Following countless complaints of World of Warcraft (WoW) user account hijacks and misuse, Blizzard has come up with a device, a security code generator that each user possesses, the device generates a six-digit security code that the user has to enter when logging on to the WoW account. The generation pattern is unique for each user's generator and this effectively eradicates account misuse, or at least attempts to. Blizzard CEO and cofounder Mike Morhaime says "It's important to us that World of Warcraft offers a safe and enjoyable game environment", he further adds that an aspect of that is helping players avoid account compromise, so they are pleased to make this additional layer of security available to them.

Once activated with Blizzard, the authenticator offers a six-digit code that must be used within 60 seconds on a gamer's WoW account. The user has to enter this number alongside username and password. Similar methods are adopted by PayPal, banks, and other financial institutions to help protect data, PayPal charges US $5 for the PayPal Security Key.

Blizzard plans to charge US $6.50 for the device but no announcements are made as to when it will be available.

With a market position resurrection in progress, AMD/ATI look to compete using a tried and tested tool for technological supremacy over its rival(s), developer-level optimizations for their games. Blizzard has been looking at implementing DirectX 10.1 with its future games. If that happens, it becomes a favorable scenario for AMD's products since Blizzard aren't habituated to making games that run best on only the most expensive hardware, but that with DirectX 10.1, they will look to implement certain DX10.1-exclusive effects, which means that even mid-range users of ATI products could enjoy the best visuals that the game has to offer, something NVIDIA and its users could miss out on.

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today revealed Diablo III, the newest entry in its critically acclaimed action role-playing-game franchise. The announcement was made during the 2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational at the Porte de Versailles Convention Centre in Paris, France. A cinematic trailer and an extended gameplay demonstration with commentary from the development team introduced the game to the thousands of players in attendance.

"We've wanted to expand on the epic story and gameplay elements of the Diablo universe for some time now," stated Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We know that players have also been long awaiting a return to the series, so we're very excited to be sharing this announcement with Blizzard gamers here in Paris and around the world today."

Word got round that Blizzard's next installment of the award winning Star Craft strategy game is due to hit retail shelves on December 3, 2008. The report is everything but official, so don't get too excited.

Many froth-mouthed fans of Blizzard's intergalactic real-time strategy masterpiece Starcraft have anxiously been awaiting word on when the next installment of the series would land in their anticipatory laps. Blizz has been characteristically tight-lipped about the title's launch window, though we were recently informed that an online SKU search for Starcraft II on Best Buy, Circuit City, and Gamestop's web sites reveal the same supposed release date of December 3, 2008. With no confirmation from Blizzard, it's far from official

Blizzard today unveiled a new zerg unit, that will take place in the next StarCraft strategy game. Meet the baneling:

The baneling is a creature so bloated with fluid-filled sacs that it can barely walk; instead, it moves itself by tucking into a tight ball and rolling. However, this ungainly appearance belies the fact that the baneling is an extremely dangerous organism, one of several new zerg specialists recently seen on the battlefield. When a baneling gets close enough to an enemy, the creature triggers a reaction within its volatile chemical payload that causes it to explode with devastating force and shower the immediate surroundings with searing acid.

Blizzard has also added seven new in-game screenshots.

In an interview about next expansion of WoW called Wrath of the Lich King, World of Warcraft producer J. Allen Brack said that the game will "probably" undergo a complete graphical upgrade in the future. "Will we need a graphical update from the ground up at some point? Yep, probably," he said. "That's actually something we talk about every expansion," he added. "I'm positive we'll talk about it next expansion."
"A lot of people continued to play with the original client, because it was faster, or they preferred it, or were just used to it or whatever," he said. "And so for me as a game developer, the idea that we would spend so much time and energy on something and have people go, 'meh, that's not really for me,' that's not very exciting."

Blizzard Entertainment today announced plans for its third BlizzCon gaming convention, to be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on October 10 and 11. BlizzCon is a celebration of the global player communities surrounding Blizzard Entertainment's Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo franchises. In response to the demand to accommodate more attendees, this year's event has expanded from two convention halls to three.

Blizzard is suing Michael Donnelly, the creator of the MMO Glider program, which performs key tasks in the game automatically, such as fighting and other game actions. Both sides have submitted legal summaries to the US District Court in Arizona. Blizzard says Glide is a software bot which infringes the company's copyright and potentially damages the game. In its legal submission to the court last week, the firm said: "Blizzard's designs expectations are frustrated, and resources are allocated unevenly, when bots are introduced into the WoW universe, because bots spend far more time in-game than an ordinary player would and consume resources the entire time." Blizzard argued that Michael Donnelly's tool also infringed the End User License Agreement that all parties have to adhere to when playing the game. As result Blizzard wants Michael Donnelly to stop selling Glider and return all profits that he made from its sales. More than 100,000 copies of the tool have been sold for the time being. Mr Donnelly says his tool does not infringe Blizzard's copyright because no "copy" of the Warcraft game client software is ever made. The two parties are now awaiting a summary judgement in the case.

