World of Warcraft Message Board older than one year ago

It’ll be a long, long time before we hear something meaningful about Blizzard Entertainment’s next MMO, a project titled “Titan.” World of Warcraft is still successful enough, and keeps the pressure off of Blizzard to reveal its next big thing. But Blizzard COO Paul Sams did have a few interesting details to share about his studio’s next MMO in a recent interview with Gamasutra. 

"I believe [it's] the most ambitious thing we've ever attempted," Sams shared. "And I feel like we have set our company up to succeed on that. We have some of our most talented and most experienced developers on that team. Many of the people that built World of Warcraft are full time on that other team,” he revealed.    

  

#gameface Blizzard Entertainment co-founders Frank Pearce and Mike Morhaime play a little StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty on the big screen at the NASDAQ stock exchange in New York City, just before ringing the closing bell on Monday, March 7. The ceremony was part of Blizzard Entertainment's year-long 20th anniversary celebration. More »

#titan There's this guy who says that Blizzard's next massively multiplayer game is "a total ball to play." He says the game, code-named Titan, is "the type of game that will have a very long life, much like World of Warcraft has." More »

#pc This year, Blizzard Entertainment - the developers behind series like Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo - turns 20. To celebrate, they've released this fascinating video retrospective. More »

Blizzard Entertainment is 20 years old today. Instead of spending it quietly counting the billions of dollars raked in from World of Warcraft players, CEO Mike Morhaime and EVP Frank Pearce sent a message of thanks to Blizzard's loyal fans.

Feeling guilty about your lack of documentary consumption leading up to the Oscars? Well, director Ben Gonyo's MMO-focused doc Gamers is now available for you to watch on Hulu (or after the jump). It's not nominated for anything, though it deserves consideration for "Most Free Movie of the Year."

#video What if Dragon Warrior or Final Fantasy were playable online with other role-playing heroes? We'd have something like NEStalgia, the newly released multiplayer online RPG that looks old school, but plays modern. More »

#screengrab It's not, but if it were, it might look something like this. As seen on The Daily Blink. More »

#culture Alodia Gosiengfiao is more than a cosplayer. She's a super cosplayer, an über cosplayer with added umlaut, if you will. And she's proving that cosplay is more than putting on costumes. More »

#toyfair Take a look at the next World of Warcraft statues from DC Direct. These are from the forthcoming Series Eight. Also, check out the premiere headless horsemen. More »

Publishing giant Activision Blizzard has dropped some hard numbers regarding its business performance for its fiscal 2010 year, which ended December 31. The company reports net revenue for the year reached $4.45 billion, up from $4.28 billion in 2009. (Though revenue recorded in the fourth quarter alone was just $1.43 billion, down from $1.56 billion during the same period the year before.)

The standout news is that $1.5 billion of annual revenue came from digital sales, which the company says are up 20 percent over 2009 -- and up 40 percent in Q4 alone. According to the report, digital-based revenue was "driven by increased sales of Activision Publishing's Call of Duty map packs and value-added services for Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft," which CEO Bobby Kotick attributed in part to "significantly enhanced user activity and engagement for our expanding online communities."

Selling 1.4 million copies of the first Black Ops map pack on a single platform within 24 hours of its release is certainly what we'd call "user activity."

#blizzard Joyland, a Chinese theme park due to open its doors in May this year, looks to be at least partly inspired by the games of Blizzard Entertainment. More »

Blizzard has announced the dates for this year's BlizzCon, the annual gathering of fans who want to celebrate the fact that they got tickets to BlizzCon (and also celebrate Blizzard games). The event will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center on October 21 and 22.

Blizzard hasn't announced any specific content yet, so we don't know who will fulfill the Ozzy or Tenacious D role. However, chances are you know enough about your relationship with Diablo, Starcraft, and World of Warcraft to know right now whether or not you want to go.

Blizzard's keeping its annual fan gathering in the fall this year, announcing BlizzCon 2011 will be held in Anaheim, California, on Friday, October 21 and Saturday, October 22. Look for tickets to sell out within minutes later this year. More »

#screengrab A World of Warcraft GM allegedly - allegedly - solves a calculus problem for a beleaguered subscriber. It's most likely a fake, but still funny. But wouldn't it be awesome if it's real? Seen on WoWBash. More »

Blizzard recently took action to hit World of Warcraft gold sellers right where it hurts: Their wallets. Well, the online services they use to transfer intangible funds from other people's wallets to their wallets, but you know what we mean. The developer has successfully petitioned Paypal to issue notices to the major names in gold selling, warning them that if they didn't stop selling WoW's virtual currency for non-virtual currency, their accounts would be irreversibly suspended.

Paypal appears to accept Blizzard's argument that these sales represent an intellectual property violation -- though this area has proven nebulous in the past, as suggested by the WoW Glider lawsuit from last year. Regardless, we hope they find some success with this venture. We don't understand why people can't earn gold the honest way: By buying everything off of the auction house and selling it back for three times its original price.

