MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Square Enix is positioning Final Fantasy XIV as a serious rival to Blizzard’s World of Warcraft series, company president Yoichi Wada has revealed. In an interview with Develop, Wada disclosed the full extent of Square Enix’s ambitions for the upcoming Final Fantasy MMO, and indicated that Blizzard’s need to – …
Read More »Third WoW expansion underway
Californian game maker Blizzard has announced it’s working on a third expansion package for the world’s most popular MMORPG. The project, entitled World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm, was announced at the fourth annual BlizzCon event. The announcement confirmed that Blizzard is not yet ready to focus its core workforce on new …
Read More »Future open to single-game mags
Future Publishing has told MCV it will consider creating other magazines dedicated to a single game – after the announcement of its global World Of Warcraft publication yesterday. As revealed by MCV, Future’s quarterly WoW magazine will be available to consumers quarterly via a yearly subscription. The publisher has decided …
Read More »Free World of Warcraft Peggle unveiled
PopCap has made a special version of one of its most popular titles available for free, taking influence from Blizzard’s phenomenally popular MMO. The World of Warcraft themed version of Peggle is free to download, and combines the worlds of the two games across 10 new levels that hope make …
Read More »Twitter hits WoW and Champions Online
Revolutionary social networking tool Twitter is to get in-game support in two of MMO’s biggest names – Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft and Cryptic’s upcoming Champions Online. Offworld reports that new add-on TweetCraft will allow WoW players to send and receive Tweets in-game and upload screenshots using Twitpic. It will …
Read More »CHINA: Blizzard cements World of Warcraft deal
Leading MMO developer Blizzard has struck a deal with NetEase that will see the Chinese firm handle the studio’s MMO offerings in the region for three years. The pair had previously announced an agreement for servicing rights on both Starcraft II and Battle.net, but this new deal will see MMO …
Read More »Vin Diesel and Jonathan Ross chat WoW
Last week’s episode of Friday Night with Jonathan Ross saw the leading BBC entertainer spare a few moments to talk gaming with Hollywood superstar Vin Diesel. Around halfway through the interview, Ross began probing Diesel about his childhood obsession with Dungeons & Dragons, and eventually MMO gaming. When Ross admitted …
Read More »Activision shareholders approve Vivendi deal
Activision’s shareholders have agreed by majority to approve a ‘merger’ with Vivendi Games. The deal between the two video game giants will see the formation of new publishing superpower Activision Blizzard, and was first announced in December. 92 per cent of Activision’s shareholders approved to deal, which is expected to …
Read More »Speculation mounts about Blizzards surprise
An evolving splash page on the Blizzard website has got the virtual tongues of internet gamers wagging ahead of the firm’s Worldwide Invitational this Saturday – with most speculators hedging bets on a Diablo-related announcement. The image of breaking ice, which has been gradually evolving each day, contains a number …
Read More »$1bn MMO still couldnt touch Warcraft, says Activision
Chief executive of Activision Bobby Kotick believes that even if a publishing rival was to invest $1 billion on a new MMO franchise, they would still struggle to take on Blizzard’s World Of Warcraft. Speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology Investment Symposium 2008 conference, Kotick said: "[Blizzard] has probably half …
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