A new client has been released for the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta, which "includes new features that allow you to stream game data while you play. This will reduce the time you spend downloading and patching World of Warcraft once installed."

Shacknews has asked Blizzard for clarification on what this means for the end-user, though it sounds like it will let Blizzard stream changes and minor patches in the background, reducing the frequency of patches. Read more »

Blizzard has published a set of answers to some frequently asked questions in regards to the company's Real ID system, Facebook integration, and privacy concerns.

Many of the community's concerns are addressed here, but it is clear that Blizzard is moving forward with its plan to turn Battle.net into a social gaming network in some capacity. The company stresses that much of this information is subject to change as development on Battle.net and its games continues. Read more »

After 3 days and a ridiculous amount of negative feedback, Blizzard has scrapped plans for forcing official Battle.net forum contributers to do so under their real names.

Today, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime announced the abandonment on the World of Warcraft forums saying that Blizzard has "decided at this time that real names will not be required for posting on official Blizzard forums." Read more »

Harvard student and former online security consultant Oliver Day speculates that South Korean law could be an influencing factor in Blizzard's new policy to display on its official forums going forward.

Day's blog post (via Kotaku) brings up South Korea's Real Name System, which is a law "insisting that all users who comment on sites with greater than 100,000 users per day must use their real name." Read more »

Blizzard Entertainment will be making a major change to its forums, with the largest change being "anyone posting or replying to a post on official Blizzard forums will be doing so using their Real ID -- that is, their real-life first and last name."

"These changes will go into effect on all StarCraft II forums with the launch of the new community site prior to the July 27 release of the game," reads an official posting by Blizzard. "with the World of Warcraft site and forums following suit near the launch of Cataclysm. Certain classic forums, including the classic Battle.net forums, will remain unchanged." Read more »

Check your inboxes and Battle.net accounts, World of Warcraft players. The closed beta test for the next expansion to Blizzard's ultra-mega-super-popular MMORPG has begun with invites going out to "a wide range of players from around the world."

Our focus with Cataclysm has been to build on the knowledge we've gained through the previous expansions to deliver the best, most compelling World of Warcraft content for our players to date," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "Gathering focused feedback during the beta test will go a long way in helping us reach that goal when we launch Cataclysm later this year." Read more »

Recently, I took a trip to Blizzard's offices to get a look at the latest build of World of WarCraft: Cataclysm, currently in a closed alpha test for "friends and family". While much of the endgame raid content remains a mystery to me (now I know what non-StarCraft playing journalists feel like when Dustin Browder is explaining Ghost spell kits), I did get to play levels 1-4 of both new races: the Worgen (Alliance) and Goblins (Horde).

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Blizzard has begun doling out more details on the various changes coming to World of Warcraft's ten classes across the Cataclysm expansion due later this year.

The detailed breakdown encompasses the new abilities, mechanics and such of the Shaman, Priest, Warlock, Warrior, Death Knight, Rogue, Hunter, Druid, Mage, Paladin, joining the earlier details on the MMO's revamped stat and system changes. Read more »

In a post to the World of WarCraft forums (spotted by Shacker das_runt), Blizzard's Eyonix detailed massive stat and system changes coming to World of WarCraft, saying that the company will "roll out these changes and modify all existing gear shortly before Cataclysm launches, though it' still too early to say exactly when."

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Blizzard expects the third expansion pack for its massively multiplayer sensation World of Warcraft to arrive in the "back half of 2010," according to CEO Mike Morhaime.

Speaking to investors during an Activision Blizzard conference call, Morhaime added that the game has a "global subscribership of approximately 11.5M subscribers." Read more »

Publisher Activision Blizzard today confirmed that, as expected, it plans to unleash a deluge of fresh entries in its popular franchises by the end of calendar year 2010, including new Call of Duty, Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero and Spider-Man games.

In addition, the company reaffirmed that Blizzard's anticipated sequel StarCraft II and World of Warcraft expansion Cataclysm are slated to arrive sometime during the year. Read more »

Following up on word that Blizzard's Diablo III won't arrive in 2010, studio design VP Rob Pardo has admitted that the delay-heavy studio behind World of Warcraft and StarCraft has "always announced all of our games too early."

"We realize that and go, 'You know what? Next time we're not going to do that,'" he explained to Techland, as noticed by Big Download. "And then we always fail at that. But I'd rather fail at that than fail at making the game great." Read more »

A handful of new World of Warcraft: Cataclysm screenshots show the oceanic realm of Abyssal Maw, ruled by Neptulon the Tidehunter in Blizzard's MMORPG expansion.

Announced this year at Blizzcon and hitting in 2010, Cataclysm will bring new Goblin and Worgen player races, a higher level cap of 85, an archeology secondary profession, and a revamped Azeroth with flying mount support, plus of course new areas and raids.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm footage fresh from BlizzCon reveals how many of the MMORPG's zones will be changed with its expansion's titular upheaval, as well as touring the starting areas for Cataclysm's new races, the Goblins and Worgen.

Fresh off the BlizzCon 2009 asset disc, here's another batch of screenshots from Blizzard's just-revealed World of Warcraft expansion Cataclysm, due in 2010.

For more on the expansion, check out the reveal trailer and the initial details, and be sure to stick around for more on the additions and changes as BlizzCon 2009 continues.