Tag: Blizzard

World of Warcraft's Connected Realms Does Mergers Right


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World of Warcraft has had low population servers for years, all the way back to the first expansion. This is hardly unexpected, as the game boasts 241 realms in North America and 263 in Europe. Instead of dealing with the technological and logistical nightmare of merging servers, Blizzard introduced cross-server technology to allow players to interact across realms. With the release of update 5.4, World of Warcraft will see multiple realms stitched together permanently with players questing, grouping, raiding, and selling items on the auction house.

Our goal with Connected Realms is to give players on lower-population realms more opportunities to group up, compete, and connect with other players to take on Azeroth’s bigger challenges. That sort of interaction is a big part of what makes World of Warcraft fun, and this feature will help us deliver that experience to even more players.

The list of connected realms hasn’t been decided yet. Read more about the plans at the link below.

(Source: World of Warcraft)

World of Warcraft’s Connected Realms Does Mergers Right


NJKJW53FJA3G1372445749288

World of Warcraft has had low population servers for years, all the way back to the first expansion. This is hardly unexpected, as the game boasts 241 realms in North America and 263 in Europe. Instead of dealing with the technological and logistical nightmare of merging servers, Blizzard introduced cross-server technology to allow players to interact across realms. With the release of update 5.4, World of Warcraft will see multiple realms stitched together permanently with players questing, grouping, raiding, and selling items on the auction house.

Our goal with Connected Realms is to give players on lower-population realms more opportunities to group up, compete, and connect with other players to take on Azeroth’s bigger challenges. That sort of interaction is a big part of what makes World of Warcraft fun, and this feature will help us deliver that experience to even more players.

The list of connected realms hasn’t been decided yet. Read more about the plans at the link below.

(Source: World of Warcraft)

World of Warcraft Exploring Microtransactions


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Astute World of Warcraft players noticed that the 5.4 patch brought with it an interesting new addition to the public test realm. A few players on the forum noted the sudden appearance of an XP buff item, which appears to be sold through the same cash shop as the mounts and pets currently available. The item, an Enduring Elixer of Wisdom, grants 100% exp bonus with no mention of how long it lasts.

Community Manager Zarhym chimed in later in the thread, confirming the item and explaining that Blizzard is exploring microtransactions.

We are currently exploring the possibility of adding a way for players in certain regions to make purchases directly within the game. As part of this process, elements related to this will be appearing on the PTR. We’ll provide additional updates on our plans as development progresses.

Whether or not Blizzard decides to go ahead with fully implementing a cash shop will have to be seen.

(Source: World of Warcraft)

WoW Insider Alleges Mobile Armory Hack


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WoW Insider is reporting that Blizzard’s Mobile Armory app has been hacked, with reports from players that their accounts were breached and used to make overpriced purchases as a method of laundering gold from the account. The reports included accounts with authenticators attached, and the breach appears to have involved both North American and European customers.

The report states that Blizzard GMs have apparently confirmed the breach, advising that players make use of WoW’s SMS authentication. Blizzard has taken down the mobile auction house for maintenance with no direct reference to the alleged breach.

(Source: WoW Insider)

Blizzard's Titan MMO Rebooted, Restructured


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“Interested” isn’t quite the word I would use to describe my attitude toward Blizzard’s upcoming MMO, Titan. It isn’t anything personal against the developer or the game itself, it’s just that at this early of a stage in development where everything we know about the title is from rumors and even the title itself is in codename phase, to get excited for Titan makes about as much sense as getting your hopes up for Sony Online Entertainment announcing Video Game: The Video Game. I say this because the news that Blizzard has drastically reduced the development team and has rebooted the title with a new direction and a delay until 2016 means nothing to me.

Rebooted to what? From what? I can hardly be happy or sad to see the old version go when I knew absolutely nothing about it. I’m sure that if Titan does indeed find its way to release, in some form or another, we will eventually find out what the original game was intended to be. Until then, you can’t miss what you never knew you had.

Blizzard’s Titan MMO Rebooted, Restructured


ah010810blizzard

“Interested” isn’t quite the word I would use to describe my attitude toward Blizzard’s upcoming MMO, Titan. It isn’t anything personal against the developer or the game itself, it’s just that at this early of a stage in development where everything we know about the title is from rumors and even the title itself is in codename phase, to get excited for Titan makes about as much sense as getting your hopes up for Sony Online Entertainment announcing Video Game: The Video Game. I say this because the news that Blizzard has drastically reduced the development team and has rebooted the title with a new direction and a delay until 2016 means nothing to me.

Rebooted to what? From what? I can hardly be happy or sad to see the old version go when I knew absolutely nothing about it. I’m sure that if Titan does indeed find its way to release, in some form or another, we will eventually find out what the original game was intended to be. Until then, you can’t miss what you never knew you had.

