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Continue reading “Blizzard Shutting Down Its Chinese Servers”
Tag: Warcraft
IPE: Glorious Saga’s Shutdown Message Sidesteps Developer’s Theft
China; it’s a country where intellectual properties are basically there to be stolen. Unfortunately for IP thieves, western companies have been having better luck in recent years winning major court victories against these copyright cretins. Case in point, Blizzard is taking on Sina Games and their very obvious ripoff of Warcraft; Glorious Saga.
Glorious Saga has been shut down by Sina, and if you check their Facebook page out you’ll have no idea why. The page candidly glosses over any mention of the fact that it’s been sued for being a shady ripoff.
Dear players,
Thanks for your support and love of our game. We had a great and happy time in the game.
But due to some irresistible reasons, we decided to announce that the game will stop operating at 06:00 on 29th of Aug. (EDT), and all the servers will be closed. Players can’t login any longer.
We are very sorry and we will do our best to guide and provide best service for all the players during the server closure process.
Operation Team
Thankfully the snarky Facebook community is having none of this, and calling the company out on its own page. More information on the lawsuit can be found here.
Blizzard’s Court Victory: Bossland Hit With $8.6 Million In Damages
Blizzard has emerged victorious in its lawsuit against Bossland, a cheat maker based in Germany. The court ruled that Bossland is to pay $8.6 million in damages, with the potential for more to cover Blizzard’s legal costs, and set forward an injunction preventing the company from selling their products in the United States. Bossland has already been prevented from selling their cheats in the UK.
“The Bossland hacks destroy the integrity of the Blizzard games, thereby alienating and frustrating legitimate players and diverting revenue from Blizzard to defendants,”
During the court case, Blizzard successfully argued that Bossland bypassed Blizzard’s anti-cheat tech, thus violating DMCA rules against circumvention and reverse engineering. Blizzard’s case, while requesting a large sum, was likely an easy win as while Bossland did attempt to have the case dismissed, they didn’t actually show up in court to defend themselves.
(Source: BBC)
Fandango Drops Two Behind The Scenes Warcraft Videos
The Warcraft movie opens this Friday, June 10th with many movie-goers picking up their tickets (or ordering them online) for Thursday night. Those who opt to see Warcraft in theaters will be able to pick up a copy of World of Warcraft with their movie ticket absolutely free, and Box Office Mojo reports that the film has brought in $70 million internationally ahead of the American release.
If you’re a fan of the behind the scenes fun, Fandango has created a couple of short videos along with a few of the film’s stars. Watch Rob Kazinsky (Orgrim) show Krisitan Harloff how to walk like an Orc. Alternative, Travis Fimmel (Anduin Lothar), Paula Patton (Garona), Toby Kebbell (Durotan), and Rob Kazinsky team up to see who can answer the most Warcraft trivia.
Are you planning on seeing the Warcraft movie this week? For our viewers outside of America, have you seen it yet? Drop a comment in the box below and let us know.
(Source: Fandango #1, Fandango #2)
Need A Scroll of Resurrection? Comment Below
If you’re like me, you would like to have a scroll of resurrection for the Cataclysm upgrade, free level 80 character, etc, but don’t know anyone who still plays World of Warcraft. Luckily for myself, I’m already subscribed to the twelve month annual pass and ineligible for this promotion anyway, but as a service to our good friends out there MMO Fallout is offering scrolls of resurrection.
For me to send you a scroll of resurrection, submit your realm name and character name in the comment box below. I need both, and this will only work if your account expired before March 4, 2012, and the reward will be transferred once you purchase a subscription. Your comment will be held in moderation and will not be approved, your username/realm will remain private and only visible to myself.
Note: The invitations were working before, but it appears that they are now restricted to my area. North America/Canada/Latin American players only.
Warcraft’s Cataclysm: World of Warcraft Continues Freefall
It’s been a year of discussing World of Warcraft’s peak and gradual downward shift. In the first quarter, Blizzard revealed that subscriber numbers dropped from Warcraft’s peak of over 12 million down to 11.4 million. By the second quarter, those figures had slipped down to 11.1 million. Despite this, Blizzard noted that revenue from the MMO was higher than ever, thanks to the sales of cash shop pets and mounts. The company pinpointed the loss of subscribers as directly related to the release of expansion packs, vowing that expansions would be released at a greater pace from now on.
According to Venture Beat, Blizzard is now reporting a subscriber number of 10.3 million in the third quarter, a loss of 800k subscribers since its last report. But put your pitchforks and torches away, Blizzard trolls, because despite the loss of over one million accounts this year, profit has reportedly tripled. So again, the people paying for sparkling horses and vanity pets are more than making up for the people quitting.
So what does this mean? I predict that World of Warcraft will settle just like Everquest did. It might not be number one in a few years, but it’ll still be healthy enough for Blizzard to keep the servers rolling, keep churning out regular updates and expansions, and everyone will be all hunky dory.
Until then, Blizzard will enjoy its seat at the head of the table.
Warcraft's Cataclysm: World of Warcraft Continues Freefall
It’s been a year of discussing World of Warcraft’s peak and gradual downward shift. In the first quarter, Blizzard revealed that subscriber numbers dropped from Warcraft’s peak of over 12 million down to 11.4 million. By the second quarter, those figures had slipped down to 11.1 million. Despite this, Blizzard noted that revenue from the MMO was higher than ever, thanks to the sales of cash shop pets and mounts. The company pinpointed the loss of subscribers as directly related to the release of expansion packs, vowing that expansions would be released at a greater pace from now on.
According to Venture Beat, Blizzard is now reporting a subscriber number of 10.3 million in the third quarter, a loss of 800k subscribers since its last report. But put your pitchforks and torches away, Blizzard trolls, because despite the loss of over one million accounts this year, profit has reportedly tripled. So again, the people paying for sparkling horses and vanity pets are more than making up for the people quitting.
So what does this mean? I predict that World of Warcraft will settle just like Everquest did. It might not be number one in a few years, but it’ll still be healthy enough for Blizzard to keep the servers rolling, keep churning out regular updates and expansions, and everyone will be all hunky dory.
Until then, Blizzard will enjoy its seat at the head of the table.
MMO Fallout 