Each game will combine the foundations of the original tabletops with new designs and gameplay elements inspired by Blizzard’s universes.

MONOPOLY: World of Warcraft will have players vying for control of World of Warcraft’s locations, wit such “coveted” real estate as Twilight Highlands, Grizzly Hills and the Swamp of Sorrows – instead of Pennsylvania Avenue, Park Place, and Boardwalk.

The standard Monopoly rules will apply, and it will include custom sculpted houses designed after Warcraft towns and hotels designed from Warcraft cities. A red and blue die representing the Horde and Alliance factions will also be included.

The game will debut during the 109th annual Toy Fair going on now in New York City. WoW players can get a look at the game through Facebook and also vote on the token designs. Current options, including Murky, Chen’s Keg, Mechagnome, and a Spellbook, are just a few, and the six most popular tokens will be represented in the game when it launches this May in North America for $39.95.

RISK: StarCraft will once again find the StarCraft universe in jeopardy as players choose from the Terran, Protoss or Zerg factions and use one of six heroes to bring order to the galaxy.

The “struggles” portrayed in the RTS game series are adapted in, and the winner will be determined by “astute deployment of military might and strategic field tactics.”

It comes with three play modes and over 290 custom playing pieces. More details about the game will be revealed as it moves toward release this summer in North America for $49.45.

Speaking in a DICE discussion panel with Epic’s Mike Capps and Insomniac’s Ted Price, Pearce admitted the firm “grossly underestimated the demand” for the MMO when it shipped.

“We had to stop shipping boxes to stores,” he explained, and said the firm decided to take a “more aggressive” approach in its estimates for future shipments. The new business model came about through contact with the online community, and allowed the firm a better idea of how many allotments to ship through perceived demand.

Pearce also touched upon the subject of addition to videogames, MMOs in particular, saying he felt it was not a phenomenon pertaining to just the games industry as there are cases of “overindulging” with all forms of media.

“We think about it all of the time… if there’s something that you’re really passionate about, whether it’s video games, a book, a TV series [or something else]… we have to consume it in moderation,” he said.

When Blizzard launched World of Warcraft it had around 500 employees, and now, with Mists of Panderia looming, 4,700 staffer across 11 cities work for the firm, the majority in customer support.

On the development end, Blizzard as 750 employees working on WoW, StarCraft II and Diablo III.

Thanks, Gamasutra.

Lead quest designer Dave Kosak told Videogamer the recent update is “the climax” of the game’s content run for Cataclysm.

“4.3 is definitely the climax of Cataclysm, so there’s no more Cataclysm content,” said Kosak.

“Traditionally we’ve had a grace period where we patch the game before the expansion comes out and you get sort of mechanical changes before you get the new expansion content. So we’ll have a world event prior to Mists of Pandaria, but that’s mostly a part of Mists of Pandaria’s launch and it’s not really more Cataclysm content.”

Blizzard has yet to actually put a date on the next expansion since its unveil at Blizzcon last October, with the big ticket for this year almost set to be Diablo III and maybe StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm.

Update 4.3 Hour of Twilight launched last month.

“Facebook already owns the category of casual gaming, we’re going to help them own core games,” he said. “A click and boom, you’re playing World of Warcraft.”

Perry said Gaiaki has been working with Facebook for quite some time, as it is a great venue to bring games to the masses instead of bringing people to the games.

“Bring the game to the gamer, don’t move people, move games,” he said. “Zynga has figured out that you put the customer first, very aggressively. You click once and you get to play for free, you share it with your friends and then you pay Zynga if you love it.

“It’s as pro-consumer as you can get and that’s why their valuation has skyrocketed. Some of the traditional publishers who have ignored all of this are falling off a cliff. Look at their stock prices, it’s not good.”

Perry went on to say that one of the barriers to “owning consumers online is friction,” and used Steam as an example stating that in order to play a demo on the service, a customer would have to click on the screen over 40 times before starting the demo. Gaiaki’s aim, is to help remedy such hurdles.

Thanks, GI.biz.

They are an elective service so players who choose to continue posting under their character names will continue to be able to do so. Some have suggested that this may be Blizzard’s compromise with fans who were worried about the RealID system.

BattleTags will also not conflict with RealID, allowing players to keep only their real friends on RealID, and continue to allow others to know them only by an online handle.

BattleTags will not be unique to each player, multiple accounts can use the same tag. However, each account will have an identifier number on their profile so you can distinguish.

Via WoW Insider.

The new Battle.net Balance feature will be “rolled out” in the weeks ahead, according to the firm, and you can check out the FAQ on the new system through here.

The story behind the patch has Thrall and the noble Aspects asking both Horde and Alliance for help retrieving a long extinct artifact known as the Dragon Soul. In order to find the artifact’s point of origin, players will journey through Azeroth’s End Time to the War of the Ancients. There, Deathwing awaits.

The content includes a new raid and dungeons, along with a new tier of armor sets, Transmogrification for cosmetic armor and weapon customization. You’ll also get a new Rogue quest line, Fangs of the Father, which contains two new Legendary daggers.

The patch introduces Void Storage and the new Raid Finder.

Full patch notes for the game can be found through Battlenet, and through the WoW-wiki (via Eurogamer).

There’s a release video below. You can also watch a 10-minute video Blizzard released for Hour of Twilight through here, which hit last week when the game turned seven years old.

