Pro basketball players are looking for other means of income during the NBA lockout. Several are making deals to play overseas. Utah Jazz forward Gordon Hayward is going pro in a different game, StarCraft II Hayward has joined the IGN Pro League and will play in the IPL Origins event in Atlantic City Oct. 6-9. He will also serve as a spokesperson for the event. Hayward’s already paying dividends in that department. CBS Sports and Yahoo are among the news outlets that have picked up the story.

Online cheaters, will you never change your evil ways?

Blizzard announced deploying the BanHammer (or BanLaser, as Blizzard calls it) on an undisclosed amount of Battle.net users for StarCraft II infractions. Blizzard’s announcement reminds those who cheat and hack that it’s not only dishonest but can cause stability problems for the entire network. The StarCraft end user license agreement allows Blizzard to permanently ban anyone caught cheating.

Diablo, StarCraft and World of Warcraft better save the dates October 21-22, 2011. Blizzard’s going to be holding the sixth ever Blizzcon then. Of course, saving the date won’t do much good if you can’t get tickets. Since the ticket sale date hasn’t been announced yet, it doesn’t hurt to circle those dates on your calendar.

As usual, Blizzcon 2011 will be held in Anaheim, California at the Anaheim Convention Centre…

As a marketing strategy, many big-time game companies rely on the element of surprise when it comes to announcing a new product. They may release a few hints here and there, perhaps a mysterious screenshot or an announcement about an upcoming trailer. Blizzard thrives in such an environment. Consider the pandemonium that arose when they announced StarCraft 2 at Blizzard’s Worldwide Invitational event in South Korea back in 2007. Unfortunately, Blizzard may have just lost this edge when its supposed product schedule for the next five years has been leaked.

With 2010 coming to a close in a few weeks, many people are shopping for a 2011 calendar to write down doctor’s appointments, birthdays, vacations, and other important events throughout the year. But instead of getting yet another yawn-inducing calendar that features pictures of the seasons, landscapes, or animals, why not geek out a bit and get one with a video game theme?

StarCraft II is the biggest real-time strategy game of the year. It’s also the fastest selling RTS game ever made. However, StarCraft II isn’t without its troubles. Being developed for the PC left the game wide open to piracy. Blizzard has done a good job keeping pirates, along with thousands of hackers and cheaters at bay. But Blizzard can’t safeguard StarCraft II from everyone. StarCraft II has managed to set a record for most data transferred on BitTorrent.

Activision Blizzard had an impressive third quarter which ended on September 30, 2010. The company exceeded its goals and brought in a very impressive $745 million in net revenue. This is compared to a net revenue of $600 million in the previous year. Activision Blizzard credits its excessive revenues to StarCraft II, World of Warcraft and the Call of Duty franchise. Activision Blizzard expects to earn $1.26 billion by the end of the fourth quarter.

There are some sweet StarCraft II peripherals coming down the pipeline. They may be of interest to you if haven’t been suspended or banned by now. Razer has three StarCraft II inspired accessories that are as cool as they are costly.

Blizzard has been keeping a sharp eye on individuals who try to undermine StarCraft II’s online security. After a fresh banning of 5,000 online cheaters, Blizzard explained how it differentiates between suspensions and bans. The pain train doesn’t end there. Blizzard is actively seeking legal action against those who gave the public the means to cheat in StarCraft II.

Earlier this month, Blizzard went pulled out the banhammer in full force. Over 5,000 StarCraft II players were banned after they were discovered to be using hacks and modifications. Blizzard is very serious about keeping StarCraft II as fair as possible. We don’t understand why cheaters think Blizzard can’t track their every move when they’re connected to Blizzard’s servers. However Blizzard is not banning everyone for not playing fair. Some players are only getting suspensions.