Well, this news is about to break one of my best friends’ hearts. Activision Blizzard has just canceled BlizzCon. So don’t go saving up for your tickets or organizing a meetup, because BlizzCon 2012 isn’t happening. World of Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo fans throughout the country are crying out in grief. Okay, now that you’ve more »

Most World of Warcraft players are dedicated to the game, and Activision Blizzard realized that. That’s why there will now be a 12-month annual pass, which will allow people to commit to a one year subscription and pay either all at once or in installments. To make that offer more enticing, Activision Blizzard is preparing some incentives to get people with registered versions of WoW to subscribe.

The biggest deal is Diablo III…

Blizzard has something interesting planned for World of Warcraft, in the form of a new kind of pet. A pet which can be bought with real cash, and then sold for in-game gold. Isn’t that intriguing. The critter is called a Guardian Cub, and he’s that cute little purple, winged, lion in the screenshot above. For $10, he’s different than any other pet to come before him, since you can trade or gift him away…

The wait for Diablo III has just gotten a little longer. That late 2011 release date was a bit optimistic it seems, as Blizzard has now released a revised release window. Now, you’ll have to wait for action RPG dungeon crawling until sometime in 2012. The first few months of 2012, if we’re lucky.

While this is pretty much bad news all around, but if you want to look on the bright side, you can think of this as giving you more of a chance to get picked to participate in the Diablo III closed beta….

So, how’s that always online DRM working for you? I hope you’ve found a way to make peace with it, because it isn’t going away. The latest game to adopt it is the Windows and Mac action RPG, Diablo III. Et tu Activision Blizzard…

Players of a variety of games have used auction houses as a way to purchase items, armor and weapons that they haven’t been able to earn through their normal activities. It’s a good way for the sellers to earn extra in-game currency. When Diablo 3 is released, it will feature auction houses that allow players to exchange goods for real money.

Today Activision released its financial results for the first quarter of 2011 which ended on March 31, 2011. Unsurprisingly, Activision has had another successful quarter. Activision made $1.4 billion in revenue in comparison to $1.3 million one year ago. Half of Activision’s revenue for this quarter came from digital content. Money brought in from digital content increased by $100 million. Call of Duty: Black Ops has a lot to do with that success.

Think you know what’s going to happen at this year’s E3? Well, so do we. Now let’s see whether or not we agree…

Blizzard has gone all out with it’s April 1, 2011 pranks today. If you’ve got access to the internet, then you have got to visit the special Diablo III, StarCraft: Motion Overdrive and World of Warcraft websites it has put up today. Even if you don’t play the games, you’ll still appreciate the efforts the company went to in an attempt to make people smile.

Let’s go in order. First, there’s the Diablo III Horadic Cube App…

Director Ben Gonyo does a decent job exploring MMORPGs from different angles as he interviews players, psychologists, developers, ex-addicts, and convention attendees. At the same time however, I felt that this documentary was made several years too late.