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Activision has published results for the company’s 2008 financial year and the numbers are pretty impressive. Raking in over $2.9 billion in net earnings gave them a 92% increase in monetary gains over last year’s figures. Activision’s net income stands at $344.9 million, up from $85.8 million last year and kudos goes out to Guitar Hero III and CoD4 helping them out by bringing in one billion dollars each in sales.

Head honcho Robert Kotick stated during a conference call following the published figures:

“During the fiscal year, we were the number one US console and handheld publisher in dollars for the first time ever, according to The NPD Group, and we grew our worldwide share of the console, handheld and PC markets year over year.”

Also mentioned during the conference call was the confirmation of a fifth Call of Duty game, the reinvention of the Tony Hawk series, the announcement of a new Marvel: Ultimate Alliance title and discussions relating to Guitar Hero 4 and its holiday release date.

This means that Activison will be another contender for number one publisher next year, especially considering that they have merged with Blizzard. Just think of the money they will earn when Wrath of the Lich King is unleashed upon the world.

Via: Eurogamer

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Hey buddy, want some WoWcrack? You know you do. Its cheap too, and when I say cheap, I mean free. Follow me into this dark alley and I will give you the goods - make sure no one sees you and that you are not followed or else the deal is off. You aren’t packing heat or wearing a wire are you? Ok cool, let’s do this then.

All of my stuff is premo and pure and it is a new strain of WoWcrack sure to please even the most discerning of tastes. It is called Wrath of the Lich King and I have nine different types.

• The first one is an interview with designer J. Kaplan & Producer J. Allen Brack about what World of Warcraft’s upcoming expansion has to offer.
• Next we have the first footage of air-to-air battles featuring vehicle combat.
• I also have an extended look at new zones (Northrend) and more vehicle combat
• Here I have the Howling Fjord which is one of Lich King’s two starter zones, including the Utgarde Keep instance and the new Tuskar race.
• Then I have this sweet bit of stuff that contains footage of the Borean Tundra which is the Lich King’s other starting zone, along with Howling Fjord. This clip shows both the Alliance and Horde towns, and the Nexus level 71-73 instance.
• Dragonblight is some really good stuff too where you can catch a glimpse of Wyrmrest Temple, the Nerubians, and Naxxramas.
• Like trolls? Then you will love Zul’Drak - the former troll empire has fallen on tough times. It’s not just for ice trolls any more.
• Sholazar Basin is the sister zone to Ungoro Crater. That crashed ship? Hemet Nessingwary’s. Good times to be had with this one
• Last but not least I have the Grizzly Hills where the Venture Co. has set up shop in Northrend, and so have the Furbogs (they live in the fallen, mini-world tree).

So what will it be then? You will take all of them? You are hardcore indeed my friend! Make sure you tell your friends about me, and as long as they are not narcs - I will do my best to supply them with more WoWcrack when it becomes available. In the meantime, if they need more information on my wares, they can check out previous posts on Wrath of the Lich King here. You can also get more of the goods after the break.

Enjoy my friend, but just be careful you don’t OD on all this WoW.

Read the full article

The good folks over at Blizzard have launched their revamped online store complete with digital downloads, a beta lottery and CD key registrations.For the moment, the only games you can download digitally are the StarCraft Anthology, Warcraft III, and the WarCraft III Frozen Throne expansion, this is the first time any Blizzard game has been made available via digitally distributed releases - sans WoW of course. Plus, owners of Blizzard games can register their CD keys on the site which adds titles to their Blizzard account, and download them for free. Diablo II downloads are not currently ready, so you may want to check the site often.

Also, Blizzard is holding a beta lottery which will allow registered users to be entered into a drawing for beta access. This is so that users whose account is drawn will get the first shot at being part of the next beta they launch, which will most likely be their currently unannounced “Next-Gen MMO”.

Here is a list of PC titles that can be registered and downloaded from the Blizzard Store:

• Diablo II (coming soon)
• Diablo II: Lord of Destruction (coming soon)
• Diablo II Battlechest (coming soon)
• StarCraft
• StarCraft Battlechest
• StarCraft Anthology
• Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
• Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Expansion Pack

For more information on the Blizzard Store and the beta lottery, check out the official site.

Thanks: Shacknews

Looks like I’ll have to amend my exhibitor list again. Kotaku is reporting that six more publishers have dropped out of E3 this year. Who are the missing half-dozen?

