Beginning the BlizzCon blitz early, Future Publishing and Blizzard today announced they are to release a quarterly magazine based upon smash hit MMORPG World of Warcraft.

"Each collectable issue will be packed with engaging, entertaining and comprehensive articles that cover all aspects of World of Warcraft through insider insights and player perspectives," says the publisher of such magazines as Edge and Simply Knitting.

"A panel of international journalists" will contribute to WoW: The Mag, led by industry veteran Julian Rignall and former Official Xbox Magazine senior editor Dan Amrich.

The magazine's 148-page first issue will, among other articles, commemorate the MMORPG's fifth anniversary with looks to its past and future, and offer Ulduar raid tips.

The ad-free magazine will be available by subscription only, with one year costing $39.95 (34.95 EUR, 29.95 GBP) while two will run you $69.95 (61.25 EUR, 52.50 GBP).

Update: Blizzard has confirmed that Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Spider-Man, Drag Me To Hell) will indeed direct the impending Warcraft film.

"Raimi has, in the course of his career, clearly demonstrated a genius for developing and adapting existing fictional universes for mainstream audiences while staying true to the spirit of the original content," Blizzard stated in a press release.

"At its core, Warcraft is a fantastic, action-packed story," Raimi added. "I am thrilled to work with such a dynamite production team to bring this project to the big screen."

The Dark Knight and 12 Monkeys producer Charles Roven has signed on to produce the film alongside his production partner Alex Gartner, Legendary... Read more

Update: When contacted regarding the "Cataclysm" trademarks, a Blizzard representative told Shacknews that "we don't have any details to share at this time."

Original: Acclaimed developer Blizzard Entertainment (World of Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft) has filed new game-related trademarks for "Cataclysm," and that's all we know.

The studio is known to have at least four projects in development--World of Warcraft, Diablo III, StarCraft II and a new MMO--with the company recently confirming that the new MMO is to be the start of "a brand new franchise" created "entirely from scratch." In addition, rumors of a fifth mystery project began circulating earlier this year.

The trademark filings, noticed by superannuation, cover computer game software, paper goods like comic books or strategy guides, and online gaming.

As one would expect, the filings have triggered a tidal wave of internet speculation. Some believe "Cataclysm" to be the name of the next World of Warcraft expansion, while others suggest it could be the new MMO or a new branding for the redesigned Battle.net.

The unannounced MMO in development by World of Warcraft creative studio Blizzard will not be based on one of its established franchises, a representative reiterated today.

"We've already stated it'll be a brand new franchise, which means the lore, art, and game play are being developed entirely from scratch," said Blizzard community manager Zarhym on the World of Warcraft forums, in a post noticed by Worldofwar.net.

Zerhym referred to the new MMO as a "shell of a game thus far." Blizzard has previously said that the title is being developed using the World of Warcraft engine for testing purposes.

"It's an overwhelming process, but a process through which we excel," added Zerhym. "Our track record supports this."

Not content with pimping your epic mount? Blizzard Entertainment had another World of Warcraft-related April Fools' gag up its sleeve: the PvP Dance Battle System.

"As with the Arena system, close communication and teamwork is crucial--you'll have to be in sync, both with the music as well as with the other members of your crew, to become the 'server' and not the 'servee,'" cautioned Blizzard.

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Continuing its April Fools' Day celebrations, Blizzard has unveiled the mightiest weapon in the StarCraft II Terran army: the Terra-tron.

When all else is lost and enemy forces close in all around, the Terrans can assemble their entire base into one giant walking titanic robot in a last-ditch effort to hold the line.

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Dr. Ron Volt, Terra-tron's curiously named creator, explained at a recent conference:

With the use of magnetic flux generators and through some simple modifications to our existing building schematics, we've found we can utilize structures that already exist in our bases to assemble... Read more

Esteemed developer Blizzard Entertainment kicked off April Fools' Day with word that World of Warcraft may soon add a new "Pimp My Mount" customization feature. "Tired of your mount looking like every other raptor, wolf, horse, kodo, or nightsaber out there? Then Z to the A to the zzber (whew, that's a mouthful!) will be glad to welcome you to his shop where you can epic-ize your mount with some phat total pimpage!"

Given that Blizzard has a rich history of embracing April Fools' Day, let's chalk this one up to a celebration of the holiday. But it is World of Warcraft, so you never really know...

Famed World of Warcraft developer Blizzard has denied that it's in talks with Microsoft regarding the inevitable Xbox 360 successor, often referred to as the Xbox 720.

Word that Blizzard and Microsoft were in Xbox 720 talks emerged last week via GamesIndustry.biz, which claimed that Blizzard executive Rob Pardo dropped the tidbit during a "Lunch with Luminaries" discussion at Game Developers Conference.