WoW’s next, big expansion, Mists of Pandaria, has yet to be dated.

Thanks, Gamefront.

Patch 4.3 will also contain Raid Finder the ability to customize the appearance of your weapons and armor, 80 extra slots of long-term storage space, the new rogue quest line Fangs of the Father, and a redesigned Darkmoon Faire complete with all-new games and rewards.

Also, to get you prepared for Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard has released a talent calculator for the new system coming with the expansion. It will allow players to check out the new class talents still under development. Mind you, these could change before release, but at least you’ll get a bit of an idea of the changes and additions.

World of Warcraft turns seven today, and in celebration, Blizzard will be handing out a Feat of Strength along with a gift that contains fireworks, and temporarily grants a special tabard along with a 7% experience point and reputation bonus when used.

Have a look back at the history of the game over on Gamasutra.

Video courtesy of GameFront.

According to data obtained in conjunction with Peanut Labs, out of 381 online consumers surveyed, over half have grown tired of Blizzard’s MMO juggernaut, and 50% of the players plan on purchasing SWTOR when it releases, with another  38% expressing interest in the Bioware MMO.

While subscriber numbers always ebb and flow, whether due to new game releases and expansions or the fact the majority of players are MMO polygamists, 33% of the WoW players surveyed plan to resubscribe when Mists of Panaria releases next year.

Add-ons such as this always bolster active users and subscriber numbers for any MMO, and the Asian theme of Pandaria could resonate well with the game’s Chinese market. If so, the fourth expansion to the MMO could bring back some of the 800,000 subs it recently lost, as the majority of the exodus occurred in China.

Due to the survey’s findings, Lazard Capital Markets has downgraded Activision Blizzard’s stock from buy to neutral.

Thanks, Develop.

Kotaku reports the 18 page PDF was included in a document dump by hacking group AntiSec, and allegedly taken from the files of one of the California Department of Justice’s cybercrime experts.

The document outlines various guidelines for what law enforcement needs to provide – warrants, court orders and sub-poenas – in order for Blizzard to comply with requests for player information, but notes that in emergency situations, the information may be released voluntarily.

The kinds of information Blizzard might hold, as listed in the document, include IP addresses; log in details; payment details such as bank account and credit card numbers; identity information; and chat logs.

According to the document, which was last revised in 2009, Blizzard holds most personal information “indefinitely”, but only keeps private messages for 180 days. No deadline was given for the retention of chat logs.

Blizzard has not confirmed the document’s veracity.

The commercial will air during the first half of the game, which should kick off around 1.15pm PST/4.15 EST, and if you’re not into football, just wait around a bit as some illustrious YouTube user will surely have it up 10 seconds after it first airs.

As of this post, stock prices for the firm are up 15¢ to $13.17 or 1.15%, proving just much the market can fluctuate. Thanks, Develop.

In its third quarter financial release today, Activision Blizzard reported net GAAP earnings of $754 million for the quarter ending September 30, a small jump on the $745 million of the same period in 2010 and a better than expected result.

On the back of third quarter results, both earnings per share and operating margins over the last nine months are the best in the company’s history.

Adjusted outlook for Q4 expects profits of $980 million, and $4.33 billion for CY 2011 – a result which would shatter another record, becoming the company’s most successful year ever.

As such, CEO Bobby Kotick called 2011 “a year of many records” both made and to come, and highlighted the company’s optimistic outlook, which predicts further new records in 2012 on the strength of another Call of Duty and Diablo III.

“We remain the largest and most profitable interactive entertainment company,” Kotick noted, because of Activision’s “collaborative corporate culture” and “focus on long term objectives”.

Eric Hirshberg gave a glowing account of the state of the industry, highlighting the “largest install base ever” of current generation HD consoles, which he says accounts for a larger share of the market than ever before.

He predicted the console install base will have grown 16% by the end of 2011, from 291 million to 312 million, and by 24% over the course of 2012.

A recurring theme through the call was the success of Activision’s long term strategies, in particular narrowing its focus to “must have” franchises, and focusing on online channels.

Digital Love
The publisher made much of its digital revenue streams, with good reason; at $427 million, digital sales accounted for 57% of total net revenues.

Since January, Activision Blizzard has noted 25% growth in digital revenues, and at $1.28 billion, the digital stream is up 16% year on year and accounts for 38% of revenues year to date.

Chief financial officer Thomas Tippl predicted “record digital revenues and record digital margins” over the next year for Activision, even discounting Blizzard’s contributions.

He said Activision “continues to allocate the vast majority of internal investment” in digital revenue generators, and has “the most robust pipeline” of online enabled properties in the industry.

Eric Hirshberg took up this thread, saying “gamers increasingly prefer” online enabled games, and estimating European digital revenue growth in “double digits” over the third quarter. The executive said digital revenue is the “fastest growing and most profitable” stream industry wide.

A Chinese release of Call of Duty, Bungie’s new project, and Diablo 3 were highlighted as upcoming digital revenue highlights. Throughout the call several references were made to casual, social and mobile channels, but no specific examples were given.

Skylanders
Before launching into discussion of its behemoth, Activision took the time to highlight Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventures, which has performed “ahead of our expectations”, according to Kotick, and drew “stronger than expected consumer response”.