World of Warcraft Down To 8.3 Million


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Sound the alarms, prepare for the apocalypse, and call up your mother to tell her you never liked her cooking anyway, because World of Warcraft has announced a drop in subscriptions and that can only mean one thing: An apocalyptic flooding of the internet by the usual group of self-involved, cynicism spewing gamers that always pop out whenever news like this hits. Activision Blizzard has revealed that World of Warcraft lost 1.3 million subscribers last quarter, hitting 8.3 million at the end of March.

“While we have had a solid start to the year, we now believe that the risks and uncertainties in the back half of 2013 are more challenging than our earlier view, especially in the holiday quarter. The shift in release dates of competing products, the disappointing launch of the Wii U™, uncertainties regarding next-generation hardware, and subscriber declines in our World of Warcraft business all raise concerns, as do continued challenges in the global economy. For these reasons, we remain cautious. However, our focused and disciplined approach to our business has served us well in the past, and through continued investment and
careful management of our costs, we expect to continue delivering shareholder value over the long term as we have for the last 20 years.”
-Bobby Kotick

Blizzard released Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm, which ranked as the #1 PC game for the quarter. Black Ops II ranked #2 in overall dollars.

(Source: Activision Blizzard)

World of Warcraft Has "More Than 9.6 Million Subscribers"


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You all know what February means, and I’m not talking about TERA going free to play. It’s quarterly report month! Activision has released their fourth quarter reports for 2012, and things are looking…toward the future. Net revenues for 2012 were up $500 million to $4.99 billion, with CEO Bobby Kotick describing the year as “the best performance in [Activision’s] history.” Skylanders, Activision’s toy-based game, has officially made its way into the billionaire’s club, selling over 100 million toys to the tune of $1 billion worldwide. Diablo III became the #1 best selling PC game with more than 12 million sales, while Mists of Pandaria took its place at #3.

World of Warcraft still retains its throne as #1 subscription MMO, dropping from the 10 million reported in Q3 2012, while still not dipping as low as the 9.1 million the quarter before.

As of December 31, 2012, Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft remains the #1 subscription-based MMORPG, with more than 9.6 million subscribers

Back in 2011, Blizzard announced a commitment to release more content at a faster pace, in order to combat the issue of players chewing through an expansion’s content and then unsubscribing out of lack of things to do.

(Source: Quarterly report)

World of Warcraft Has “More Than 9.6 Million Subscribers”


0LO1Y1NVRLXN1345075155085

You all know what February means, and I’m not talking about TERA going free to play. It’s quarterly report month! Activision has released their fourth quarter reports for 2012, and things are looking…toward the future. Net revenues for 2012 were up $500 million to $4.99 billion, with CEO Bobby Kotick describing the year as “the best performance in [Activision’s] history.” Skylanders, Activision’s toy-based game, has officially made its way into the billionaire’s club, selling over 100 million toys to the tune of $1 billion worldwide. Diablo III became the #1 best selling PC game with more than 12 million sales, while Mists of Pandaria took its place at #3.

World of Warcraft still retains its throne as #1 subscription MMO, dropping from the 10 million reported in Q3 2012, while still not dipping as low as the 9.1 million the quarter before.

As of December 31, 2012, Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft remains the #1 subscription-based MMORPG, with more than 9.6 million subscribers

Back in 2011, Blizzard announced a commitment to release more content at a faster pace, in order to combat the issue of players chewing through an expansion’s content and then unsubscribing out of lack of things to do.

(Source: Quarterly report)

Class Action Lawsuit Against Blizzard Over Account Security


Blizzard is on the receiving end of a class action lawsuit over the company’s account security. The lawsuit, filed against the Santa-Monica developer, states that Blizzard deceptively and unfairly charged customers for extra security devices (authenticators), pulling in $26 million while failing to provide adequate security for people who were not willing to pay an “undisclosed fee.” The lawsuit cites countless accounts that have been breached due to Blizzard’s inadequate security, and seeks to bar Blizzard from “tacking on undisclosed fees,” and from requiring users to sign up for Battle.net.

 “Most recently, on or about May 19, 2012, reports proliferated that class members’ Battle.net accounts had suffered a security breach (‘hack’) at the hands of unknown parties (‘hackers’), and on or about August 4, 2012, hackers massively breached Battle.net’s security and acquired the private information of all of defendants’ customers in the United States, as well as the remainder of North America, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia.”

Judging by how other class actions end up, players who purchased the authenticator can likely look forward to a $.50 credit coming to their Battle.net account somewhere between 2015-2016.

(Source: Courthouse News)