"We aren't in discussions with Microsoft regarding any future consoles," Blizzard, also responsible for the popular Diablo and StarCraft series, told GameSpot today.

According to Blizzard, Pardo merely noted that "Microsoft occasionally bounces ideas off of us, with no specific reference to any possible future consoles."

The company, which is also working on a next-gen MMO, added that "this [consultation] should come as no surprise, as our games run on Microsoft's PC operating system."

Beloved developer Blizzard is readying yet another project in addition to its work on Diablo III, StarCraft II, World of Warcraft and its next-gen MMO, claims IncGamers.

Rumors of a fifth mystery project cropped up earlier this week after leading fansite DIII.net noticed a Blizzard job listing for an "a brand new project." Citing an "inside source," IncGamers reports this is not the next-gen MMO or a World of Warcraft expansion, though the project currently uses the WoW engine for testing purposes.

Many speculate that this could be the new property Blizzard has been hinting at for years. "I would absolutely say we will [release a new franchise] at some point," Blizard COO Paul Sams teased last year. "I just don't know when that day will be quite yet."

It wasn't all mistakes and regrets for former World of Warcraft director Jeffery Kaplan during today's "The Cruise Director of Azeroth" panel at GDC.

The jam-packed presentation also saw the release of many World of Warcraft statistics, including the average number of quests completed daily, and the circumstances that led to the extremely popular MMO sporting, at last count, some 7650 different quests.

• Between 6/30/2007 and 3/5/2009, some 8,570,222,436 quests were completed in the World of Warcraft.
• Daily average of quests completed: 16,641,209

Kaplan, now working on Blizzard's next MMO, talked about designing the original release of World of Warcraft, saying that the first total quest target was 600. This number was a result of needing to compete with EverQuest's estimated 1200 quests... Read more

With a scant 40 minutes to address the gathered masses, former World of Warcraft director Jeffery Kaplan had a lot to cover in his "The Cruise Director of Azeroth" lecture.

The presentation saw an extremely candid Kaplan, now working on Blizzard's next-gen MMO, recognize and address the nine major problems with World of Warcraft.

But before getting into the nitty-gritty details, Kaplan made one thing abundantly clear: the WoW team is aware of the problems, and is actively working to fix them.

1. "The Christmas Tree Effect"

What this means, and this is kind of a weird one, but you show up to a quest hub, and your minimap is lit up like a Christmas tree... Read more

During a presentation at this year's Game Developers Conference, former World of Warcraft director Jeffrey Kaplan took a moment to address the lengthy exposition that plagues numerous games, including those developed by Blizzard.

"Basically, and I'm speaking to the Blizzard guys in the back: we need to stop writing a fucking book in our game, because nobody wants to read it," he explained.

"We need to deliver our story in a way that is uniquely video game," Kaplan, who left WoW to work on Blizzard's next MMO, explained. "We need to engage our players in sort of an inspiring experience, and the sooner we accept that we are not Shakespeare, Scorsese, Tolstoy or the Beatles, the better off we are."

However, Kaplan did offer consolation to his fellow developers. "If it makes us feel better, Shakespeare couldn't 3D model his way out of a paper bag," he noted.

Former World of Warcraft lead designer and current next-gen Blizzard MMO director Jeffrey Kaplan today detailed a behind-the-scenes system of drop percentages secretly added in the WoW expansion Wrath of the Lich King.

The system, called "progressive percentages," was cribbed directly from Blizzard's own Warcraft 3, which used it for critical hit mechanics. It relates to how and when quest items drop from creatures--an important issue to all WoW players.

Originally, Blizzard settled on a standard WoW quest item drop rate of around 35%, with no system in place that would tweak the percentage as players killed more enemies.

"We found that this had a lot of problems where players would run into streaks, and they only remembered the shitty streaks," said Kaplan. "So what we decided... Read more

Blizzard executive Rob Pardo has revealed that the World of Warcraft developer is in active talks with Microsoft regarding the successor to the Xbox 360, reports GamesIndustry.biz.

Pardo said this during the Luminaries Lunch at the Game Developers Conference. Other industry figures lunching--including Sims creator Will Wright, Deus Ex creator Warren Spector and Acclaim's David Perry--said they'd yet to be approached about the unannounced console, lovingly dubbed the Xbox 720 by many.

This is perhaps surprising considering Blizzard's last game to see a console release was the Nintendo 64 port of StarCraft way back in 2000 but that's the point--Blizzard's titles absolutely dominate the PC platform yet never reach consoles... Read more

Blizzard today opened the redesigned version of its Battle.net website, combining several of its game services into a unified portal.

Players can now merge World of Warcraft accounts with a Battle.net account to create a single consolidated handle.

The account also interfaces with the Blizzard Store. A game management display allowing the automatic download of titles purchased on the service. Additionally, users of the new Battle.net will be automatically entered for future Blizzard beta key drawings.