Well, to Vivendi and Activision you can add the following: Codemasters, NCSoft, Her Entertainment, and id Software. The new four have confirmed that they are not attending this year’s show, but they are remaining members of the ESA.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has been quoted as placing at least part of the blame at the feet of ESA President, Mike Gallagher.

“Lowenstein was a very savvy industry veteran who paid attention to the goings-on in the industry and cared what the community had to say. The new person… whose name completely escapes me because I’ve never met him or heard from him, is far less knowledgeable and sophisticated about this industry than Doug was and is going to make some rookie mistakes.

Doug used to be a very visible spokesperson in congress… when you’d get these [things like] Barack Obama saying videogames are corrupting our youth or MADD saying that Take-Two should pull GTA off the shelves, you would hear Lowenstein immediately shoot back. I would guess that Activision doesn’t perceive the same value from the ESA as they did under Doug’s leadership. I criticize [Gallagher’s] lack of drive to learn about the industry.”

Thus far, the ESA and Gallagher have had no comment, but it seems to me that common sense would say that if your largest members are leaving and/or not supporting your signature event, you may have a problem on your hands.

To be fair, NCSoft has publicly stated that their decision not to attend is based soley on their game development cycles, and has nothing ot do with the ESA or its leadership. However, the rest of us are left wondering what may come from all the other companies in the coming week, especially with the news that Activision will be holding an event on the first day of E3, just not in the convention center as part of E3.

Is this the beginning of the end for E3? We’ve speculated on it for quite some time, literally every year since the format was changed. Could it finally be upon us?

Via: Kotaku

If, like me, you were wondering why Activision, Blizzard and the rest of Vivendi weren’t on the list of exhibitors at E3 2008, the answer is in.

According to Kotaku, the Entertainment Software Association has confirmed to them that both Vivendi and Activision are no longer a part of the trade organization. In a statement, Senior Vice President of Communications and Research Rich Taylor said

“While the Entertainment Software Association remains the preeminent voice for U.S. computer and video game publishers, we can confirm that Activision and Vivendi Games opted to discontinue their membership. The ESA remains dedicated to advancing our industry’s objectives such as protecting intellectual property, preserving First Amendment rights, and fostering a beneficial environment for the entire industry. Our high level of service and value to members and the larger industry remains unchanged.”

This departure is a big surprise, at least to me. I think we’d all grown used to Blizzard holding their big announcements for Blizzcon, but to see an E3 without them will be more than just odd, it’ll be downright bizarre. One has to wonder what effect this split will have on the ESA and E3. After all, it’s not just Blizzard, but Activision and Sierra as well.

I really hope Blizzard starts clearing up the madness soon on what top secret game they have in the works, since these indications of a new Diablo title are either based on fact or an elaborate ruse. Recently, the owner of fan site Diablo3.com revealed that he was contacted by Blizzard a few months ago about purchasing the domain name. As such, the entire site’s community has been moved over to DiabloFans.com, though Blizzard has expressly stated this is not an announcement of an official sequel:

“…While 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. They acquire new domains all the time. 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. Sure, they can claim it’s because they want to protect their intellectual properties ‘n what have you, but I can’t imagine they would all of a sudden be so interested in the diablo3.com domain if they weren’t working on a new Diablo 3 game behind the scenes.”

Riiiiight, just how Blizzard suddenly taking over “Starcraft2.com” last year didn’t indicate that a sequel was in the works. Of course, not too long ago, a bizarre teaser appeared on the former Diablo3.com with a countdown set to end…er, today. Man, I hope the countdown wasn’t just to the new site introduction.

Via DiabloFans.com

Blizzard and Upper Deck have teamed up to put out “The Art of  the Trading Card Game” for the World of Warcraft TGC. The Book is a 11″ x 9″ hardcover with more than 300 full-color images. The featured art is from the first year of the WoW TCG and includes unpublished sketches and concept art. The book is available from the The Upper Deck Store f,or $49.99 which I guess is pretty decent as far as coffee table books go.

