.
The limit for instances per server has been notched up a bit, and the performance instances are being given are also improved.
The reason behind many players participating in Heroic instances is due to the recent 3.2 changes of Heroic dungeons providing Emblems of Conquest. This way, all fresh 80’s can get their Ulduar gear with just some grinding.
No word on when European and Australian servers will be seeing the fix.
Read (World of Warcraft Forums)
World of Warcraft faction transfers now underway
After playing the same faction for four years now, it wouldn’t hurt to have a little change. In fact, it might get a little boring to be the same race for so long. Fortunately, Blizzard has now begun their faction transfers. Players can now switch from Alliance to Horde, or Horde to Alliance.
Once changed, you can choose any race to be as long as it matches your character’s class. For example, you can’t create a Draenei Rogue, but you can become a Human Rogue. But, who would want to go Alliance anyways? Traitor.
The faction change costs $30.00 and can be done here.
Warcraft movie director announced
The same guy behind the Spider-Man trilogy has been announced to be the director for the Warcraft movie. Sam Raimi is also responsible for such works as “The Evil Dead” and “Drag Me To Hell.”
Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures will be working together for the film. So, maybe it won’t be so bad if Blizzard has most of the creative control.
“Sam’s passion for ‘Warcraft’ is undeniable and we know that he will create an incredible film worthy of Blizzard’s phenomenal franchise,” said Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull.
“From our first conversation with Sam, we could tell he was the perfect choice,”” added Paul Sams, chief operating officer of Blizzard Entertainment. “Sam knows how to simultaneously satisfy the enthusiasts and the mainstream audience that might be experiencing that content for the first time.”
There’s a lot of Warcraft lore out there, beginning from the debut of the scourge up to the return of the Lich King. And who can forget all of the novels that spawned along the way? Details are scarce right now, as the movie is still in production. Hopefully more information will pop up in this year’s Comic-Con.
Read (Toronto Sun)
Tags: alliance sucks, blizzard, director, Film, for the horde, legendary pictures, Movie, warcraft, wow
Blizzard launches WoW Armory iPhone App
Just in case you haven’t already spent enough time on World of Warcraft, Blizzard has recently launched the WoW Mobile Armory iPhone app effectively giving players their WoW fix on the go.
If you’re familiar with the World of Warcraft Armory currently available online, you’ll be familiar with this as it incorporates all of said online application’s features into a handheld package. This means you’ll be able to check up on character, guild and arena data along with check your guild’s calender.
Additionally you’ll be able to find out everything you need to know about items, zones and dungeons featured in the game. Best of all, it’s free!
via Kotaku
Germany bans public play of Counter-Strike
It seems Germany is at it again, this time setting their eyes upon Valve’s extremely popular Counter-Strike series. Legislation was recently passed that now makes it illegal to play Counter-Strike in public.
This has led to the cancelation of Germany’s Convention-X-Treme LAN event which is sure to discourage the mass of German gamers. Furthermore, Destructoid is reporting that World of Warcraft has also been banned from public play.
What’s next, Germany, Halo?
Micro-transactions in Warcraft?
Micro-transactions are all the rage these days, what with MMOs going free and competing for your hard-earned cash through small premium items. Blizzard’s attention has also been attracted by said micro-transactions – according to this interview with Tom Chilton, game director for World of Warcraft, the company is exploring the possibility of a free-to-play, micro-transaction business model for the mega-MMO.
Don’t get your hopes too high, though, as Chilton only states that he “thinks” it’s possible to implement such a model in the game, but that it is “really too hard to say at this point.”
It’s unlikely that Blizzard will go for such a model while the monolithic MMO is still bringing in truckloads of money for them. Maybe sometime in the distant future when WoW is replaced by some other Blizzard MMO and forgotten.
Blizzard trademarks ‘Cataclysm’, raises eyebrows
Blizzard has been working on a secret MMO for some time now and details have been ridiculously scarce ever since the project began. However, if a recent trademark filing is anything to go by we might be one step closer to discovering what the game’s title will be.
Cataclysm is the filing and was filed for use in the field of online games, computer games and paper based products. There’s no telling if this is actually the MMO’s title but those 3 fields look pretty convincing considering the MMO would be an online computre game and most likely have some sort of trading card game like World of Warcraft.
