StarCraft II sells 3 million in a month

Posted by Chris Holmes at 3:20pm on September 1st, 2010

Blizzard has announced that StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty has sold three million copies worldwide during the title’s first month on sale. That figure complements other stats about the title that were confirmed recently. It’s the fastest-selling real-time strategy game of all time and the best-selling PC game this year (so far). The game launched simultaneously across North America, Europe, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and parts of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau.

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StarCraft II US sales for July confirmed

Posted by Chris Holmes at 12:12pm on August 13th, 2010

The NPD group has announced the US sales for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty for July. The game managed to sell a pant-changing 721,000 units at retail. The game was released on 27th July, so that number was reached in only five days. NPD’s sales don’t measure digital downloads, so the number could’ve been even higher.

Regardless, it is the fastest-selling strategy game of all time. It sold more than 1 million copies in 24 hours and 1.5 million copies in 48 hours worldwide. NPD has said that the game made US PC game sales go up by 103% for July. We didn’t place StarCraft II’s sales in our traditional NPD post as that only covers console games. Our Matt seemed to enjoy it in his review.

Blizzard | Industry News | Mac | NPD | News | PC

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StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Review

Posted by Matt Purslow at 6:08pm on August 12th, 2010

It’s been twelve long years since we last heard from the Terran military, but at last Blizzard’s highly anticipated non-World of WarCraft title drops onto the surface of our little planet. But is it everything fans have hoped for, or over a decade on has the universe of StarCraft lost its shine?

Read the rest of this story »

Blizzard | PC | Reviews

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StarCraft II sets new records

Posted by Chris Holmes at 6:15pm on August 3rd, 2010

Blizzard has announced that StarCraft II has become the fastest-selling strategy game of all time. It sold more than 1 million copies in 24 hours, and over 1.5 million in 48 hours. As you may expect, these figures make StarCraft II the best selling PC game of 2010 so far. The game launched simultaneously worldwide in 11 different languages and on 5 different continents.

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StarCraft II requirements unveiled

Posted by Chris Holmes at 12:21pm on July 16th, 2010

Blizzard has confirmed the all-important PC and Mac requirements for StarCraft II. Mac requirements are higher than those on PC. Mac gamers are recommended to have an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT or ATI Radeon HD 4670. PC gamers are recommended to have a Dual Core 2.4Ghz processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 or an ATI Radeon HD 3870.

Hardcore PC gamers will be happy to note that the game runs on Windows XP (as well as Vista and Windows 7), currently the best OS for gaming performance and the best ever OS ever made. The game 12GB of free hard drive space to install when it’s released on the PC and Mac on 27th July.

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Blizzard forums to make people post with their real names

Posted by Chris Holmes at 12:40pm on July 7th, 2010

Blizzard has opened a can of worms by announcing that they will be making users post with their real names on their forums. The real name system will be implemented on the StarCraft II forums before the game’s released at the end of this month. The World of Warcraft forums will go the same way just before the launch of Cataclysm, the next expansion pack for WOW. Existing posts will stay the same, but everything else going forward will require the use of Real ID.

“The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players – however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild,” Blizzard said.

“Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven’t been connected before.”

Understandably, the WOW forums are royally pissed off. WOW Europe’s thread on the subject is up to 184 pages, with the North American thread up to an insane 976 pages. We would like to point out that you don’t need to use your real name to post on our site, call yourself what you want (within reason).

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World of Warcraft Cataclysm closed beta starts

Posted by Chris Holmes at 3:11pm on July 1st, 2010

Blizzard has confirmed that they have started the closed beta for Cataclysm, the next World of Warcraft expansion. Invitations will be sent to players whom have signed up to Battle.net and have opted into the beta. The expansion will be getting a full release sometime this year if all goes according to plan. Cataclysm will instigate quite a few new changes. The level cap will go to 85 and the entire old world will be getting a redesign. There’s also now a big dragon called Deathwing. With a name like that we guess he’s not going to be friendly.

“Our focus with Cataclysm has been to build on the knowledge we’ve gained through the previous expansions to deliver the best, most compelling World of Warcraft content for our players to date,” said Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime.”Gathering focused feedback during the beta test will go a long way in helping us reach that goal when we launch Cataclysm later this year.”

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First phase of the StarCraft II beta ending this month

Posted by Chris Holmes at 7:57pm on May 18th, 2010

The first phase of the StarCraft II beta will end on Monday, 31st May, when Blizzard will take it down and make some changes to it. They will then re-release the beta on 27th July, a few weeks before the game’s full release.

“We’d like to thank all of our beta-test participants for your enthusiasm, dedication, and valuable feedback during the beta test,” said Blizzard.

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BlizzCon 2010 ticket ordering dates confirmed

Posted by Chris Holmes at 7:47pm on May 18th, 2010

Activision Blizzard has confirmed the dates to get tickets for this year’s BlizzCon. The first batch will go on sale Wednesday, 2nd June at 7pm PST. The second batch will go on sale Saturday, 5th June at 10am PST. Tickets will cost $150 each and will be available at the BlizzCon website, and Blizzard has suggested that users should register a Battle.net account to get themselves ready.

