blizzard

Almost 12 years after the original StarCraft launched a global strategy game phenomenon, on Monday, Blizzard Entertainment announced the sequel's release date. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty comes out for the PC worldwide on July 27, first in retail, followed by availability direct from Blizzard "shortly after the retail launch," according to Blizzard's press release.

Blizzard announced StarCraft II back in May 2007, and the beta testing process started this past February. The original StarCraft sold 11 million copies, and remains one of the most popular PC games, particularly in South Korea where the game has … Read more

I was on the phone with my parents who live in Ohio earlier today and they commented on how they've accumulated roughly two feet of snowfall in February alone--and the month isn't even over yet! Based on what I've heard, the snow is just going keep on coming, and all of my east coast buddies are ready for a break already. With the snow being a fact of life in the immediate future for many Americans, I thought it timely to present some video about how to deal with driving your car in snowy and icy conditions. … Read more

World of Warcraft publisher Blizzard Entertainment on Wednesday announced that it has begun closed beta testing for its real-time strategy game, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.

StarCraft II has been a long time coming. It is the sequel to the 1998 hit, StarCraft. The new game will feature an entirely new 3D graphics engine, and like its predecessor, will focus on the battle between the protoss, terrans, and zerg. Blizzard said StarCraft II should launch sometime in the first half of 2010.

Already, the company said in a release, there are thousands of people in the beta test. One of … Read more

As we all know by now, over the past week (or so) the East Coast has recently suffered one of the worst winter storms ever. In fact, some have referred to this blizzard as "Snowmageddon" due to the turbulent, unforgiving nature of this regional weather system. Despite the hazardous conditions, many antsy, adventurous drivers have documented their attempts to brave the elements and drive around in these icy and snowy conditions with the end result being a video on YouTube. Because of their valiant efforts, parts of the world that are not having to endure this commuting nightmare … Read more

For an entertainment property to hit $1 billion in sales is a very rare feat. For two separate properties to pass the 10-figure mark at the same time may well be a first.

On Wednesday, Activision Blizzard announced that its mega-hit video game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, had crossed the billion-dollar mark, after just two months on store shelves--and the entertainment industry's single-day sales record. That milestone came shortly after it was announced that James Cameron's uber-blockbuster movie, "Avatar," had also reached that financial promised land.

To be sure, these are just round numbers, and don't have any formal meaning, but there's no arguing with the fact that it sure sounds good for the entertainment business to be sporting two separate billion-dollar titles at the same time, especially since they come from such different corners of the world.

In the history of video games, a billion-dollar hit is an extreme rarity. It's hard to tell precisely how many there have been, but it's possible that number is as small as two.… Read more

It feels good to let the poison out every once in a while, so today's episode of CNET's The 404 Podcast is all about human vices, starting with a story about a controversial secret love scene in Dragon Age: Origins between two gay elves. While conservatives are up in arms about the cut scene, Wilson and Jeff stand by the Mature rating and hold parents responsible for making the final buying decision, but I have to play devil's advocate and ask why it's necessary to have sex scenes in video games in the first place; are there really gamers out there actually getting a kick out of seeing it, or is it just creating more trouble than it's worth?

While we're on the subject of nerds, World of Warcraft players are rejoicing at Blizzard's "ever-expanding line of merchandise" that now includes customized posters featuring your in-game WoW character. It's called Print Warcraft, and it's already so popular that the Web site is apologizing for its overloaded servers. We have a few problems with the idea of the service, so be sure to listen to the whole episode for our breakdown.

The last vice of the day might change the way you party on the weekends: a researcher in Russia has found a way to solidify your favorite liquors into pill form. Evgeny Moskalev of the Saint Petersburg Technological University has figured out how to turn alcohol into powder and pack the concentration into a "dry pill." We seriously doubt party animals in Russia will be able to measure out the exact vodka dosage needed to get blotto, but we'll raise our pill box to it anyway.

We've also got two new user submitted theme songs thanks to PA Stubbs and David, and DON'T FORGET! It's not to late to enter for a chance to win one of ten Otterbox cases for your iPhone 3G or 3GS. All you have to do is leave a comment on yesterday's episode and wait to see if you win! The contest runs until noon tomorrow, December 4, so don't forget!

Pretty much exactly as predicted, Blizzard Entertainment announced the next expansion for World of Warcraft Friday afternoon during the opening ceremonies for its annual Blizzcon convention in Anaheim, Calif.

Called Cataclysm, the next expansion will, among other features, raise the character level cap to 85, introduce two new playable character races, and involve a wholesale refresh of Azeroth, the setting for the original World of Warcraft game released back in 2004.

Specifics were hard to come by during the opening ceremony. As is customary, no release date or pricing for Cataclysm was mentioned. Blizzard did detail the new player races (… Read more

You might think that starting a brand-new, high-quality, full-glossy magazine in one of the worst publishing environments in years would be a suicidal business idea. After all, take a look at just about any magazine you can think of, and, thanks to the veritable collapse of advertising, odds are it's about as thin as can be.

But to the folks at Future--a leading games media publisher--the time couldn't be better to launch World of Warcraft: The Magazine, a new quarterly title that is expected to be unveiled at this weekend's BlizzCon event--the world's biggest World of Warcraft fanfest--in Anaheim, Calif. The magazine will be the "official" WoW magazine, and is both endorsed by and produced with the editorial cooperation of WoW publisher Activision Blizzard.

And, indeed, the timing for the forthcoming magazine is clever: The first issue is planned for sometime this fall, just as WoW celebrates its fifth anniversary. And with an astounding 11.5 million players of the game now spread out around the world, Future is hoping that by promising potential readers stunning artwork, behind-the-scenes looks at ongoing development, deep dives into the game's lore, and perhaps even occasional scoops about new features or other WoW elements, it will offer fans an invaluable experience. In fact, Future sees this magazine as something along the lines of a collectible coffee table book.

Still, Future has chosen a difficult business model for the new publication. Each issue is expected to be 148 pages long, with precisely zero ads, which means that the title is shut off from traditional magazine revenues, and therefore will rely entirely on subscription fees. On the other hand, that same dynamic also means that it should be shielded from the vagaries of the advertising market, something that is currently taking down one magazine after another.

According to Future, World of Warcraft: The magazine will be offered for subscription only--no single copy sales--with U.S. readers paying $40 annually, those in continental Europe 35 euros and the British 30 pounds. The magazine will be published in English, French, German, and Spanish.

"The magazine market is suffering a rough time," said John Gower, the international director of FuturePlus, the title's publisher, "but only those magazines that are based on advertising models. We've seen our magazines increasing across the board, especially the hobbyist" titles.

That may be true, but in order to support what the publishers say will be a costly blend of commissioned art, in-depth articles written by veteran journalists and behind-the-scenes access, Future will have to convince a great deal of its players that it's worth their while to pony up $40 on top of their $15 monthly game subscription fees, even as those same players can find an enormous amount of WoW-related information online.

And that proposition is clearly not for everyone, even some of the most passionate WoW players. … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--The first couple of weeks of September are going to be a banner time for music video games. On September 9 (09/09/09), the much-anticipated The Beatles: Rock Band will hit store shelves, just eight days after Guitar Hero 5 gets its chance to rock living rooms everywhere.

With the Beatles game, it's easy to imagine long lines and huge sales figures. After all, this will be the first time that any of the recent slew of music-oriented video games will feature any Beatles songs, let alone dozens of them.

But with Guitar Hero 5 (see video … Read more