Taking place August 6th and 7th is the 2011 European Battle.net Invitational in Warsaw, Poland. It's where "eight of the top" EU StarCraft II players will battle. There'll also be "eight of the best" World of Warcraft 3v3 arena teams from all over Europe. Pro-gamers will compete for "more than $50,000 in prize money".
Activision Blizzard outdid expectations for the second quarter of 2011, and the company is crediting their online community for them, as digital sales have skyrocketed.
Following World of Warcraft's new free-to-play model, Blizzard has decided to employ the same tactic with Stacraft II, dumping the demo and instituting the Starcraft II: Starter Edition, which will allow players to play through the first four missions, the first two challenges and four multiplayer maps. In other words, a shareware version of Starcraft II.
The idea has been floated at an investors conference call by Activision that the back-end technology for Diablo III's trade system could head to StarCraft II. Real money could be exchanged for user made map content, as opposed to cash for items in Diablo III's auction house. Blizzard says this fights the black market.
Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce has admitted if there was a team "free and available" for a StarCraft MMO then it could happen, if they were "really passionate". Right now though they've got their "hands full with everything" and so Blizzard hasn't the time to "to do anything beyond" StarCraft as a real-time strategy series.
The StarCraft 2 mod known as 'Blizzard DOTA' has been "completely flattened" since its showcase at BlizzCon, as the studio found it lacking in philosophy. While they can't "dive into details," the reason behind the 'complete reboot' was because it "doesn't really fit" Blizzard's design philosophy of "easy to learn".
Frank Pearce, a Blizzard co-founder, says while players not wanting to be online while gaming "is valid," they want their community "connected" however. That don't want separate groups online for each game but as an "overarching Blizzard community," so everyone is provided the "benefits" of a platform.
Actress Ali Hillis has revealed they've "wrapped recording" for English voice-overs to Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIII-2, where she voices Lightning Farron. She also spills that recording for BioWare's Mass Effect 3 is still ongoing as well as other titles Hillis "can't talk about". Final Fantasy XIII-2 is due early 2012.
Blizzard's senior vice president of creative development, Chris Metzen, admits it's "a little weird these days" creating new stories what with 11m fans. It's not just the sheer number but the "different skews of humanity," and what works in North America "may not translate all that well" in Asia's fan pool.
Blizzard Entertainment has revealed new details about the second Starcraft II chapter, Heart of the Swarm, at BlizzCon 2011 today. The biggest news will be that Sarah Kerrigan will a playable character, as fans will control her in her quest to reclaim control of the Zerg swarm. Other features in the expansion includes a 20 mission campaign, new maps and units, and "expanded functionality."
While the Starcraft II mod of Defense of the Ancients will be free to play, Blizzard have said they will still be finding ways to monetize it.
COO Paul Sams of Blizzard says they've got a group within the studio "focusing on mobile and tablet apps," but so far they've "been around our games." The WoW auction house app has been highly successful. It depends "what the game is" as that decides platforms. They "don't have any opposition" to free-to-play.
Following the now confirmed departure of John Staats, Titan project's senior level designer, rumours of 'mass layoffs' at the developer soon started whipping around the Internet. Blizzard "out of respect" to staff don't discuss why individuals leave, but the "speculation circulating" of massive layoffs is "just a rumor," affirms the studio. No meltdown at Blizzard.
An alleged 18-page report from Blizzard, compiled for law enforcement personnel, has leaked online that reveals what details they would and could disclose about World of Warcraft users. As of 2009 they keep record of all IP addresses used, it claims. The document was dumped online by an activist/hacking group. Blizzard know "some users may abuse" its MMO.
Developer Blizzard is looking for a franchise development producer for their Titan MMO project, which could be set in modern times or the near future if "product placement" is happening. This so far is the biggest indication that Titan isn't a fantasy adventure, and that it's set in a modern day world of sorts. The product placements must 'enhance the gameplay'.
Activision-Blizzard has released a financial report for both the calendar year 2011 as well as its fiscal fourth quarter. For the quarter ending on the 31st December, revenues were $1.41 billion, slightly down from the $1.43 billion made in the same period last year, while Activision-Blizzard made $4.76 billion in revenue for calendar 2011, compared with $4.45 billion in 2010.
Hasbro's has announced a partnership with Blizzard to bring two new licensed board games based on the publisher's popular videogames: World of Warcraft Monopoly and Risk: Starcraft.
Blizzard has confirmed that the publisher is laying off approximately 600 employees worldwide, and of those layoffs, roughly 90% will be unassociated with game development. Blizzard also noted that none of the layoffs are related to the World of Warcraft dev team.
Blizzard has announced some of the details for the fifth major update for Starcraft 2. The update has been described by Blizzard as their "most feature-laden patch to date" and will prep the game for the first expansion, Heart of the Swarm.
Robot Entertainment is made up of former Ensemble veterans with Age of Empires to their name. Patrick Hudson of the studio still believes real-time strategy can be big business. He admits though it's "changing a lot," and he's not sure where "it's going to go." The days of selling millions of copies at "50 or 60 bucks as a PC game" are gone; PC retail not there.