DirecTV customers in the US will be able to watch the event from home for $39.95. International viewers can stream the event over the internet for the same cost, and will get the opportunity to choose between different video streams. Online and DirecTV viewers will also get an in-game World of Warcraft BlizzCon 2010 item, which will be revealed at a later date. Some of the competitive tournaments at the event will be shown for free, but this will only be in the form of “limited coverage”, according to Activision Blizzard.

BlizzCon 2010 will take place on the 22nd and 23rd October.

Activision | Blizzard | Gaming Culture | News | PC

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WoW: Cataclysm leak gets fixed

Posted by Matthew Archer at 12:28am on May 13th, 2010

Last week there was a gigantic compilation alpha test info and screen caps of World of Warcraft’s latest expansion, Cataclysm, released by MMO Champion. It is gone now, but certainly not forgotten. Let’s just take into consideration how much work MMO Champion put into the collecting, hosting, and posting of images from the alpha build of WoW’s next expansion, giving fans a peek into the future of the game they know and either love or hate, but still keep playing.

From the screenshots and trade skill information, and fly-through videos, the peek they provided of the future of Azeroth had players pondering resubscribing to the five and a half year old game.

Of course, Blizzard surely would prefer to not have that info and those images floating around the Internet, so Boubouille at MMO Champion had to tear it all down.

The good news—the images aren’t going anywhere. They’re just in seclusion until the non-disclosure agreement lifts. Until then, we leave you with Deathwing, sitting all alone in Stormwind, wondering where all his screenshot friends have gone.

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Activision Blizzard Q1 2010 financial results revealed

Posted by Chris Holmes at 12:46pm on May 7th, 2010

Activision Blizzard has announced their financial results for Q1 2010. That’s the quarter ended March 31, 2010. Activision Blizzard’s GAAP net revenues were $1.3 billion, and its non-GAAP net revenues were $714 million. Their reported GAAP earnings per diluted share were $0.30, with the company’s non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $0.09.

Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, stated, “Our better-than-expected first quarter performance was driven by strong global consumer demand for Activision’s Call of Duty® and Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft®. Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare® 2 was the #1 title overall in the U.S. and Europe for the quarter, which illustrates the continued momentum of our catalogue. Additionally, during the quarter, Activision launched DreamWorks’ How To Train Your Dragon and the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package, which shattered Xbox LIVE records with more than one million packages downloaded in the first 24 hours.”

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GameStop has your StarCraft II Beta invite

Posted by Matthew Archer at 6:58pm on April 21st, 2010

Apparently, preordering StarCraft II with GameStop snags you an invite to the game’s beta test, according to their website. The catch—you can’t cancel your order afterwards.

There are three ways to obtain a StarCraft II beta code through GameStop. You can preorder StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty online and receive your code through email, preoder the game for in-store pick-up, wait 24 hours, then go to the store for your code, or preorder the game in the store with the code printed on your receipt.

If you choose either of the first two options however, make sure you really want to purchase the full game, because there’s a disclaimer:

“Reserve StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and receive an invitation to the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty beta. Available online and in-store while supplies last. Once you receive your Beta Code your order cannot be canceled.”

Your best bet is to head on over to the store nearest you and drop $5 on the game. You’ll get the beta code, and should you not like the game that much, the retail store will allow you to cancel your order after the fact.

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WoW Cataclysm class changes on their way

Posted by Matthew Archer at 12:23am on April 7th, 2010

With extra experience coming to Blizzard’s “Cataclysm” expansion of the popular MMORPG, World of Warcraft, players will also be seeing new spells, new skills, and talent tree changes this week for all classes—except the Paladin.

WoW players have been eagerly awaiting news of the new spells and skills they’ll be playing with in the Cataclysm expansion, since it was first announced, a few weeks before BlizzCon ’09. Blizzard will be rolling out information on the updates for the nine classes it will affect.

Tomorrow, info will be released on the Shaman, Priest, and Warlock. On Thursday, the Warrior, Death Knight, and Rogue. And Friday, we’ll see the Hunter, Druid, and Mage.

As far as the Paladin is concerned—he is still in development, according to Blizzard. He won’t be ready to reveal until April 16, at the earliest.

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BlizzCon 2010 coming October

Posted by Chris Holmes at 5:08pm on March 25th, 2010

Blizzard has announced that this year’s BlizzCon will take place on 22nd and 23rd October. This will be the fifth annual fan convention for the company, and is pencilled in to take place at the Anaheim Convention Centre in California. Expect all your favourite BlizzCon elements such as developer panels, tournaments and cosplay. There will be a live stream of the event available online for all those that can’t make the trip to California (read: everyone).

Blizzard plans to show off the World of Warcraft expansion Cataclysm, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and Diablo III. Hopefully Cataclysm and StarCraft II will be released by the time BlizzCon rolls around, but the company is remaining tight lipped on their street (and download) dates.

Blizzard | Gaming Culture | PC

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