Warcraft and StarCraft developer Blizzard has begun offering direct downloads of select PC titles via a new portion of its online store.

At present, the store's digital download section only contains three listings: the StarCraft Anthology, Warcraft III, and the WarCraft III Frozen Throne expansion. They mark the first digitally distributed releases of any Blizzard game, apart from World of Warcraft.

Furthermore, owners of certain Blizzard efforts can now register their CD keys on the site to add the titles to their Blizzard Account and download them for free at any time, though Diablo II-related downloads are not yet ready.

A new beta lottery program is also available, allowing registered users to be automatically entered into a drawing for beta access. However, no public betas are known to be underway.

At present, the company is known to be working on StarCraft II as well as a title only referred to as "an unannounced Next-Gen MMO," which some speculate to be a new Diablo game.

A list of PC titles that can be registered and downloaded from the Blizzard Store follows, as well as a description of the beta lottery.... Read more

Developer Blizzard Entertainment has acquired the Diablo3.com domain name from a Diablo fan community web site, but suggested that the acquisition is not a hint of a forthcoming announcement for a new Diablo title.

The website had been running a countdown timer on its front page over the last several days, leading many to speculate that the site was set to break news of a new title in Blizzard's beloved hack-and-slash PC RPG series. The site's webmaster said that Blizzard denied any connection between the domain acquisition and a new Diablo game.

"[W]hile Blizzard is indeed acquiring the diablo3.com domain name, they told me that this shouldn't be considered an announcement for the Diablo 3 game we've been waiting for all these years," the webmaster wrote in an update. "While this is true, I personally can't help but think that this is a confirmation of sorts that they're working on the next Diablo game."

The Diablo3.com domain name now redirects to DiabloFans.com, the new home of the Diablo community website, to aid in the transition of the domain.

In celebration of April Fools' Day, esteemed developer Blizzard Entertainment has posted a number of well-intentioned pranks on its official website.

Chief among today's jokes was word that the company's highly successful PC MMO World of Warcraft will hit Atari 2600 in the form of World of Warcraft: The Molten Core. The collector's edition is said to pack tinted cellophane TV overlays, among other extras.

Another post teased the addition of Warcraft's Tauren race to the upcoming sci-fi RTS sequel StarCraft II, complete with screenshots and artwork.

Blizzard then jested it would be adding a Guitar Hero-esque Bard Hero class to the forthcoming World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King, before rounding out the festivities with its plans to sell a child-endangering Diablo-branded loot pinata.

Blizzard is now claiming that World of Warcraft bot author Michael Donnelly has made $2.8 million by selling his controversial Glider software, according to recent motions filed in court and mirrored on GamePolitics.

Donnelly, the author of popular World of Warcraft bot Glider--a downloadable tool that automatically plays the massively multiplayer game for users--was sued by Blizzard in February of 2007.

Both sides have since been locked in a legal battle, with Blizzard claiming that Donnelly knowingly infringed on its copyright, in addition to breaking World of Warcraft's End User License Agreement.

"Blizzard's designs expectations are frustrated, and resources are allocated unevenly, when bots are introduced into the WoW universe, because bots spend far more time in-game than an ordinary player would and consume resources the entire time," said Blizzard in a legal statement filed last week.

Donnelly claims that his program does not violate Blizzard's copyright because it never makes a true copy of the game client.

"Blizzard permits its licensees to load the WoW game client software into RAM to play WoW. As such, Blizzard‘s licensees cannot violate Blizzard‘s exclusive... Read more

Tickets for Blizzard Entertainment's 2008 Worldwide Invitational will go on sale March 20, the company announced today. Priced at 70 euros / £55 (roughly $110), the two-day tickets will be available from the event's official site.

Taking place in Paris, France on June 28 and 29, the event will feature invite-only tournaments for StarCraft, Warcraft III and World of Warcraft, along with panel discussions of various Blizzard products and the latest playable versions of StarCraft II and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.

Though the company unveiled StarCraft II at last year's Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, South Korea, that news marked the only major announcement to come out of the event's three-year history. The studio is known to have at least one unannounced title in development.