Blizzard Entertainment has now released the long awaited 2.4.0 patch to their MMO World of Warcraft. The patch adds a new area to explore (the Sunwell Isle) with new quests, raids and dungeons along with support for a new global arena tournament and new UI improvements. You can download the patch via the game's auto-updater or manually via sites like FileShack. The full patch notes can be found here.

World of Warcraft is not known as the most friendly game with the real world. With over 10 million subscribers worldwide, World of Warcraft is the bane of gamers everywhere who want to do something out in the real world. Case in point: a former female Blizzard employee gave her husband a copy of World of Warcraft in Christmas 2004. World of Warcraft basically wrecked the man.

He would get home from work at 6:00, start playing at 6:30, and he'd play until three a.m. Weekends were worse - it was from morning straight through until the middle of the night. It took away all of our time that we spent together. I ceased to exist in his life.

Six years of marriage went down the drain, things like personal hygiene, bills, and even romance took second-stage to his World of Warcraft addiction. The poor woman eventually filed for divorce, citing World of Warcraft as the reason. Since the divorce, the woman cut back on the time she spent playing WoW. The man, however, still plays "religiously".

Blizzard Entertainment today announced plans to launch a new type of tournament competition using the Arena system in World of Warcraft, its popular subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The tournaments will take place on special realms that allow competitors to instantly create level-70 characters with epic equipment, placing the focus on tactics and execution rather than normal adventuring.

World of Warcraft's community continues to grow, recently hitting a new high of 10 million subscribers around the world. Interest in the award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) has remained high in all regions, with thousands of new and returning players signing up through the holiday season. World of Warcraft now hosts more than 2 million subscribers in Europe, more than 2.5 million in North America, and approximately 5.5 million in Asia. "It's very gratifying to see gamers around the world continuing to show such enthusiasm and support for World of Warcraft," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We're always pleased to welcome new players to the game, and we're looking forward to sharing the next major content update with the entire community in the months ahead." Since debuting in North America on November 23, 2004, World of Warcraft has become the most popular MMORPG around the world. It was the bestselling PC game of 2005 and 2006 worldwide, and finished behind only World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, the first expansion pack for the game, in 2007. In addition to being the bestselling PC game of 2007 in both North America and Europe, The Burning Crusade holds the record for fastest-selling PC game of all time, with nearly 2.4 million copies sold in its first 24 hours of availability and approximately 3.5 million in its first month.

Blizzard has issued a new World of Warcraft US/AUS patch, updating version 2.3.2 of the game to version 2.3.3. The 4.3MB update offers improved load times and more bug fixes. Click here to download it manually.

According to this press release, the France-based Vivendi has secured a $5.13 billion loan to help in part with its upcoming Vivendi Games merger deal with Activision to form Activision Blizzard. Part of the loan will also help Vivendi with another financial deal unrelated to the Activision merger.

The first BlizzCast episode is now online through Blizzard's website. In each episode favorite Blizzard developers and staff members will be inteviewed, giving you a glimpse of what it's like from their perspective to make the games you love. The first BlizzCast series, begins with Samwise Didier, Art Director and concept artist for many of the popular Blizzard icons, such as the Pandaren, Fel Orcs, Dark Templars, Zerglings, and many more. During the 21 minutes long interview you'll learn how he came up with the characters he did, as well as what it is like to work on both the Warcraft and StarCraft franchises. Check out the new BlizzCast page.

Blizard Entertainment has released new artwork and screenshots from the StarCraft 2 RTS game for your viewing pleasure. Blizzard also unveiled a "new" terrain unit, the Cucio Siege Tank. You can find more information about the armored vehicle here. I'll upload just a few screenshots in the news body, just to give you an idea, while the full list can be viewed on Blizzard's StarCraft 2 web page.

The upcoming World of Wacraft expansion (Wrath of the Lich King) will feature a large area dedicated to PvP (Player vs. Player) battles, Blizzard has revealed. A "cool part of Northrend is new big PvP zone. It's about the size of Westfall, and will be all-PvP - in no way, shape or form will we support PvE [Player vs Environment] players in it", the developer's Jeff Kaplan has told PC Zone. He continued, "It'll be optional, but it'll be completely non-instanced, have multiple objectives, siege weapons and destructible buildings". In the interview, Kaplan went on to promise that WoW adventurers will be pleasantly surprised when they first enter the new continent of Northrend. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is expected to launch this year, though Blizzard has yet to confirm when.