As an artist, one of my favorite things about trading card games is the art on the cards. If it’s good, I’m more likely to take an interest in the game while sub par art will most likely drive me away. The problem is it’s reduced so far down to fit the cards, that much of the detail that goes into the art is lost. I use these kind of books as references for my own drawings. There’s no doubt I’m going to be looking into this to add to my collection.

via World of Warcraft TCG

The World of Warcraft Insider has an article on the latest expansion for the Burning Crusade; Fury of the Sunwell. The Sunwell is the culmination of the Blood Elf and Draenei storylines. It will the reveal the fate of the final member of the triumvirate of Illidan, Vashj, and Kael’thas. Players will also be introduced to a new “ultimate bad guy.”

World of Warcraft lead producer J. Allen Brack and art director Chris Robinson give players a lot of info on both Fury of the Sunwell and the Wrath of the Lich King. However the focus is on the evolving art style of the game and how it works with settings, scenery and architecture. They talk specifically about the style for the Sunwell and therefore the Blood Elves at the height of their power and the contrast with the style of the Northrend area. Items and armor for both these areas will be thematic and will be easily recognizable by players as trophies from a specific area.

For the full picture of the Sunwell and a preview of Northrend, check out the insider interview on World of Warcraft.

Cracked has compiled a list of video games that would have been awesome if they could just get off the ground. For the most part, I have to agree with their picks and comments on why they would rock and why they will most likely never see the light of day. I won’t ruin the fun for you by exposing all the titles. Beside some of those pics and videos are really great.

All of these games seemed like a really great idea at the time, but have been plagued with problems. For instance, the author strikes true on the subject of Duke Nukem Forever when he claims that “3D Realms seem to be stuck in some sort of time paradox where the more work they put into the game, the further it gets from being finished.” Some of the titles like Starcraft: Ghost have adapted to other media. Anabelle Terra aka Ghost agent Nova stars in her own manga series, “StarCraft: Ghost Academy”, based on the game concept. However there is at least one on the list that may yet see the light of day. Over on Diablo3.com and Blizzplanet there’s a countdown running; supposedly for a big announcement on Diablo 3 coming May 1st.

Check out “10 Highly Anticipated Video Games You’ll Never Get To Play” on Cracked.

Its a shame to see a promising game begin to falter. Last week’s announcement regarding server consolidation for the recently launched Pirates of the Burning Sea MMORPG might not be the best sign that the game is doing well. Regardless it sparked a discussion between Ron and I about why MMORPGs fail today and thus this week’s Podcast was born. Then the topic moves to my recent trip to Chicago to meet with Wizards of the Coast about the future of Dungeons & Dragons. If you’re interested in more info on D&D 4E be sure to check out The Analog Gamer.

The rant and rave section of the podcast features a rant at a very special audience and Ron implores Sony to fix the horrible problems with the Playstation Store and its downloads.

This weeks show is available by direct download here.

As always, you can get past episodes from our podcast page at http://podcast.filefront.com, and you can send your comments, questions, suggestions, or snarky comments to podcast@filefront.com.

File-N-Forget is also available on the iTunes Music Store.

There’s good news for all of you that have signed the petition demanding that Uwe Boll stop wasting film. Blizzard is in total agreement. The “director” has admitted to being shown the door after proposing one of his infamous adaptations based on the World of Warcraft.

But if you’re not going to make a faithful adaptation, why make an adaptation at all? Apparently, the folks over at Blizzard wonder the same thing, since they practically laughed Boll out of their offices when he approached them about making a World of Warcraft adaptation, the director confessed.

“I got in contact with Paul Sams of Blizzard, and he said, ‘We will not sell the movie rights, not to you…especially not to you,’” Boll revealed. “Because it’s such a big online game success, maybe a bad movie would destroy that ongoing income, what the company has with it.”

I’m sure it was a case of open mouth exchange feet, but I can’t get over Boll’s inadvertent admission that it would have been a bad movie. Finally some honesty in Hollywood.

via MTV Movies Blog

There is a cryptic teaser up on Blizzplanet and the Diablo 3 website counting down to a major announcement from Blizzard. The info revealed is sparse, but the announcement isn’t related to the third book in the Diablo: The Sin War trilogy. According to the banner:

Seram will be shaken in 11 days

Neither of the sites are directly linked to Blizzard although they do boast a few inside ties. Hopefully something May 1st will bring much more satisfying news than Blizzard’s April 1st bard class announcement.

via Blizzplanet; Diablo3.com

Another step towards the formation of Activision Blizzard was made this week when the European Commission gave its permission for the merger to move ahead with the nearly $10 billion deal. Vivendi would have a 52% stake in the new company, which would have annual revenue of $3.8 billion. Be scared, EA.