Both the starter pack and individual toys are selling faster than expected; Hirschberg said some of the 30 toys are becoming quite rare, and fetch up to $70 on eBay.

“Literally all of our major retail partners over all territories have already placed reorders,” he noted, and mentioned the game’s inclusion on multiple influential holiday toy lists.

Hirshberg said Activision is backing the game with its “largest marketing campaign ever for a new property” including a 3D trailer at major holiday kids’ movies, and powered kiosks at retailers.

The game has achieved an 87 average on Gamerankings.

The Juggernauts
Activision Blizzard confirmed a widely-held belief in revealing that Call of Duty: Black Ops was the best-selling title across all platforms in the US and Europe for the first three quarters of 2011. The publisher didn’t supply numbers, but Ubisoft did – Black Ops has moved 15 million units, about three times as many as its closest competitor, Just Dance 2.

Black Ops players have logged over 2.8 billion hours of online play. In terms of player numbers, Black Ops pulled 29% more unique users in its first eleven months than Modern Warfare 2.

Hirshberg noted that over 20 million Call of Duty map packs have been sold, and that taken collectively, Call of Duty map packs are the third best selling title of 2011 so far. The latest Black Ops map pack, which marked the first time Activision had released a fourth pack for a single title, also performed strongly, which Hirshberg takes as proof that Call of Duty is a “year round” activity.

While not making direct reference to Battlefield 3, Hirshberg did say that “before during and since competitor’s launches”, Black Ops remained the most played title on Xbox Live, with Modern Warfare 2 in second place.

Celebrating Modern Warfare 3′s launch, Kotick described it as “the biggest in Activision’s history”. Hirshberg revealed the game drew at least 1.5 million attendees at midnight events at over 13,000 participating retailers – the best in industry history.

Hirshberg said the attach rate of Call of Duty: Elite premium subscription pre-orders to Modern Warfare 3 pre-orders were strong enough that Activision expects to hit 1 million premium subscriptions in under a year. Demand for the service has “exceeded most optimistic expectations” resulting in registration bottlenecks – but Hirshberg quickly assured listeners that this has “no impact” on gamers’ ability to play Modern Warfare 3.

Hirshberg said the game has received 11 perfect scores at review so far, and mentioned its 90 average Metacritic and Gamerankings result.

World of Warcraft
Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime opened his section of the call by admitting that Blizzard’s quarterly earnings were down year on year, but pointed out that Starcraft II launched in Q3 2010, while Blizzard made no launches this year. World of Warcraft was one of the top ten PC games in the US and Europe during Q3.

World of Warcraft subscriptions also took a hit, dropping by around 800,000 to 10.3 million. Morhaime said most of the losses were in “the East”, but said World of Warcraft remains the most popular online game in China and the most popular subscription MMO in the world.

Asked about subscriber retention levels leading up to the release of Mists of Pandaria, Morhaime repeated Bllizzard’s usual line about not making predictions, but did say elsewhere that Blizzard had learned its lesson from Cataclysm.

Morhaime said the player-spike caused by Cataclysm fell off much faster than Wrath of the Lich King’s, and put the blame partly on hardcore end-content, with little appeal for casual players. Mists of Pandaria’s pet battle system was highlighted as a casual-friendly feature, but Morhaime was quick to add that the hardcore will be catered to with a new focus on PvP and the Horde vs Alliance storyline. Blizzard seems happy with the new expansion’s reception, commenting that the trailer has drawn over 3 million YouTube views.

Ahead of Pandaria, Morhaime said a new update for World of Warcraft is in testing, and will go live “over the next week”. The update is content-driven, and conatins the “biggest and best raid content ever”, including a Deathwing encounter. A new Raid Finder feature will help casual players get in on the new content.

On the game’s future, Morhaime said the team is “looking forward to” World of Warcraft’s Brazilian launch, and said Blizzard has “other aggressive marketing plans” in addition to the Online Pass, but is not ready to share details.

The storm
Responding to agressive investor questions, Morhaime heavily underlined the fact that Blizzard’s lack of releases during 2011 is an important factor in considering its financial performance. He reiterated Blizzard’s strong pipeline of upcoming releases and the buzz each new title generated at Blizzcon.

Starcraft II was the best selling PC game in US and Europe for the past nine months, and Morhaime noted strong buzz around the upcoming Heart of the Swarm release, including more than 1 million views on its Blizzcon trailer. On the Blizzard DOTA side, testing continues, and the company is “currently exploring” what kind of business model to pursue.

Blizzard plans on two major releases during 2012, one of which is Diablo III; still no lock down on launch window beyond “early 2012″, but Blizzard is soon to begin testing he game’s real-money auction house system.

Back in my day, Warcraft had orcs and humans. Squishy, weak-willed, whiny humans who wouldn’t stop saying, “Moah work?” That was it. And now? Pandas. Warcraft has rotund kung-fu pa– [CONTENT REMOVED, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DREAMWORKS ENTERTAINMENT].

Sure, players saw it coming, but expectation and execution are entirely different things. During BlizzCon’s opening ceremonies, Blizzard roundhouse kicked fans’ perceptions of what Warcraft’s all about with warm, soothing colors, furry fists of fury, and heaping dollops of d’aaaaaaw. Folks weaned on bloodshed, angst, and cold, calculating strategy were understandably (and audibly) upset.