Though merging accounts is currently optional, Blizzard noted that World of Warcraft players will eventually be forced to consolidate their accounts on Battle.net.

"As we continue to build additional functionality into the new Battle.net, we will eventually require all active World of Warcraft accounts to migrate over to Battle.net Accounts in order to continue playing," reads the site.

Blizzard today announced that BlizzCon 2009 will occur at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on Friday, August 21 and Saturday, August 22.

As per past BlizzCons, attendees will have the chance to play upcoming games from the StarCraft, Diablo, Warcraft and World of WarCraft developer, as well as attend and participate in discussion panels, tournaments, and community contests.

To compensate for the event's ever-increasing popularity, BlizzCon 2009, the fourth such celebration hosted by Blizzard, has been expanded from three to four convention halls.

"We've been amazed by the incredible response to each of our previous BlizzCon events," said Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime. "We look forward to this new opportunity to meet Blizzard gamers from around the world."

More details on BlizzCon 2009, including ticket availability and pricing, will be revealed on the official BlizzCon website "as the event draws closer."

Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan has left his post as the director of the popular PC MMO World of Warcraft in order to help out with the company's unannounced "next-gen MMO."

"World of Warcraft has been such a central part of my life these past six and a half years, and it's success would not have been possible without the tremendous community around it, so I wanted to say thank you to all our players who've shared this amazing experience with us so far," he wrote in a forum post noticed by WoW Insider.

Kaplan noted that he still plans to be involved in World of Warcraft's future, adding that "partners in crime" Tom Chilton and J. Allen Brac will now handle day to day operations.

"When all is said and done, WoW is still my favorite game. I play it every day. None of that passion is gone," he concluded. "If anything, it fuels the challenge of making our next MMO even better. We know we have some big shoes to fill."

As of late December, World of Warcraft had 11.5 million active subscribers worldwide.

Along with its list of the most-played consoles in 2008, research group The Nielsen Company has provided its list of the past year's most popular PC games in the US.

Of the ten titles, none were released in 2008, and only 2 debuted in 2007. The list is based off data from January through October 2008, meaning that the impact of the second World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, was not taken into account.

Unsurprisingly, Blizzard's World of Warcraft topped the PC charts, with those surveyed playing the PC MMO an average of 671 minutes, just a bit over 11 hours, per week. Blizzard's Diablo II also appears on the list, as do three games from Valve.

Unfortunately, Nielsen did not specify the methodology behind this year's results. In 2007, the firm based its list off an extremely small pool of participants, a mere 1200 gamers, which could explain the unexpected results. It is not known if this was changed for 2008.

Top 10 PC Game Titles in the U.S.
1. World of Warcraft (2004) / Blizzard Entertainment
   671 Avg Minutes Played Per Week / 0.723% AU*
2. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007) / Infinity Ward
   403 Avg Minutes Played Per Week / 0.163% AU*
3. Halo: Combat Evolved (2003) / Gearbox, Bungie... Read more

Blizzard sees it as "a fact" that BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic (PC) will be a great game. From the house of the world's largest game, that's quite a compliment, but COO Paul Sams was quick to offer some advice to the Austin, TX, studio looking to become Blizzard's rival.

Sams warned that BioWare may not be expecting "players smacking them around"--no doubt in reference to an unforgiving Internet public--according to VideoGamer.com. The Blizzard executive also reminded BioWare of the online issues that plague MMO launches.

Star Wars: The Old Republic was finally announced in October

Thanks to the company's Battle.net service, "we had a level of experience that candidly no other game company had and so a lot of the bumps and bruises that we got would have been substantially, monumentally worse," said Sams of the experience of launching World of Warcraft.

Even for the accomplished BioWare, Sams implied that launching an MMO could still be an uphill battle. "You can have a great developer and you can have ... Read more

Blizzard used last night's launch of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King to do a little more teasing about its "next-gen MMO" in the works, adding "cool" and "new" to the list of words deemed appropriate to describe the project about which little is known.

"We want to create a great game," said Blizzard COO Paul Sams to VG247, adding, "Something that's cool, and new, and different, and kind of next generation in terms of look and feel and gameplay. That's a challenging endeavour."

Blizzard itself may not yet know how different its game will be. "When we're building a new game from the ground up, what happens is that it's slow going for the first bit, while the team goes round and round and round figuring out how it's going to look and feel, what the player experience is and what the differentiators are," Sams explained.

"The last thing we want to do is say, 'Hey we're doing this,' and everyone says, 'Oh cool,' and then we change things completely," commented the executive.

Not much is known about the next MMO from the company that pulled 11 million players into its first one. Blizzard would neither confirm or deny that the game would be set in a new universe, although the studio does not intend to use the new game as a replacement for World of Warcraft.