The Commission determined that the new company wouldn’t have a monopoly on the industry. They said ” the combined firm would continue to face several strong, effective competitors, such as Electronic Arts, and the game console manufacturers, such as Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft,” according to Reuters.

It doesn’t look like there’s much left in the way of this deal going through, so get ready for that Activision Blizzard logo to start appearing everywhere.

I just wish they could have picked a slightly less craptacular name for the company.

StarCraft II continues the epic saga of the Protoss, Terran, and Zerg. These three distinct and powerful races will clash once again in the fast-paced real-time strategy sequel to the legendary original, StarCraft. Legions of veteran, upgraded, and brand-new unit types will do battle across the galaxy, as each faction struggles for survival.

Featuring a unique single-player campaign that picks up where StarCraft: Brood War left off, StarCraft II will present a cast of new heroes and familiar faces in an edgy sci-fi story filled with adventure and intrigue. In addition, Blizzard will again offer unparalleled online play through Battle.net, the company’s world-renowned gaming service, with several enhancements and new features to make StarCraft II the ultimate competitive real-time strategy game.

Features:

• Fast-paced, hard-hitting, tightly balanced competitive real-time strategy gameplay that recaptures and improves on the magic of the original game
• Three completely distinct races: Protoss, Terran, and Zerg New units and gameplay mechanics further distinguish each race
• Groundbreaking single-player “story-mode” campaign
• Vibrant new 3D-graphics engine with support for dazzling visual effects and massive unit and army sizes
• Full multiplayer support, with new competitive features and matchmaking utilities available through Battle.net
• Full map-making and scripting tools to give players incredible freedom in customizing and personalizing their gameplay experience

StarCraft II does not have an official release date for Mac or PC as of yet, so check back with us often.You can view more screens for the game here.

Blizzard has clinched an agreement with The9 and Soft-World the insures China will be getting the World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King expansion. The9 handles Blizzards WoW support in mainland China while Soft-World is its contact for Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. More details about the release of the expansion will follow at a later date.

via World of Warcraft

While this doesn’t help to peg a release date for the second expansion for World of Warcraft, we know that Wrath of the Lich King is at least in playable form. Blizzard staff and an extremely lucky select few (accompanied by a nice NDA, of course), are – right this very second, as I’m typing this and as you’re reading this – running around, killing things in Northrend that you’ve never even so much as dreamed of.

WoW Insider was able to confirm the news last week through anonymous sources. As I said, this isn’t indicative of the game being a certain number of months away from release. Blizzard rarely releases things too early, so don’t expect to see Wrath of the Lich King rushed out before the holidays.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t hope they do get it out by then.

Develop 100 ranks the world’s games development studios based on the revenues their products made at UK retail in 2007. This year, not surprisingly, the top honor goes to Nintendo and I have listed the Top 20 here for you.

1. Nintendo (£129.83m)
2. EA Canada (£68.78m)
3. Ubisoft Montreal (£52.17m)
4. Konami (£41.67m)
5. Infinity Ward (£39.6m)
6. EA Black Box (£37.31m)
7. Maxis (£36.84m)
8. Bungie (£31.45m)
9. Sega Studios Japan (£27.7m)
10. Traveller’s Tales (£27.06m)
11. Ubisoft France (£25.37m)
12. Yuke’s (£24.5m)
13. Amaze Entertainment (£24.07m)
14. EA LA (£22.49m)
15. Capcom (£22.3m)
16. Rebellion (£20.13m)
17. EA Redwood Shores (£19.99m)
18. Vicarious Visions (£17.56m)
19. A2M (£17.5m)
20. Hudson (£16.22m)

It was no surprise to see that EA took nine of the spots considering that they own many a gaming studio across the globe. Criterion, and BioWare which are also owned by EA were listed as well and maybe even a few that I missed. I expect EA to become the majority share holder for both Heaven and Hell eventually.

For the full list click here.

Are you an MMO player? Are you fed up with gold farmers who inflate the in-game economy? A man by Antonio Hernandez most certainly is, but he’s taking more drastic measures than most players who go on swear-ridden tirades against those farmers and spammers. Hernandez is taking them to court and seeking to make the case a federal class action lawsuit.