Are things really as bad as they seem, though? Will Blizzard’s behemoth be done in not by a giant apocalypse dragon, but by fluffy – and perhaps even wuffy – pandas? I sat down with senior game producer John Lagrave to get the full scoop. I quizzed him on everything from how Blizzard’s keeping Pandaria interesting in spite of its light-hearted nature, to whether Blizzard’s finally jumped the shark, to WoW’s recent subscriber leak, to – yes – a certain Dreamworks-licensed martial arts bear.

VG247: When Chris Metzen introduced Mists of Pandaria, he called it “the calm before the storm.” What is that “storm,” though? I mean, a freaking apocalypse dragon isn’t generally the opening act for, you know, cuddly bears. How will that even work?

John Lagrave, senior game producer: So, for the past three expansions, we’ve had these amazing villains that players have had to overcome. Horde and Alliance have united to defeat Illidan and Arthas. And so we’ve had the notion of neutral cities like Shattrath and Dalaran where you sit there and work in cooperation because you have this terrible evil to deal with.

Well, with Thrall healing the world and Deathwing no longer a threat, the notion is that those factions still don’t like each other. So you as a player – when you go through and explore Pandaria – you see this amazing place. And you start learning about the Pandarens and the lore of the area. That’s the calm, right? It’s a very serene place, and you’re learning about how this land works as you quest through. But that’s the calm.

At some point, you’re gonna be finished. And really, the problem is that there’s Horde or there’s Alliance, and [those other guys] suck. So that’s the war. It’s the storm on the horizon. That’s your challenge again. It really hearkens back to the original game where you landed in Hillsbrad because the Alliance were coming up and starting to fight. That spontaneous world PVP was happening. That’s the old war that’s coming back.

So how do you even get players excited about that? You’re billing it as “the calm.” Generally, that connotates to “not very exciting.” The point between the epic clashes. Those pages everybody skipped in Lord of the Rings where people started singing. How do you make people say “Oh boy!” about that?

Right. Who cares about that? Who cares about Pandaria? Well, a bunch of different things. First of all, we do that through our questing system and the stories we tell within it. Also, we do that through art. I mean, there’s no two ways about it. We do it through great level design and the art we expose to players. So we’re telling a story that’s visually appealing. And that further drives people.

People often say, “Oh, I don’t read the quest text.” You know what? They do. They don’t read the quests completely, but they’re skimming it. They’re still curious. What I always find is I’ll be like “Do you know about this [story related thing],” and people will be like “Oh yeah!” And I’ll be like “Well, how do you know about it?” And they’ll be like “Uhhh, I don’t know.” Well, they had to have read at least part of the quest.

What you’re going to be learning as you go through Pandaria is about the Pandarens and the Mogu – who they are, what they do. You’re really going to be dealing with that notion of “What is that story? Why is this race here? Why is it being exposed to us?”

So I think [we'll interest people] through really good story telling and the visual appeal. You know, people love looking through what we do. Which is really nice as well.

You announced the Annual Pass, which offers some stupidly great benefits. From where I’m standing, though, it also looks like a great way to make players stick around for the long haul. Honestly, was that your main motivation? To keep players from bidding farewell to WoW before things got interesting again?

Our main objective is to have people play our games [laughs]. OK, so I’ll tell you as a developer. Here’s what I care about: I care that you play my game, right? It ultimately means that we’re excited about Diablo III. I think Diablo III’s an awesome game. I’ve been playing it a lot. I’m not sort of a Diablo fan; I’m a huge Diablo fan. When I came into Blizzard, I came in as a Mac Diablo tester. When we were porting from PC to Mac, that’s what I was doing. I was QA testing it. When I wasn’t with Blizzard, we used to do LAN parties with Diablo. I’m a nutty, nutty Diablo fan.

And there are certain [benefits]. I mean, it’s been a long time since Diablo II, so it’s good to expose people to [the franchise]. It’s a great game. And I think it’s a win. We obviously like people playing WoW. I want people to play what I do. But yeah, I would love people to play Diablo III. So the Annual Pass makes sense. It’s vastly appealing. You’re paying for WoW anyway. Here’s Diablo III. Go have fun.

WoW’s developed this sort of expansion-centric cycle. Your subscriber numbers rocket each time an expansion (sometimes literally) sets your world on fire, but slowly plummet after that – until a new expansion swoops in to save the day at the last second.

It’s an ebb-and-flow.

Right. But do you think that speaks to a deeper problem with your game? That its core mechanics no longer entertain in the long-term? Or is it simply an issue of content that all MMOs – in some form or another – have to deal with?

[Laughs]. That was a great question. It really was. So there is give-and-take. People come back to expansions and then trail on. What we try to do when we release an expansion is get you interested in what we’re doing, because we’ve tried to make something cool and worthwhile. We like to release those content patches so that you feel like you’re getting good value. We don’t want to sit there and have you feel like “Well, I played through the expansion. I got to the next level. Now I’m done.” We definitely want you to say, “Hey, Blizzard, are you giving me good content and good value for what I’m paying?”

And, you know, that’s a really legitimate concern for people to have, right? Money can be very tight. You should feel like you’re getting good value. That’s what we’re trying to do. So when we do our expansions, we’re saying, “Hey, we think we’ve got something really awesome for you to play.” And when we do our content patches, we think “Hey, these are pretty interesting things for you to do.” And we hope people play.

