Yesterday at a press conference at Gamescom, Blizzard co-founder Frank Peace stated that they are far too busy with their current lineup of projects to begin work on a Stacraft MMORPG.

if there was a development team within Blizzard that was free and available to create a StarCraft MMO and that was something they were really passionate about then we would certainly consider it.

But right now, as you can see based on the presentations these guys did tonight, we’ve got our hands full with everything we’re doing. So we don’t really have any plans to do anything beyond the StarCraft RTSes and the expansions right now.

But anything’s possible, because we have created such rich and cool universes,

Quite honestly that’s a horrible excuse.  Blizzard could obviously just hire some more people with the billions they’re making.

But, lets take look at what Blizzards current projects are and what the developers are working on.

1. World of Warcraft – This is basically an on going project with no end in sight and I would highly doubt at this point it would have any effect on any upcoming projects in regards to freeing up developers.
2. Diablo 3 – The rumored launch is late 2011 or early 2012, so this should free up some resources after the launch, even if they do begin working on an expansion right away.
3. StarCraft 2 – Sure they have 2 sequels on the way, but the game is already launched.  All the really big pieces are done, so making 2 more expansions is not taking up major resources imo.
4. Warcraft 4? – With SC2 just released last year and two more SC2 expansions on the way, I would highly doubt Blizzard is working on WC4.
5. Unamed Titan MMO – OK, this is a big project which can take up a lot of resources. I’ll give him this one.

So basically once D3 launches, Blizzard will only really have one major project left. You could argue the expansions for D3 and SC2 take up some dev resources, but I’m sure those teams are a lot smaller post launch.

I think Blizzard will definitely make a Starcraft MMO eventually, it would just be stupid not to.

Source: Eurogamer

Blizzard and World of Warcraft lost 300k subscribers in the second quarter of 2011, continuing its downward thread when it lost 600k in the first quarter, bringing its worldwide subscriptions number to 11.1 million. Blizzard president Michael Morhaime told Gamasutra that this is expected as it is the usual trend after the release of a major expansion, in this case Cataclysm.

“what we have seen is that subscribership tends to be seasonal and driven by content updates. So as we’re heading further away from an expansion launch, it’s normal to see some declines,”

Morhaime also stated that Blizzard is working on new content which will include a “major new raid and dungeon content” and that since the new free trial system has been released, they’ve seen a “significant increase” in WoW account creations.  Although it’s too early to determine the percentage of these new accounts be become paying subscribers.

With WoW expanding further into the international markets, Morhaime see more growth ahead.

Blizzard recently announced that it would be allowing players to buy and sell items in Diablo 3 to each other for real money. If we  categories D3 it’s basically a Free2Play online RPG and as with the hundreds of other F2P online games, it will have an item shop, the only difference is that the items are being sold by the player themselves and not the game company.

Now as I stated yesterday, I have to problem with Blizzard entering into the RMT market, I’m actually all for it, but my problem is that these companies like Blizzard and Sony are hypocrites. For years Blizzard has been stating how RMT (real-money-transaction) is evil and ruins the gameplay experience for everyone else, when what they really meant to say was, we don’t give a shit about RMT, we just don’t want other people making money off our games.

Sony jumped on the RMT ship years ago with their Exchange program (different from the Station Store), which goes further than Blizzard’s D3 program, allowing both items and entire accounts to be sold. However Sony’s listing and closing fees are so high that blackmarkets for their games still remain. Sony also picks an chooses which games have player Exchanges, currently only EQ2, FreeRealms and Vanguard have one.

So does this mean Blizzard no longer thinks RMTs ruin games? If not, then what does this mean for World of Warcraft? RMT is ok for D3, but not ok for WoW? Should players even care what Blizzard thinks about RMT at this point?

Here’s a secret, I sold two of my Diablo 2 accounts about 8-9 years ago on Ebay when they allowed virtual items. One account when I quit the first time, then a second account when I quit again. I’ve never bought any virtual items or accounts and haven’t sold anything since, but I made about $150 bucks at that time and felt my hours upon hours of game time weren’t wasted. I obviously don’t play games to make a profit, but if I can after I quit, why not?

By introducing RMT to Diabo 3, Blizzard is in fact stating that it’s not RMT they are against, only if they’re not the ones profiting. Of course from the initial fees laid out by Blizzard it looks like their system is going to be extremely expensive as Rusty pointed out to me in his comment. If Blizzard can learn anything from Sony it’s that you’re not going to kill the RMT blackmarket by price gouging your customers.

A bombshell was released today from Blizzard’s Rob Pardo, game design EVP, who revealed that Diablo 3 will have an auction system that will allow players to buy or sell their D3 gear as well as gold to other players for real money.  Blizzard would profit by having both a listing fee and closing fee once the item is sold.

Should players accept in-game currency, their payment will go toward their Battle.net e-balance, which covers auction items, WoW subscriptions, and pets. Should players decide to cash out their items, a currently-unannounced third-party payment provider will handle the transaction and take a percentage of the sale. There won’t be any limits on item trading, but there will be a 24-hour cooling period before players can resell a purchased item.

Real Money Transactions have been a controversial issue over the years, some claiming they are unfair and ruin the game, while others seem to have no problem with it. Of course they are nothing new these days, every Free2Play MMO has a RMT item show that is run by the game and SOE has been doing it for years with their Station Store, so to expand that into the player market is a logical next step for Blizzard.

I for one am all for RMT. Let not all pretend that it doesn’t already happen.  There are countless number of websites that cater to players that want to RMT, most of which are not safe and plagued by thieves and scammers. Blizzard being fully aware of this is now offering players a safe and secure marketplace for them to buy and sell their in-game items.