"The previous Blizzard Worldwide Invitationals have provided great opportunities for us to meet with players and share some incredible gaming experiences with them," said Blizzard CEO and cofounder Mike Morhaime. "We're looking forward to bringing this event to Paris for the first time and offering an exciting show for everyone attending."

UK bank Halifax and its subsidiary Bank of Scotland are blocking credit card transactions that pay for World of Warcraft subscriptions, The Register reports.

According to Halifax, a large number of payments have been fraudulent, leading to this ban. "We do not believe the fraud is anything to do with Blizzard themselves, their sites or the integrity of their billing systems, rather it is site users utilising stolen credit card details to pay for subscriptions" said the bank in a statement.

Legitimate subscribers will have to contact the bank to continue paying for their subscription with a Halifax-issued credit card.

Halifax is believed to be the only bank with a World of Warcraft subscription payment ban.

Blizzard Entertainment will be sponsoring a worldwide tournament for its insanely popular PC MMO World of Warcraft, the company revealed today.

Set to begin in in April, the tournament will have players competing in three-on-three arena matches within a specialized realm that allows players to instantly create a level-70 character equipped with epic items.

It will start with two six-week rounds of online qualifiers in Europe, South Korea, North America, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. Each round will require players to pay an entrance fee, set at $20 for North American players and 15 EUR for those in Europe.

The top four teams from each region will progress to a regional tournament, where they will compete for upwards of $27,000 in prizes. The winners will them be invited to the global championship, which will award the victors with $120,000 in prizes, including a $75,000 cash payout.

"eSports is one of the most exciting facets of online gaming today," said Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime. "We're pleased to expand World of Warcraft's tournament options for players who want to focus mainly on the competitive aspect of the game."

The latest update to Blizzard's World of Warcraft has been applied to the game's test server, adding a new area to explore plus a slew of tweaks and mechanical updates.

The new patch includes the Sunwell Isle, a new area which features a quest hub, new 5-player and 25-player instances and the new Shattered Sun Offensive faction. The update also improves the combat log, allowing players to fine-tune their combat filtering and define custom colors for friends and enemies.

Players will also notice a huge number of class-specific tweaks and other fixes in 2.4, the entirety of which is detailed in the complete patch notes. The patch will likely make the jump to the World of Warcraft live servers in the very near future.

Blizzard Entertainment announced its plans to hold its fourth Worldwide Invitational in Paris, France on June 28 and 29.

Similar to previous years, the event will feature invite-only tournaments for StarCraft, Warcraft III and World of Warcraft, as well as discussion panels, artist and developer signings, and wallet-destroying merchandise. Blizzard's upcoming StarCraft II and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King will also be available for hands-on demonstration.

Blizzard officially announced StarCraft II at last year's Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, South Korea. Though news of the sequel was the first and only major announcement to come out of the Invitational's three-year history, the studio currently has at least one unannounced title in development—perhaps another surprise is forthcoming.

Tickets for the Worldwide Invitational will go on sale in the next few weeks, priced at 70 EUR or roughly $102. More details on ticket booking, events and other information will be released on the Invitational's official website.

In a financial conference call today, publisher Activision--soon to be Activision Blizzard--confirmed it is working on several new Guitar Hero titles and a new entry in the Marvel: Ultimate Alliance action-RPG franchise, along with new Spider-Man, Tony Hawk, and Call of Duty games.

Two new Guitar Hero titles will apparently be released between April 1 and June 31, 2008, according to FiringSquad. No details were released on either title, though the company did specify that a third Guitar Hero game will be released this fall.

One of those new Guitar Hero games is likely to be the recently-trademarked "Guitar Hero On Tour," which many have speculated to be the long-expected Nintendo DS edition. The fall release is most likely to be Guitar Hero IV, which was mentioned along with several other top Activision-owned brands in earlier financial documents.

While another release in the Tony Hawk skateboarding franchise has always been expected, Activision commented that the next edition will rework the series'... Read more

Blizzard has issued a new patch for Warcraft 3, updating the original game and Frozen Throne expansion pack to version 1.21b. The update at long last removes the game's CD check.

There's an article format World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Q&A on Computer & Video Games. Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan is quizzed about the expansion.

Ever wonder what those record World of Warcraft subscription numbers translate to? Over a billion dollars in revenue, according to a Vivendi financial statement released today.