Yeah, it’s ebb-and-flow. It’s not cyclical. Things come in and come out. We seem to be doing OK on that. I’m not saying we’re resting on our laurels. We always try to one-up ourselves and do a better job at it. We’re constantly – I swear to god – trying to improve the game in terms of how it functions, how it looks. We polish all the time. We meticulously polish. We polish systems that are already established, because – you know what? – it just doesn’t work as well [anymore]. So we do that all the time. So there is a give-and-take there, but we’re trying to make it better.

I’ll say this: We’ve also been very fortunate in that people seem to like what we’re doing.

Do you think, though, that the “traditional” MMO formula is finally going stale? Do you think that’s the root of your post-expansion exoduses? Is there any desire to really change things up? Say, throw out the questing system or set the whole game in space?

Well, we did a fair amount of that with Cataclysm, right? I mean, questing could be pretty good, but did you play WoW classic [before any expansions]? Questing in classic kind of sucked. It really did. Like, there were some good quests, but there were also some quests… there’s the classic example of the quest in Ashenvale where you went back-and-forth to the same fucking dude, like, four times. It’s like “OK, can’t I have just killed the guy I was supposed to see and be on my way?”

What we did in Cataclysm was re-doing that whole questing system and how we told stories through it. What we did with phasing to tell stories – yeah, we’re absolutely willing to [change things up]. And we do that. So that’s a really good example of it. We’re not afraid of also doing a lot of work and throwing it all away. So yes, we absolutely look at stuff and say, “That’s shit. Let’s improve on it.” But we also say, “That didn’t work out. Let’s throw it away.”

So you got quite the reaction to Pandaria from the Internet Peanut Gallery. And I can’t blame them entirely. I mean, it connotates certain things… like a particular Jack Black film.

Really? That looks Jack Black-y – where [a nearby poster of a Pandaren kicking an undead character's jaw off] is crushing his skull?

Well, insofar as the words “pandas” and “fighting” are involved.

“What we’re trying to do is say, ‘These guys can be badasses.’ These guys can be – at the start – badasses. These are warriors. These are fierce, awesome fighters. And they’re also hard-drinking dudes, too.”

Gotcha. And certainly it’s very valid. It’s like, what has been a huge exposure to the current generation of people involving pandas? Certainly that film. What we’re trying to do is say, “These guys can be badasses.” These guys can be – at the start – badasses. These are warriors. These are fierce, awesome fighters. And they’re also hard-drinking dudes, too.

So you mean you’re not trying to jump the shark? Shocking. Could the Internet be… wrong? No. Never. My whole world is falling apart. Seriously, though, what do you say to those people?

Well, I mean, try the beta. Try the game demo on the floor. See if we actually have jumped the shark – rather than relying on your initial reaction to something that we aren’t. Maybe you’re thinking about what something else is, and you’re thinking we’re doing that. But we’re Blizzard Entertainment. We try to do something much better. So try and give us a shot. Take a look at the panda and what we’re trying to do with the panda. I think you’ll find it very, very different from anything you’ve seen before.

You’ve eliminated auto-attack with Pandarens. That, of course, has been a pillar of every WoW class prior. Do you have any plans to give other classes a similar shake-up?

It’s possible. It’s always possible. Like, we’re going through what – our third iteration on the talent system? So we’re always willing to look at stuff and say, “This is working in part; this isn’t working in other parts. Let’s change it.”

For the monk, it makes sense to remove auto-attack. Just the notion of how you build up your Chi and how you want to have the light and dark – it makes sense to do it that way. Will we say that the Warrior will [no longer] have an auto-attack? Possibly. I don’t think so. But it’s possible.

The last thing you want to do is have a game that’s literally “Oh, I know exactly what they do.” I think we’re pretty good at saying, “Is this still interesting for us? Is this a worthwhile thing at all? Did we fail?” So it’s possible. We don’t have any plans at this time to sit there and say, “Hey, we’re gonna be changing the combat mechanics of all our other classes.” But we will look at what we do with the monk and we’ll respond to what people tell us. And we’ll possibly agree. Or we’ll possibly say, “That works if we did it this way.” Or we’ll possibly disagree.

It’s kind of a crappy answer, but it’s the truth. We’re gonna say, “Maybe. But right now, we don’t have any plans.”

You’ve announced a Pokemon-esque pet battling system, and I totally saw a Pandaren using Ryu’s spin kick from Street Fighter. Point is, WoW’s not afraid to be referential – sometimes blatantly so. When do you rein it in, though? How much is too much? Do you ever worry that you’re being too referential?

Are we too focused on other people’s stuff that we just copy and go? I think any creative group is influenced by the world we live in. What a surprise, right? [Laughs]. There’s some kick-ass shit out there. It may be referential, but certainly homages as well. There’s some awesome stuff, and we’re like “Yeah, that’d be cool to have, and we’d like to see it in our game too.”

So yeah, we do all that referencing. I mean, there are tons of pop culture references in our game. It’s also appealing to our customer base. They like to see that and get what that is. It also provides an anchor to what we’re doing – like “OK, I’ve got a reference to what that is. I understand where I’m supposed to be going with this.”