As reported by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the lawsuit is seeking to ban IGE US from selling gold due to it hurting the game’s economy and ruining the game’s experience. As the first case of its kind, it’s difficult to really discern where this case might go, but it would certainly set a precedent.

“The real significance of this case is, ‘What are the rights of the [virtual world] community members when they go online?’” said C. Richard Newsome, Hernandez’s attorney.

The attorneys of IGE, meanwhile, argue that Hernandez and other players have no right to sue because they have no ownership or property rights within World of Warcraft. They also say the lawsuit fails to specificy actual damages.

Miami attorney James M. Miller, who is representing IGE, claims that IGE US is no longer in the virtual gold business, but one quick trip to IGE.com will have you seeing World of Warcraft’s name or logo scattered all around the page. Hell, even the first four words of the page’s title are “IGE, Buy WOW Gold.” What was that again, Mr. Miller?

As for Blizzard’s stance, they’re behind Hernandez. “We believe that shutting down gold farming and real-money transfer is in the interest of all World of Warcraft players and that a victory in this case would have a positive long-term effect on the online gaming industry as a whole,” said COO Paul Sams.

While it might seem like a silly notion to take something like this to court, I truly hope Hernandez wins the case. Even if this is a tactic to squeeze some money out of a situation that doesn’t necessarily call for a federal class action lawsuit, I would love to see companies like IGE shutdown and forced out of WoW and other MMOs.

via Eurogamer

By the Gods this man is bold and brazen!

THQ’s Jack Sorenson stated in a recent interview that World of Warcraft has basically peaked and other MMOs are about to get in on some of the MMO loving from gamers tired of the online behemoth.

Speaking to Eurogamer last week at Gamers Day in San Francisco Sorenson stated that:

“However long it takes World of Warcraft to go through its cycle there will always be people on it, probably always be millions of people on it, but does it keep at that peak? And I think that, I wish I could see the numbers, but my guess is that it probably already has peaked - but it’s still a great business. Who wouldn’t want that?”

He went on to speak about THQ’s upcoming Warhammer 40K MMO stating that:

“We haven’t announced a release date, but it’s certainly not imminent and we plan on doing a very high quality job. That’s certainly one thing that World of Warcraft’s proved: not only do you have to do it well, it has to be great from day one. There’s not a tolerance like there used to be, when Ultima came out… All those games were buggy and horrible, and eventually got there. You can’t do that anymore, which has lengthened the cycle for good-quality MMOs. Blizzard based a lot of their, let’s say, RPG characteristics on 40k, which was the original. There’s a lot of commonality there that just comes right out of what Games Workshop has developed - the fiction, and the rest of it is incredibly deep. I think if we’re true to that and do it at a high quality, then people will come. And they can certainly co-exist.”

That was straight from the horse’s mouth, not mine, and if you want to read the rest, click through the link below. I almost refused to touch this with a nice, clean, germ free 10ft pole but I figured you would hear about it sooner or later anyway.

Thanks: Eurogamer

DISCLAIMER: This is post was not intentionally trying to get hard-core WoW fan’s silk panties in a wad - it is only the news as reported so please refrain from bashing the author. The views and opinions of Jack Sorenson expressed in this post do not necessarily state or reflect those of the Gaming Today News Editors, their spouses, significant other, lovers, pets, imaginary friends, game characters, house-elves, multiple personalities, ancestors, neighbors, fifth cousin twice removed, or the evil monkey residing in our closets.

The German workshop group BattleHeat is the focus of the latest World of Warcraft Spotlight for WoW Europe. This “real-life” team of armor blacksmiths have been inspired to use their skills to bring virtual paladin armor to life. These artists crafting dreams with metal and leather.

The armor featured in the interview with BattleHeat’s Tobias is the Tier 2 set for the Paladin. The artisan talks about WoW projects he’d like to take on in the future and gives a bit of information on how the armor is created. According to Tobias, unless you’re very lucky to find a mentor, learning to create armor is a skill that you pick up with trial of error and lots of practice. He talks about the materials involved and average weight of final pieces.

The article shows the progression of building and assembling the armor over several shots. For more pictures of projects BattleHeat has completed including Thrall’s Doomhammer Armor and a few plate mail bikinis, check out the group’s website at BattleHeat.com.

via World of Warcraft Europe