#nsfw When we first told you about BoneCraft, a pornographic tribute to the works of StarCraft and World of Warcraft developers Blizzard, we sadly had no trailer to accompany the news. There's now a trailer. Warning: Elven toe licking follows. More »

#relationships The mainstream stereotype of video games, especially MMORPG's, as antisocial diversions that rip up relationships is well known. That makes Wanda Kirk's recollection, of how playing World of Warcraft with her son helped her through her divorce, heartwarming indeed. More »

Blizzard has released a statement regarding the pulled YouTube videos of a StarCraft 2 mod by Ryan Winzen that turned the RTS title into a game more closely resembling World of Warcraft. While the developer admits that YouTube was asked to kill the videos because of the trademarked name "as part of our routine procedure," the mod itself will live on. "As always, we actively encourage development of custom maps and mods," Blizzard says in the statement, and it is "looking forward to seeing the continued development of this mod."

In fact, the company sought out the mod's creator and has "extended an offer to the developer to visit the Blizzard campus and meet with the StarCraft 2 development team." If it wants to hire him, though, they'll have to hurry -- Blizzard isn't the only dev that wants to meet the guy. You can read the full statement, send out by Blizzard's Bob Colayco, after the break.

Apparently, that crack we made about Blizzard's mighty cease-and-desist hammer in yesterday's post about the World of StarCraft mod project (which uses StarCraft 2 tools to attempt to create a standalone MMO) was a tad prophetic. Though the developer hasn't actually slapped the team with the dreaded C&D (yet), it did petition YouTube to have the mod's demo videos removed, citing a copyright violation.

It's unclear what further action Blizzard will take, but it would be irresponsible to assume that its actions are indicative of the existence of a real World of StarCraft game. It's entirely possible that the company simply wants to protect its "StarCraft" name, or reserve the title for possible future use -- though it would be a shame if their squatting ended up shutting down these modders' impressive efforts. Especially after they asked so nicely for permission.

Though it's slightly lacking in originality, a StarCraft-themed version of Blizzard's World of Warcraft always seems to come up while fans are discussing the company's possible upcoming projects. One group of modders got sick of the speculation, and made this dream a reality: Using StarCraft 2's powerful user-generated content tools, the team created a surprisingly beefy World of StarCraft game mode, a video demonstration for which is posted after the jump.

Sure, it's unlikely that the mod will ever obtain the player networking features required to merit the "Massively Multiplayer" moniker ... but it still looks really neat! We just hope that it's not "really neat" enough to garner a cease and desist from Blizzard. Hopefully, it's just the right amount of "really neat."

#diy Well, this brings a whole new meaning to the term "droppin' loot". More »

Razer may be best known for its well-regarded line of angular, extreme gaming peripherals for the core PC gaming set - think mice, keyboards, mouse pads and yes, motion controllers - but the San Diego-based company is looking to branch out into an area you may not have expected: efficient (and graphically anemic) netbook computers.

While it's an unusual move for the peripheral maker, it's not a departure from their core competency. Gaming laptops may have whittled down the bulk required for a high-end gaming experience but they're still far from portable. Inversely, netbooks are steadily becoming increasingly capable laptop replacements, but fall short when performing the most demanding tasks ... like video gaming.

#clips When a thousand freshly made Orcs—all on an even Level 1 playing field—get together for a scuffle in World of Warcraft it looks something like this, like well organized chaos. More »

#clips Billionaire Bruce Wayne uses his fortune to fund his never-ending war on crime. If events had played out differently, perhaps he'd be a gamer, using his fortune to fund a never-ending war against the Lich King. More »

#ces Perhaps the most innovative bit of gaming tech at this year's Consumer Electronics Show is a palm-sized, touch-screen gaming PC that comes packed with a keyboard that can transform on the fly. More »

Direct2Drive's running a pretty sweet deal for anyone looking to reach out and touch other members of the gaming community (in a completely non-weird way, we mean) -- until Monday morning, the site's entire catalog of MMOs is discounted 20 percent. That includes massively multiplayer gems like World of Warcraft, Star Wars Galaxies, Lego Universe, Guild Wars and more; just input the coupon code "JOKER" while checking out, and watch the prices fall like so, so many enemy NPCs.

If you'd rather play a game which rivals the length of an MMO, but lacks all the other human contact, the retailer is also knocking $20 off the price of Fallout: New Vegas from this Saturday until Monday morning. You don't need a coupon code for that one, though if there were one, we imagine it'd be something like "NUKA COLA" or "CREEPY HOVERING NO-BONES MAN."

#film Okay, that's not fair. Duncan Jones is more than just David Bowie's son. He's also the son of fashion model Angela Bowie. More »

The price-conscious folks over at Thrifty Nerd have picked up on a few more solid end-of-the-year gaming deals. If you somehow still haven't bought enough games to last you through 2011 (or at least until Dead Space 2 hits on January 25), here are a few more great titles to get on the cheap:

• Amazon's got that WoW deal back on again: Buy the original World of Warcraft and get Burning Crusade for free.
• Amazon also has Halo: Reach for just $39, Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY for $20 and Dance Central for $39.
• Newegg has NBA Jam for just $30 on PS3 and Xbox 360.
• Buy.com is selling arcade racer Blur for just over $17.
• And finally, Walmart has underrated shooter Metro 2033 for under $20.

There. Are you happy? Have enough games now? Sheesh!