“When our bullshit meter goes off? When we go ‘Yeah, that doesn’t work. That’s kind of stupid.’ I mean, we’re our own worst critics, and we’re brutal to each other in our meetings.”

We also like to polish and modify. We’re like “Now that we’ve done this, we can do it in a much better way.” So yes, we do all that stuff. Absolutely, 100 percent, we do all that stuff. But we like to make our own spin on it.

When our bullshit meter goes off? When we go “Yeah, that doesn’t work. That’s kind of stupid.” I mean, we’re our own worst critics, and we’re brutal to each other in our meetings. Just, absolutely brutal to each other. Literally, it’s like “That’s too much. That’s ridiculous. That doesn’t work. I don’t get it. I don’t like it.”

The great thing about working on the World of Warcraft dev team is that – at any point – you as a developer can walk into my office as a developer and say, “Here are my thoughts on what you’re doing.” And it’s valued. It’s not rejected. It’s not “What do you mean – coming in and telling me that stuff?” Because I can do the same to you. We have a great give-and-take. It means you’re not the sole vision. We have 100 some-odd people that are the vision for our game. And that means we’re that much better.

What’s the current timeframe for the Pandaria beta?

We haven’t gotten anything announced yet. We obviously want to give it to everybody soon. Given our previous timelines, I think your readers can make some pretty educated guesses on where we are in development. Soon is all I can say.

So what about Blizzard’s desire to speed up the expansion production cycle? Has this one been faster?

It doesn’t seem like it, but yeah, we’re trying to be. You know, we really are an 800 lb ballerina. We think we can get up on point, but it’s tough.

But we do want to try and get it out faster. Yeah, I don’t have any dates. Nobody on the development team could tell you when the date is. We’ll work on it – and we’ll be going back next week and talking about it – but we don’t have a date yet.

Speaking in an interview with Eurogamer during BlizzCon, Morhaime, like BioWare, doesn’t believe The Old Republic will be the “last large scale MMO” to use a subscription business model, despite a lot of “quality free-to-play experiences,” which are competing with sub-based MMOs in the market.

“I think it’s very expensive to make these games, especially if you’re expecting people to pay a monthly fee just to play the game, he said. “And so there are very few companies that can compete at that high level with those types of budgets. Definitely if you’re not charging anybody, they’re going to be a lot more forgiving about the experience they have.

“They haven’t paid anything. So in terms of developers entering the market, I can understand why a lot of games might choose to go free-to-play.

“For us, and even for EA with the Star Wars game, I think that the value that you get for the $15 a month is just unmatched. I don’t think you can get that amount of entertainment value anywhere. I’d put the $15 up against anything.

“I think that there’s an underlying, a fundamental assumption right now, that the less you charge, the more money you make. Which isn’t true. And it doesn’t necessarily make for a better game. I mean, everybody likes free… I think that definitely, players have seen a lot of really great quality free-to-play experiences, but I’m not sure it’s the best model for us right now.”

While WoW still charges a monthly fee, those who wish to give it go before signing up can download the game for free and continue to play for free until their character reaches level 20.

GayGamer reports the incident occurred during the closing of the convention, when a performance from metal group Cannibal Corpse was introduced by a video of frontman George “Corpsegrinder” Fisher.

Although the video shown at Blizzcon was bleeped, the original source has turned up online. Fisher expressed his allegiance to the Horde faction, describing Alliance players in highly offensive terms including three homophobic slurs, and suggesting multiple times they should “die”.

Blizzard’s airing of the video – and an inferred sanction of the language and sentiments therein – has outraged many players, and discussion of the incident has spread over three threads on the official Blizzard forums.

Activism group GLAAD and several press outlets have taken both Blizzard and Activision Blizzard to task for the homophobia expressed in the original video. Community manager Bashiok posted a response from Blizzard’s band, Level 90 Elite Tauren Chieftan.

“Hey guys, we read and heard all the feedback from BlizzCon this year. The Corpsegrinder bit was never intended to be taken seriously. We are sorry that we offended anyone; everything at our shows is just meant in fun. Thank you all for speaking up. We’ll definitely keep this in mind for future shows.”

In addition to criticism of the slurs and implied threat of violence, some Blizzard fans feel the incident is just the latest manifestation of a deeper problem, with reports of verbal abuse and even physical assaults on Alliance players at Blizzard gatherings and events.

The majority of Blizzard staff are Horde players, a fact the faction’s player base is gleefully aware of, and the developer is often perceived to be egging on the rivalry between the two groups.

Speaking in an interview with VentureBeat, Sams said giving Annual Pass subs the game, is a way for WoW fans to enjoy both games without having to pay out anymore than they already do for the MMO.

“We talk about, all the time, how can we do something cool for our players that’s going to benefit them, benefit us, and that they’ll feel is a give-back of sorts,” he said. “That’s where this started. There’s a variety of benefits that come from it. Certainly the players get DIII, which is pretty exciting. That doesn’t mean they get the expansion sets, it means that they get DIII, right? So we get people excited about playing that … they get to touch it, feel it, experience it. And then from our perspective, it also is a situation where they aren’t necessarily going to leave WoW to play our own game.

“We don’t want to take players from our universe and shift them over from World of Warcraft. There’s a lot of players playing WoW that have huge amounts of friends and family that they play World of Warcraft with, so [giving Annual Pass subscribers Diablo III] says, enjoy both of them. You don’t have to pay any more than you already do for WoW.”