Vivendi subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment posted revenues of $814 million euros (US $1.2B) last year, up 58 percent over 2006.

The numbers are attributed to the first quarter release of the company's first MMO expansion, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, in addition to an all-time high of 10 million worldwide Warcraft subscribers.

In comparison, other Vivendi companies, including Sierra Entertainment, Sierra Online, and Vivendi Games Mobile, only brought in a total of $204 million euros (US $301M) in revenue.

Blizzard could see the release of two titles this year, as both the second World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King and its anticipated StarCraft sequel are readied for publishing.

Hard at work on several projects, powerhouse developer Blizzard found some time recently to release a little media for its upcoming games.

First up are a few shots from the anticipated RTS sequel StarCraft II, showing off Jim Raynor and the adventure game-styled environment that players will explore between missions.

We also have a few pieces of concept artwork for the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King, depicting a Nerubian Vizier and a Plague Eruptor. Both titles are due out on the PC sometime later this year.

Update: The NPD Group has chimed in, attributing the low percentage of PC software sales to the growing shift towards digital distribution, which the firm does not track.

Original Story: Of the $18.85 billion the video game industry generated at North American retailers throughout 2007, only $910.7 million of that, roughly 14%, was attributed to PC games.

Data from the sales-tracking firm NPD reveals that retailers sold 267.8 million games in 2007, 36.4 million of which were PC titles. Console games brought in $6.6 billion, selling 153.9 million units total, while portable software hauled a record $2 billion in revenue with 77.5 million units sold.

Figures were also released highlighting the top ten best-selling PC games of this year, accompanying last week's list of 2007's top ten console games. The numbers, which do not take digital downloads into account, have Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft and EA Maxis' Sims franchises occupying six of the top ten spots. A complete run-down of the top PC games of 2007 follows:... Read more

Blizzard Entertainment's unavoidable MMORPG sensation World of Warcraft (PC) now sports over 10 million active subscribers, the company has announced. Of those, about 2.5 million are located in North America, 2 million in Europe, and 5.5 million in Asia.

Released in November 2004, World of Warcraft has since spawned the massively successful Burning Crusade expansion pack, with another, titled Wrath of the Lich King, on the way. The company regularly updates the game with new technology and gameplay tweaks via regular patches, the latest of which was released today.

Formerly a subsidiary of Vivendi Games, Blizzard was a major factor in the merger of Vivendi Games and Activision, with the resulting entity known as Activision Blizzard. At the time, Blizzard CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime (pictured above) noted his belief that Vivendi shareholders never gave the studio "proper credit" and... Read more

Blizzard has issued a new World of Warcraft patch, updating version 2.3.2 of the game to version 2.3.3. The 4.3mb update offers improved load times and more bug fixes. ... Read more

There's a World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Q&A on Computer & Video Games, asking lead designer Jeff Kaplan about the second expansion pack for Blizzard's popular MMORPG.

A new The Witcher patch is now available, updating CD Projekt's fantasy role playing game to v1.2. The 113mb update fixes several game and quest bugs. ... Read more

In an announcement today, publisher Activision stated it holds the number one home console and handheld video game publisher in the United States from January to November 2007. The company bases its claims on figures from tracking firm NPD, which recently released its latest report.

Activision claims overall market share of 16.8% for that period, a massive year-over-year increase of 7.9%. Meanwhile, chief rival Electronic Arts' market share has waned somewhat in recent years, and its stock prices have grown at a slower rate than Activision's--though EA CEO John Riccitiello recently stated in a conference call that his company will hold 20% market share in North America and Europe during the third and fourth quarters.

Much of Activision's success is due to the astronomical success of the Harmonix-created, now Neversoft-developed, Guitar Hero franchise. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock proved to be the highest-earning title across all platforms; to some extent, the per-unit revenue on Guitar Hero games is increased due to the available packed-in hardware. Another Activision-published title, Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, apparently came in at the number two earnings slot. Meanwhile, the Guitar Hero franchise as a whole is said to be the highest-selling franchise of the year.

Today's announcement is likely to be particularly worrying to EA, since the performance it reports precedes the epic Activision/Vivendi merger that will result in megalithic Activision Blizzard. That newly-formed company is expected to top the industry in total revenues.