battle.net

E-mail lists, encrypted passwords stolen in Battle.net hack

Game maker Blizzard Entertainment's internal network security has been breached, the company informed customers today.

While the company behind World of Warcraft and Diablo believes no sensitive financial information was compromised, it said e-mail addresses for non-China Battle.net players and scrambled passwords were stolen, Blizzard President Michael Morhaime said in a company blog post:

This week, our security team found an unauthorized and illegal access into our internal network here at Blizzard. We quickly took steps to close off this access and began working with law enforcement and security experts to investigate what happened. At this time, we'… Read more

Warcraft gamers to get 'Real ID'

You've been teaming up with that hot night elf in the World of Warcraft, killing thousands of mobs and doing hundreds of instance runs with her, and yet you don't know if she is actually a girl in real life? Now there's a way for you to possibly find out.

Blizzard announced early this week that together with the launch of patch 3.3.5 for WoW, it will offer a new feature called "Read ID." This is a voluntary, optional level of identity designed to keep players connected even outside of WoW.

In fact, the company says that as long as you play games that use its Battle.net online gaming service, which currently includes WoW and the upcoming Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3, you will be able to stay in touch with playmates.

According to Blizzard, the new Real ID features include:… Read more

Blizzard's StarCraft II wings into beta

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