Blizzard's J. Allen Brack, lead producer for World of Warcraft, has announced there will be no Firelands raid included in the upcoming big 4.1 patch. It's because players aren't "really ready for the next raid yet," saying enough hasn't been looted from Cataclysm. Aim for smaller but more content updates.
World of Warcraft is Blizzard's sole MMO and they won't be turning their backs on it, as COO Paul Sams affirms they "absolutely positively" will continue support. Their new MMO is in fact "more complementary than competitive" to WoW. Their new online world will snare "a lot of hearts and minds" thanks to "dream team".
Paul Sams, Blizzard COO, has said their new MMO in the works "will eclipse" World of Warcraft in terms of success and interest from fans of the studio. 'Titan' is going to be their "next big thing" after Diablo III. He adds that many WoW veterans are "full time" on the new MMO, bringing over their experience.
Who says the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO has the chance to grow the MMO market? Was it some EA PR lackey? No, it was Blizzard boss Frank Pearce. He says "if done right" it could see the MMO market expand, which is "very important to the industry" and not just EA. It's expected to launch this September.
Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce says they "recognize that somewhere, sometime" World of Warcraft's populace will be cannibalized, but hopefully by 'Titan'. At least that way they're "still a Blizzard customer." There's plenty more room for big MMO titles "to share customers," and grow the global MMO market.
Keeping development of World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III and the 'Titan' MMO project forever held close to the Blizzard studio chest is hard work. Amazingly those are just the ones Blizzard let us get our gamer noses stuck into, because they've actually got "lots of projects" behind closed doors.
Back in 2001 Blizzard North began work on Diablo III but it could have been a very different demonic beast that what it is today reveals Runic Games' Max Schaefer. The former Blizzard man says they were "going the MMO route," as they wanted a much bigger world with "many more players" able to join in. WoW 'not an issue'.
The Blizzard development plate is already heavy with Diablo III, StarCraft II and their new 'Titan' MMO, but they've obviously got a side-dish or two spare. The veteran PC studio outfit wants a software engineer for their "newest game team". It doesn't appear linked to 'Titan' as it's under a different category.
Star Wars: The Old Republic writing director Daniel Erickson has stated in an interview that someone will surpass World of Warcraft someday, but it could take a very long time, maybe 20 years.
There are many World of Warcraft players who basically play half their game in the auction house. I personally know of a gamer who has made thousands of gold pieces buying and selling there. The only problem these people have is that they only have so many hours in the day to log in to World of Warcraft to run auction house sessions.
Blizzard has made the lives of two dying kids happier, and donated $800K to the charity that made the wishes come true, the Make A Wish Foundation. Blizzard's donation was 50% of the total sales Blizzard Entertainment accrued during the months of November and December 2010 from selling a special World of Warcraft in-game pet, the Moonkin Hatchling.
During the Activision conference call, Blizzard CEO Mike Morheime revealed that World of Warcraft's population currently resides at roughly 11.4 million subscribers worldwide, which is down from the 12M eight months ago.
BioWare is very excited with the way Star Wars: The Old Republic is affecting gamers who play their ambitious MMO, noting is a "very different experience." World of Warcraft "set consumer expectations," and comparison is "inevitable" as it defined "conventions" of the MMO. TOR has "sense of heroic purpose".
Blizzard has set loose the new "reinvigorated" Ragnaros with patch 4.2 which sees a huge raid for 10 or 25 players added. It's of the "highest difficulty". Firelands is in the Elemental place with six bosses guarding the new Ragnaros. A new epic quest is added along with "unprecedented" solo content for level 85s.
Cowen and Company's analyst Doug Creutz has said they're "largely unimpressed" with BioWare's World of Warcraft clone MMO with 'Star Wars skins'. He also torpedoed BioWare's "nice/nasty dialogue tree" with NPC notables as being "bolted on", and Creutz feels it's no "major step forward" as promised.
Blizzard has released a trailer for the World of Warcraft 4.2 patch introducing the Firelands content.
No longer will you be asked to provide an authenticator code as much logging into World of Warcraft, if you opted into the system, as Blizzard updated it. Now it "intelligently" tracks login locations for accounts, and if you're playing "consistently from the same place" it won't demand a code, making it "less intrusive".
Blizzard has announced what their plans for Gamescom are this August, mentioning some eSports StarCraft II, live World of Warcraft guild raids and costumes. However what wasn't said or even winked at slyly was Diablo III, you know, the sequel to that little title way back when which consumed the very souls of gamers.
World of Warcraft is finally going free-to-play, but not in the microtransaction-based sense. Rather, players will be able to get a free sampling of what World of Warcraft is by downloading the game client and playing through to a level 20 cap before having to pay the subscription to advance further.
The outdoor raiding grounds of Firelands is now officially apart of the World of Warcraft experience, and Molten Core boss Ragnaros gets a power-up. Tier 12 epic armour is now on the shopping list and so is legendary staff Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa's Rest for casters. Blizzard debuts the Dungeon Journal.