After lots of denial, it seems as though a Blizzard community representative has confirmed that the mega-developer is working on a new massively multiplayer online game. The revelation came quite unexpectedly in a World of Warcraft forum post (via Wired) questioning Blizzard job listings looking for character and environment artists for a "Next-Gen MMO" marked "Top Secret." After two pages of speculation from forum goers, including many writing it off as probably just another World of Warcraft expansion, Blizzard community rep Drysc gave this response: No, it is an unannounced Next-Gen MMO. And that doesn't mean an expansion for World of Warcraft either." As could be expected, things exploded after that. Blizzard remains tight-lipped, and to be fair whatever this project is probably won't see store shelves for years yet, so they have no reason to rush into talking about it.

Korean online games developer Gravity has opened a new US studio staffed by former World of Warcraft and Diablo developers from Blizzard North. The new team - L5 Games - will focus on creating online titles for the growing Western market, backed by the veteran Ragnarok Online developer. "We are happy to announce that former employees of Blizzard North have joined L5 Games as members of the Gravity family," commented Il-Young Ryu, CEO of Gravity. "We intend to develop online games targeting the North American market, one of the fastest growing online gaming markets, with the outstanding developers of L5 Games who have a successful track record and thorough understanding of the culture of the North American market," he added.

The recent merger of Activision Blizzard seems to have slowed down neither. While Blizzard announced yesterday that the only thing changing on their side of things was ownership, Activision announced that they're going to immediately begin (or continue) work on new games. Activision is proud to announce that they're hard at work on quite a few games, including "Guitar Hero IV, Call of Duty 5, James Bond, new Tony Hawk, new DreamWorks titles, new Marvel titles and (an) entry into racing with Bizarre." Thanks to the experts at Blizzard, we may see some great games coming from Activision in the future.

Blizzard Entertainment has posted a frequently asked questions document on its web site in which it sends out one clear message: It's business as usual. Many of the questions relate to whether or not the merger between Vivendi Games and Activision would impact the company or its games, and according to the FAQ even the company's brand will remain the same to consumers.

We do not anticipate any difference in Blizzard's operations as a result of the combination. Joining forces with Activision will create a stronger and more diversified company that we anticipate will benefit and strengthen both brands.

Additionally the document stated that no management or office changes are expected, and its game release schedule would remain unaffected.

Activision and Vivendi today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement to combine Vivendi Games, Vivendi's interactive entertainment business - which includes Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft, the world's #1 multi-player online role-playing game franchise - with Activision, creating the world's largest pure-play online and console game publisher. The new company, Activision Blizzard, is expected to have approximately $3.8 billion in pro forma combined calendar 2007 revenues and the highest operating margins of any major third-party video game publisher. On closing of the transaction, Activision will be renamed Activision Blizzard and will continue to operate as a public company traded on NASDAQ under the ticker ATVI.

The Vice President of Blizzard, the esteemed creator of such popular games as World of Warcraft and Starcraft, recently divulged some information about Starcraft 2. The already famous sequel to Starcraft has already seen a multiplayer beta at BlizzCon, and has supposedly been in development since Summer 2003. The Vice President divulged in a forum post that Blizzard was putting plenty of focus on the development of Starcraft 2. Considering how long the game has been in development, as well as the amount of attention Starcraft 2 is receiving inside Blizzard, public betas and demos for Starcraft 2 may be "just around the bend".

The World of Warcraft Battle Chest, a complete collection of World of Warcraft and The Burning Crusade expansion, is now available at retailers throughout North America for $39.99. In addition to the two complete games on DVD, the World of Warcraft Battle Chest also includes two Battle Chest Guides from BradyGames to aid you (or a friend) in the quest to level 70. Get the World of Warcraft Battle Chest at the Blizzard Online Store or a retailer near you.

Blizzard has revealed details of the first Hero class in World of Warcraft, the Death Knight. They've emerged in an official chit chat with designers working on WOW's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, which will introduce the new class. The Death Knight is a tank hybrid created to offer an alternative to the Warrior when building a group. Blizzard felt this role was essential in almost every scenario, so an extra class here was needed. Specifically, Death Knights will focus more on attack than defence - but come equipped with taunting abilities so that they can maintain the attention of monsters trying to kill the rest of the group. Death Knights will also rely on a new rune system resource to power their attacks and spells, one separate to the existing mana, energy, and rage bars. But details on how exactly this will work are yet to be announced. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King was announced at the Leipzig Games Convention earlier in the year. It will up the level cap to 80, add a new Northrend continent, introduce the Inscription profession, use siege warfare to tear down buildings, give you more character customisation options, plus oodles of new dungeons, quests and items. Head over to the official World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King site to find out more.