If fact Blizzard should take this one step further and allow entire accounts to be bought and sold in the auction house.  Of course that’s even a bigger taboo that not even Blizzard wants to tackle yet, however could be something that is added in the future once the negativity of RMT fades away from gamers minds.

While some say this will allow players with the biggest wallets an unfair advantage to those that choose not to spend any money, I say, what’s wrong with that? If you like playing the game and don’t want to spend money, why do you care that some other guy bought all his gear from someone else? How does that effect you in any way? Is it any different then if the guy that found the item kept it?

If anything, I think item stores run by the games developers that include game effecting items and gear are much worse then the proposed store for Diablo 3.  In those stores there is an unlimited amount of items available which can flood the market. In Blizzard’s case, someone still needs to obtain the item, so supply is not effected by selling it.

I congratulate Blizzard on taking this step forward and would love to see more game do the same and eventually include full game accounts.

Straight out of the “are you f#cking kidding me” file comes World Joyland, a theme park located in Changzhou, China. What makes this theme park so special is that is based off of Blizzard’s popular World of Warcraft and Starcraft intellectual properties, which by the way it’s not paying Blizzard to license.

That’s ok though because the theme park owners have an iron-clan solution to avoid being sued into the ground.  One, they’re located in China and two they named the WoW area, Terrain of Magic, while the Starcraft area is called Universe of Starship, so no one will know it’s based on WoW and Starcraft.

Legal matters aside, do they realize that the reason Disney was so successful at one point was because they made a theme park targeting kids?  What 5-8 year old is going to bug their parents to take them to a WoW or Starcraft theme park?  And if you’re not a kid and excited to go to a WoW theme park I think you might have to re-evaluate your life or at the very least stop playing WoW.

Continue below to see some of the images from World Joyland.

Continued…

Blizzard announced today that both the 2011 Global Battle.net Invitational and the 2011 Global Starcraft 2 League will be held live at this years BlizzCon in October.  The Global Battle.net Invitational features top-ranked pro players who have been invited to participate from across the world. This year, players will compete in StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment has this to say about the two competitions,

“We’re looking forward to witnessing the high level of competition between the pro gamers participating in these events alongside our attendees at BlizzCon and the viewers at home.”

For those of you who didn’t get tickets to BlizzCon, you can access the competitions at blizzcon.com for free if you have a active Battle.net account.   If you want full access to BlizzCon 2011, virtual tickets can be purchased for $39.99 at blizzcon.com as well.

Blizzard announced today that their popular Battle.net Mobile Authenticator is now available on Windows Phone 7 devices.  The mobile authenticator is already available on iPhone, Android and Blackberry mobile devices, and now is also available on Windows phones.

For those of you Win phoneusers, you can now add extra protections for your World of Warcraft accounts by downloading the free mobile authenticator for your phone.

If you can any concerns on security or just questions, just check out the official FAQ.

Yesterday Blizzard announced an update to its free trial period, changing from a 14 day free trial to unlimited up to level 20.  Is this a sign of weakness coming from the king of MMORPGs?  In shorty, yes, World of Warcraft is heading into its seven year and it’s safe to say has passed its prime.

Back in March 2011, Blizzard revealed that subscription numbers were around 11.4 million, which is down from the 12 million it announced only a few months before in Oct 2010.  The 5% drop could be related to the fact that RIFT is gaining steam or that more and more quality MMOs are switching to the free to play model. Offering an unlimited free trials could be a way for Blizzard to test the waters and systems it needs to make the switch to free to play themselves.

Blizzard already has all the tools in place to make a quick and smooth transition to F2P.  The WoW store has been live for well over a year and is already massively successful and now they have the Free2Play system in-place. They only need to flip the switch at this point.

Whether or not this will ever happen can be argued, but as the game ages and subscribers continue to decline, I think Blizzard will see F2P as a way to stabilize its player base and extend the life of World of Warcraft well into the future.

The latest content update, patch 4.2, has gone live across the lands of Azeroth and with it came an unexpected change to Blizzard’s trial offer.  The original free World of Warcraft trails were restricted to 10 and 14 days, while the new trail period, called World of Warcraft Starter Edition, will be unlimited up to level 20.

No purchase is necessary, World of Warcraft will be available as a free download for those wanting to signup to the new F2P edition.  Players that have previous trial accounts can log back into those accounts and pick up where they left off.

Players that purchase the original World of Warcraft and never updated to the Burning Crusade expansion will receive it for free.  For those completely new who do not own a copy of WoW, they can purchase both WoW and the Burning Crusade for $19.99 in the Blizzard store.

Blizzard has announced the end date for World of Warcraft PvP Season 9… sort of.  Season 9 is scheduled to end as early as June 21, however might run longer if needed.  Once the season ends, Blizzard will determine who is eligible for the end-of-season rewards which will take about a week to figure out.

At the end of the season, Conquest Points will be converted to Honor Points, possibly exceeding the 4,000 point Honor cap.  All Season 9 items will cost Honor Points (equivalent to their previous Conquest Point cost) when the season ends, with the exception of any items with rating requirements attached. These items will no longer be available for purchase.

Season 10 of Arena and Battlegrounds will begin about one week after season 9 ends for level 85 players. Season 10 rewards will be made available for purchase with Conquest Points awarded during the new season. All Team and Personal Ratings will be wiped when Season 10 begins. Matchmaking Ratings, however, will carry over into Season 10.

For those players who might receive end of the season rewards, Blizzard has stated that players should refrain from server transfers until the rewards have been given out.  For more info, check out the official Blizzard site.