During the mighty ban purge of multiplayer exploiters from StarCraft II a number of singleplayer users were caught in the Blizzard crusade as well. The studio notes that many "3rd-party hacks and cheats" for StarCraft II work for both single and multiplayer, and say to use the included cheat codes.
Yeah I know, that's actually a line from Kevin Costner's Field of Dreams, but PC Strategy legend Chris Taylor believes it actually has some relevance today. Speaking to CVG in a recent interview, Taylor mentioned how he believed that big budgets will lead to big sales in the PC market.
The next big helping of bug fixes and balance tweaks for StarCraft II is here as Blizzard releases patch 1.1.2 over Battle.net. It's mostly balancing. There are a few fixed issues but the studio focused mostly on adjusting Terran, Protoss and Zerg units and buildings - snipping or adding attributes.
Going after cheaters is a focus of Blizzard with their new Battle.net, but now the studio is also after the authors of these naughty hacks and exploits. A lawsuit has been filed at the LA District Court against 2 Canadians and 1 Peruvian. They're after them for fiddling with "copyrighted content".
Remember all that feather ruffling caused by Blizzard's RealID plans? The studio admits it was hard to "wrap our heads around" why it caused an uproar. After all social networking is all the rage with real names and embarrassing photos. The "game space" is totally different Blizzard has come to realise.
Think you've got Blizzard's narrative arc all pegged in StarCraft II? Well don't be surprised if it pulls a 180 or something as they're still hammering it out. The studio is still making "significant changes" to the overall story as they continue "figuring things out." Heart of the Swarm "more ambitious" - no date.
During BlizzCon it was restated that Heart of the Swarm - StarCraft II's next chapter - is most likely going to miss a release in 2011 and instead land 2012. A Q&A panel revealed very little on the Zerg-focused instalment, saying it could take place from 1 hour up to 100 years after Wings of Liberty's storyline.
Blizzard's Rob Pardo says the industry is witnessing "a shift in consumer behaviour," as more and more are opening to digital distribution services. Numbers of gamers wanting to get their games "in that direction" are rising; makes perfect sense for World of Warcraft. Doubts retail "would ever go away".
Blizzard reveals that PC RTS StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty sold 3 million copies around the globe its first month in the shops. It got unveiled in 2007. The Blizzard team started development way back in 2003, and there are two major expansions planned each featuring a full story-led campaign.
According to a BitTorrent website Blizzard's StarCraft II has become the most transferred videogame title as one torrent has over 2.3m downloads. The files equate to 7.19GB meaning that 15.77 petabytes of data have been shared through that one posted torrent alone, earning it this 'accolade'.
China-based NetEase has submitted Blizzard's StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty for approval by the Chinese government, although timing is "uncertain". 'Fickle' is perhaps an understatement for Chinese officials but optimistically the RTS could launch in 2011 sometime. NetEase handles World of Warcraft.
Oh noes! The Internet has gone and got a hold of something it shouldn't, well ok, at least they wouldn't spread it around like idle gossip... ... oh noes! An early cut of what appears to be StarCraft II's ending to the in development 2nd chapter has gotten out, with watermarks and VO giving it credence.
Blizzard has finally released a demo for Starcraft II.
PC gaming dying? We don't think so! Here's our PC Game of the Year Awards
The version 1.2 patch for Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty is now available for download. The massive patch list mostly deals with race balance adjustments and bug fixes, but also a host of new StarCraft II Editor enhancements and the welcome addition of Battle.net Chat Channels.
Activision weren't impressed with StarCraft 2 mod 'World of StarCraft' and attempted to silence everything about it, possibly issuing legal papers. However its creator, who used the official StarCraft 2 mod tools, has since been offered a place at League of Legends developer Riot Games.
Blizzard is claiming that it was "never our intention" to halt work on a fan-made World of Starcraft mod.
Ryan Winzen's World of StarCraft MMO mod created iusing StarCraft II’s mod tools will be given the okay by Blizzard - but on the condition it be renamed.
Battle.net is playing host to three new Blizzard-designed custom game modes for StarCraft 2, with each inspired by this thing called 'pop-culture'. Aiur Chef is based off TV's Iron Chef, a free-for-all collecting/cooking challenge for 8 players. StarJeweled is strategy and puzzle. Left 2 Die is, well...
Blizzard has announced the sixth annual BlizzCon event and it's being held on Friday, October 21st and Saturday, October 22nd. Tickets have sold out. Kidding! You'll have the chance to have your heart crushed by that later in the year. BlizzCon celebrates all things Blizzard-like, except for the snowy kind.