In preparation for the December 7 release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, Blizzard has patched all versions of the game up to 4.0.3a which has shattered the world of Azeroth.

Those that do buy the expansion will get two new playable races and new content for five additional levels from 81-85, but all World of Warcraft players will get to experience tons of new content in the old zones. Read more »

Blizzard will be deploying a massive World of Warcraft patch this week, which will bring new class mechanics and the talent tree overhaul to the live game in preparation for the December 7 release of Cataclysm (via MMO Champion).

Talent trees will likely be refunded as they shift from 71-point system to a 41-point system. The game will now only allow progress down a single tree until the 31st point is placed in a single tree and the number of talents has been drastically reduced. The Glyphs system will also get an overhaul. Read more »

Having stalled at around 11.5 million "subscribers" for a fair while, World of Warcraft has finally received a bump and passed the 12 million mark, developer Blizzard Entertainment announced today.

Blizzard declared in December 2008 that its fantasy MMORPG reached 11.5 million subscribers following the launch of its second expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King. However, it stalled around then and by February 2010 still only had 11.5 million. Read more »

A trio of Diablo 3 developer panels, talks on Blizzard's much-celebrated cinematics and assorted tournaments are amongst the festivities featured on the event schedule for BlizzCon 2010, revealed yesterday by Blizzard.

Naturally, you'll want to refer to the panel descriptions to see exactly what's what. Read more »

The World of Warcraft auction house is now viewable outside Blizzard's MMORPG via the Armory website and iPhone App, which will also allow players to bid on, create and manage auctions if they pay a $2.99 monthly subscription.

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It's a double patch day in Blizzard land as not only is Diablo 2 Patch 1.13 due today but World of Warcraft Patch 3.3.3 has already arrived, available now in US/Aus, UK and German, Russian and Mexican flavours on our fabulous FileShack.

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The promised "Fall of the Lich King" is upon us, as Blizzard has updated World of Warcraft to v3.3.2--bringing a new raid and various tweaks to the PC MMO--with the US / Australia, UK, French and German patches now on FileShack.

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It's once again patch day in Azeroth as World of Warcraft version 3.3.0 hits the realms, available in manual update form from FileShack in US/Aus, UK, French and German flavours for your patching pleasure.

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Blizzard today launched a new service that allows World of Warcraft players to change the race of their characters.

The racial swap will cost players $25, and can only be performed on an inter-faction basis. In other words, you can't resurrect your undead dude into a human. Read more »

Robert Rodat, best known as the screenwriter of Saving Private Ryan and The Patriot, will now try his hand at adapting World of Warcraft for the big screen.

Warcraft film director Sam Raimi revealed that Rodat will handle the writing duties in a recent interview with MTV News. Read more »

No longer will the choice between Horde and Alliance be so daunting, as Blizzard today launched a service to let World of Warcraft players change their character's faction.

"Each Faction Change costs $30.00 USD (not including applicable taxes)," the company explained in an FAQ. This covers a single Faction Change for a single character." Read more »

Several sources "close to the situation" have told WoW.com that the next World of Warcraft expansion will diversify the game's population with two new playable races.

The expansion--rumored to be dubbed "Cataclysm"--will add the Goblin race to the Horde side, with the Alliance gaining the werewolf-like Worgen race, according to the report. Read more »

World of Warcraft has netted 8.6 million sales across its various releases, expansion packs and bundles from US retail, according to NPD data provided to Gamasutra.

The figure includes the base edition of World of Warcraft, the Collector's Edition, its two expansions The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, and Battle Chest bundle. Read more »

Blizzard is preparing "a new service" that will allow World of Warcraft players to change their character's faction from Alliance to Horde or vice versa, the developer has revealed.

"The basic idea is that players will be able to use the service to transform an existing character into a roughly equivalent character of the opposing faction on the same realm," the studio wrote, noting "there's still much work to do and many details to iron out." Read more »

Blizzard has revealed that the upcoming "Call of the Crusade" content patch for World of Warcraft will deliver a new player-versus-player battleground capable of supporting up to 80 combatants in the "ongoing struggle between Horde and Alliance."

Of the five battlegrounds currently in Blizzard's ultra-popular PC MMO, only one other--Alterac Valley--supports up to 80 players. The remaining four max out at 30 or below. Read more »