“We thought it would be a cool thing to have our players be able to experience that game without having to leave WoW. We really view it as a give-back to the players. Will that mean that there’s more people potentially playing DIII? Maybe. Does that mean more people might engage in the real-money auction house? Possibly. That could be very positive for the organization, and I think for the players.”

The Annual Pass, announced during BlizzCon, is available for a limited time and allows players to sign up for a monthly-billed, 12 month subscription plan. Along with Diablo III, subs will get access to the Mists of Pandaria beta and receive the exclusive Tyreal’s Charger mount.

According to Cataclysm’s senior producer Ray Cobo, players running around the world as a Pandaren won’t have to choose a side until they reach level 10, and once that side is chosen, the MMO’s UI takes over.

“We have a UI enemy that helps players tell if they’re looking at an enemy or a friend, and that’s evolved greatly over time,” Cobo explained. “That’s something we’ll be leaning on a little more in terms of the PVP aspects.”

Other ways to distinguish which faction the monk is fighting for are also being considered, other than the standard label atop an enemy’s head.

“It’s something we talk about all the time,” he said. “We might actually have different types of armor sets that you get as Horde or Alliance to differentiate the two factions.”

Possible armor differences aside, Cobo said Blizzard plans to maintain the “the uniqueness and the look of the silhouette of characters.”

Via Kotaku.

“This is no joke. This is not a throw-away silly-silly ha ha funny expansion set; it is absolutely the next vital chapter and as things ratchet up, they’re gonna get really gnarly,” the vice president of creative development said at a Blizzcon 2011 panel on Saturday, as reported by Gamefront.

An April Fool’s Joke involving the pandaren has some World of Warcraft players affronted by what they perceive as a flippant attitude to the serious business of the game, but Metzen explained that the pandaren have a much longer history.

“There’s no way we’re gonna build an expansion set based on an April Fools Joke,” he scoffed.

“What you guys may not know is, our senior art director, Sam Didier, started drawing these guys years ago. Was it in Warcraft III, we included Chen Stormstout in Frozen Throne, maybe, in the Orc campaign? Was it after that? I can’t remember anymore. But these guys are not a joke. This is an idea that we’ve been thinking about for years. It’s one of our favorite flavors of Warcraft.”

Metzen said the events of the pandaren campaign are “serious as a heart attack”.

“They’re really going to make a difference in the history of the world; it’s definitely not a light, throw-away expansion set in any way. It’s about as rich a kit as anything we’ve put out so far and it’s definitely got its intrigues and its dangers and its drama. It ain’t armies of the dead and it ain’t demons fallin’ out of the sky, but it’s definitely gonna have some flavor and some teeth.”

“I think a lot of people that aren’t buying into the idea right away don’t realize the depth of the race,” lead quest designer Dave Kosak agreed in an interview later.

“I actually think the pandaren as a culture are really neat. I would encourage you, if you aren’t really climbing onto the idea, to check out what’s there, what’s in the game, because the pandaren are fascinating, they’re fun — they live hard, they work hard, they play hard, they drink hard, they nap hard. they don’t do anything halfway. So they’re a very fun, very lively, vibrant people.”

“I think people will come around once they start playing it in the game,” lead encounter designher Scott Mercer told GameInformer.

“You’ve seen in the demo that they’re so charismatic. Playing a monk is amazing. Pandaria is gorgeous. I think it’s just a matter of time for some people.

“They have preconceived notions about how cool pandas can be. But Blizzard pandas are awesome, so I’m not worried about that.”

Check out our full report on the news and announcements from Blizzcon’s opening ceremony, and the expansion announce trailer below.

The new pack will mainly focus on the oncoming war between the Alliance and the Horde, according to Blizzard VP Chris Metzen, with the Pandarens the key to the conflict.

They will also be the brand new race within the game, alongside its home of Pandaria. A Monk class will also be introduced in the expansion.

Also included will be Challenge mode dungeons, PVE scenarios, pet battle system, a new talent system and a level cap increase to 90.

“Players have been asking to see the Pandaren in World of Warcraft since the game’s launch, and we’re excited to finally be able to give them a proper re-introduction to Azeroth,” said Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime.

“In addition to the new playable race and class, Mists of Pandaria contains a huge amount of new content, and we’re looking forward to sharing more information about all of it at BlizzCon and beyond.”

There’s currently no date as yet. It will be playable on the Blizzcon showfloor, though.

Morhaime also introduced WoW Annual Pass at the beginning of the conference. When you buy a pass, you’ll get with it a 12 month subscription to World of Warcraft, as well as access to the Pandaria beta and a Tyrael’s Charger mount.

Pass owners will also get a copy of Diablo III for free.

You can pick up the Annual Pass from the WoW website today, but fair warning: the website is getting hammered right now following the announcements.

The official announcement video for Mists of Pandaria is posted below, along with enough screenshots and artwork to do you a lifetime. Enjoy.

Diablo III: Collector’s Edition, new cinematic

The big new for Diablo III, was not a release date has we’d hoped, but the announcement of a Collector’s Edition, and the fact the game free for WoW Pass players, followed by a really nice cinematic called The Black Soulstone, which is posted below.