Read (Joystiq)
Starcraft 2 fans petition Blizzard to add LAN support
First Blizzard announced that Starcraft 2 would not feature LAN support, fans were discouraged, then Blizzard defended them not adding LAN support and fans were still discouraged. Finally, those who were discouraged banded together and did the only thing they could do; formed a petition.
There is currently over 25,000 signatures and the guys who put it together really put some effort into it, breaking down and explaining exactly why Blizzard should re-add LAN support.
Will this work? Probably not. Is it the effort that counts? You bet.
Read (PetitionOnline)
Blizzard says no LAN in Starcraft II is best idea
There was somwhat of an uproar from the community when Blizzard announced that they would not be featuring LAN support in their forthcoming RTS, Starcraft II.
Below is their reasoning for removing LAN, mentioning Battle.net and piracy:
“We don’t currently plan to support LAN play with StarCraft II, as we are building Battle.net to be the ideal destination for multiplayer gaming with StarCraft II and future Blizzard Entertainment games,” confirms a Blizzard rep. “While this was a difficult decision for us, we felt that moving away from LAN play and directing players to our upgraded Battle.net service was the best option to ensure a quality multiplayer experience with StarCraft II and safeguard against piracy.
“Several Battle.net features like advanced communication options, achievements, stat-tracking, and more, require players to be connected to the service, so we’re encouraging everyone to use Battle.net as much as possible to get the most out of StarCraft II. We’re looking forward to sharing more details about Battle.net and online functionality for StarCraft II in the near future.”
Regardless if its the best idea or not, Starccraft II is sure to be a highly competitve game which means a lot of tournaments. Without LAN tournament organizers are going to have 1 more problem to deal with, bummer.
Read (Destructoid)
Upcoming WoW patch allows faction change
To all of the World of Warcraft players out there which side are you, Alliance or Horde? Regardless, have you ever felt the urge to switch sides but haven’t been able to?
Well, according to an official Blizzard forum poster by the name of Nethaera, you will soon be able to do that:
“There’s still much work to do and many details to iron out, but the basic idea is that players will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm. Players who ended up creating and leveling up characters on the opposite factions from their friends have been asking for this type of functionality for some time, and we’re pleased to be getting closer to being able to deliver it.”
There’s no telling when this patch is set to drop but when it does there is sure to be a bit of chaos in the World of Warcraft.
WoW held up StarCraft 2 progress
It’s just not Blizzard’s day today, is it? Word comes from Eurogamer that the studio held up the release of its highly anticipated sequel to StarCraft for World of Warcraft.
Rob Pardo told the site that development on the sequel had begun in 2003 and that there had been a playable build since 2005. However, it was held up due to the appearance of World of Warcraft which saw a fair amount of the design team moving to MMO project to help finish the game.
Apparently, these people had lots of great experience and had knowledge and know-how to fix map editor problems, as well as dealing with balancing.
Now you know who to hate for holding up StarCraft 2. The original was released back in 1998. It’s been eleven years since then.
Blizzard: no LAN support in StarCraft 2
Sure to strike legions of stinky nerds who like to huddle in a single, hot room to play videogames competitively, it appears that Blizzard does not have any plans to add LAN multiplayer support to StarCraft 2.
This comes from different previews of the game on Kotaku and IncGamers, both of whom checked out the new Battle.net, the solo campaign and more. When they asked about multiplayer LAN play, this is what they received as an answer: “We will not support it.”
The studio additionally pointed out that there is “zero percent” chance of seeing the game on consoles.
If the news got you down, Joystiq adds salt to the wound by showing seven minutes of multiplayer play from the game. Go cry in the corner, you.
EA merges Mythic with BioWare, forms new RPG/MMO group
EA is really taking out the big guns in an attempt to take down Blizzard and their World of Warcraft — Recently announced is the merger of Warhammer Online developer Mythic and Mass Effect developer, BioWare.
These two merged studios will form a new RPG/MMO studio group with most all of the executives from both studios staying onboard. However, Mark Jacobs, co-found of Mythic, has left EA yesterday June 23rd, 2009.
Both of these studios have come up with some great stuff, now let’s just see if they can pump out a game that will be enough to send Blizzard packin’.