The RPG is still on slate for an early 2012 release as announced a few weeks ago, but creative development VP Chris Metzen said that, as usual, the title will be “finished when it is finished.” Still, BlizzCon attendees will be able to play a new build of the beta on the showroom floor, as consolation.

No word on Diablo III for consoles, which was unlikely, even with Blizzard stating it was experimenting with a console version, and even even hiring for said project.

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm

Metzen showed a new cinematic for the Zerg-based Heart of the Swarm expansion for StarCraft II.  It showed how a Zerg unit that can yank Protoss walkers, and Kerrigan in “vaguely human” form. Apparently, the “girl you remember, is dead.” Bless. You can watch it below.

While an exact date for the highly anticipated pack wasn’t brought up,  the multiplayer content is playable on the showroom floor.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

For World of Warcraft, Blizzard’s openly talked in the past about doing a fourth expansion after last year’s Cataclysm, and finally announced it as Mists of Pandaria.

The name of the expansion was rumored back in August after a trademark filing from the firm was dig up. Blizzard, at the time, refused to comment on “rumors and speculation.”

A new class will be introduced for the expansion, a monk class, and the residents of Pandaria will be a key to the conflict between the Alliance and the Horde and the factions’ ongoing war.

The expansion will also include Challenge mode dungeons, PvE scenarios, a pet battle system, a new talent system with a level cap increase to 90.

Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime also introduced WoW Annual Pass at the beginning of the conference. When you buy a pass, you’ll get with it a 12 month subscription to World of Warcraft, as well as access to the Pandaria beta and a Tyrael’s Charger mount.

As mentioned above, pass subs will get Diablo III for free.

Watch the reveal video below.

Other useful WoW and Blizzard nuggets

Blizzard president, Mike Morhaime opened the ceremony with news that WoW patch 4.3 is currently on test realms, and it is the biggest content update for Cataclysm yet, and contains the “most epic raid content the game world has ever seen.”

Rogues will also be getting a legendary in 4.3 -which was met with both applause and many a “boo” from the audience. Likely from those who like to beat up on Rogues.

Morhaime said that for the first time ever, every WoW player in the world is playing the same version of the game which has not happened since Burning Crusade, and once WoW launches in Brazil, Portuguese will be the game’s 10th available language.

According to Morhaime, over 60,000 people from 130 countries bought a virtual ticket for BlizzCon, and the actual show this year has 26,000 attendees.

Not a word was mentioned regarding firm’s new MMO Titan, but we didn’t expect it, really.

DotA was shown briefly through a video, showing the various heroes that will be in the game. It is apparently, “coming soon,” according to Blizzard. It will also be shown on the floor at the event.

Nathan’s liveblog from Anaheim is below.

[Original story by Johnny Cullen, contributions by Stephany Nunneley, liveblog by Nathan Grayson]

Blizzard has struggled for years to curb the effects of gold farmers on its in-game economies, and this new measure may represent a new attempt to cut down on illegal gold purchasers.

The new pet, a cosmetic pet called the Guardian Cub can be purchased for $10, and since the items doesn’t bind to your account like most pets, it can then be sold on the auction house in your realm.

As of now, it doesn’t seem like a mistake either. Blizzard seems to be alright with this new measure. Right now it seems like a way to cut down on gold farming as well as help players without extra cash get some cool pets.

This is what Blizzard had to say about the situation, “since the introduction of the Pet Store, many players have been asking for ways to get the companions we offer there without having to spend real-world cash. By making the Guardian Cub tradable (much like the BoE mounts from the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game), players interested in the new pet will have fun, alternative in-game ways to get one. In addition to trading the pet, players can give the Guardian Cub as a gift to another character for a special occasion; guild leaders can use them to reward members for a job well done; and so on. We also hope this change will help reduce the number of incidents of scamming via trading for invalid pet codes.”

Hopefully the going rate for these pets wont get too high, as that could represent a tilt towards a pay-to-win strategy.

Thanks, Rock, Paper, Shotgun!

Four of these are two expansion packs for World of Warcraft with Heart of the Swarm, and Legacy of the Void slated for Starcraft II. The Heart of the Swarm back is on schedule for a mid-2012 release.

The other two releases, rounding out the six, are for Diablo III, which Tippl expects to not see a release during this calender year, despite Blizzard’s hoped. Tippl also expects an expansion for the RPG to be released before the end of 2014.

Tippl never mentioned Blizzard’s Titan MMO currently in the works, but a supposed leaked schedule from the firm last winter put it down for a fall 2013 release.

Thanks, Gamespot.

WoW subs finally reached 12 million earlier this year after the release of Cataclysm last December, but the number shrunk by 900k, with the base at 11.1 million as of last quarter, although Blizzard had said it had seen a significant increase following the launch of the F2P Starter Pack.

Despite that, Ryder still remains optimistic of growth, with Blizzard launching the game in Brazil later this year and the Chinese launch of Cataclysm this past summer in July.

“We are launching in Brazil this year and we have great expectations for that. The numbers you might be looking at from the end of the last quarter, that was before Cataclysm launched in China. That is a big part of our business going forward,” he told MCV.

“We also changed the trial mechanism for World of Warcraft, so people trying it can now play in an unlimited way up to level 20. In the past it was time-based. Our data shows when people get to level 20 they’re more likely to stay on, as they have got over that initial learning curve. That will help us build and sustain our player base.”