Blizzard is one of the most influential game studios on the market with titles like World of Warcraft and StarCraft never failing to impress in terms of sales numbers and gameplay. For Blizzard diehards, one of the most important events of the year is BlizzCon where Blizzard showcases their latest developments alongside a whole slew of fun including costume contests and game competitions.

In fact, Blizzard has just come forth today to announce that BlizzCon 11 will take place from October 21st – 22nd and will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in California. Below Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime comments:

“We look forward to holding another exciting BlizzCon this year, filled with some great entertainment and competition, as well as the latest news about Blizzard games… BlizzCon is built from the ground up with our community in mind — we’re pleased to be able to host an event where players can come together to have fun and celebrate their passion for gaming.”

There’s no word on when exactly ticket sales will begin but if you’re looking to get down on BlizzCon 11 you better keep an eye out for an announcement as tickets have been known to sell out quite fast.

Check out more information regarding BlizzCon 11 in the press release after the break.

via blizzard

Blizzard has been around for quite some time and just about every single one of their titles has seen critical acclaim. Not only do they have the immensely popular StarCraft and Diablo franchises but then they have World of Warcraft. Currently, World of Warcraft is the biggest MMORPG in the world with the most recent expansion, Cataclysm, only adding more wood to the fire.

However,its long been rumored that Blizzard is working on a next generation MMORPG commonly known as Titan but we’ve  received no official confirmation from the studio regarding this rumor. Luckily, Rank Pearce, World of Warcraft producer, came forth recently to give the following statement:

“The media is not supposed to know anything about [Titan]. It’s our next-gen MMO, and we’ve only started talking about it in a limited fashion because we wanna leverage the fact that we’re working on something like that for the purpose of recruiting, getting some of the best talent in the industry on that project.”

So, what exactly is this new projector going to be? Will they utilize the steam behind Warcraft and create World of Warcraft 2 or perhaps they will utilize another franchise like the above mentioned StarCraft or Diablo. Only time will tell.

via destructoid

Blizzard likes to keep control of all their IP rights, even if games are broadcast on television, Blizzard wants a cut. Which means they’re not happy when Korean game TV channels MBC Game and OnGameNet have been broadcasting StarCraft tournaments without Blizzards consent.

Blizzard has sued both companies, and they’re now looking to expand the lawsuit to include Korea e-Sports Players Association (KeSPA), which manages StarCraft tournaments. It seems a Blizzard has become quite the control freak, demanding a licensing fee for broadcasting of game tournaments, something which has been going on for at least a decade in Korea.

As you’re sure to know StarCraft is one of the biggest RTS franchises in video game history. In fact, if you head over seas to South Korea you will find top StarCraft players rich and famous. However, with such massive popularity comes gamers from all walks of life – some a bit less ethical than others. Luckily, Blizzard has been good at keeping their games cheater free.

Today they have announced that another round of bannings has gone out for StarCraft II that has an unannounced number of cheaters felling the burn. Blizzard elaborates on this announcment by saying:

“As always, maintaining a stable, safe, and secure online-gaming experience for legitimate players is a top priority for us, and we’ll be continuing to keep watch on Battle.net and take action as needed.”

So folks remember, cheaters never win, in the end, anyways.

via battle.net

Like all game developers with an established franchise, Blizzard is looking to exploit StarCraft into a movie, the same way they’re doing with World of Warcraft. However, they’re not interested in working with anyone, and have turned down several offers, according to Blizzard’s Rob Pardo, who had this to say:

“We probably could have made a [StarCraft] movie or something on TV years and years ago, but it’s really important to us that we find creative people that are really talented but also really excited about our properties. That’s always been the challenge for us. I think if Jim Cameron came to us tomorrow and said, ‘You want to make a StarCraft movie?’ we’d probably sign that.”

To be honest, we’re not sure Mr. Cameron would be interested.

It’s that time of the year, Blizzard has come forth and let us know when and where their annual convention, called BlizzCon, will be held. This year, it will return to the same place it was last year, the Anaheim Convention Center and will take place on October 22nd and 23rd.

You can expect all things Blizzard to be at this event from Starcraft and Diablo to World of Warcraft and perhaps an unannounced IP.

We’ll let you know when tickets go on sale.

via kotaku

Blizzard has released a bunch of new StarCraft 2 screenshots, and boy does this game look pretty. Expect a lot of Koreans to upgrade their PC rigs in 2010, when the game hits the stores.

It seems that Nolan Bushnell, the mastermind behind Pong and Atari, is returning to the game scene with his latest title, Battleswarm: Field of Honor.

Bushnell describes this game as a mash-up between StarCraft and Starship Troopers in which players will choose between playing the game as an RTS or an FPS.

Below are his comments on the game attributing its creation to wanting to game with his 5 sons:

They’re all avid gamers and like first-person shooters. The problem is, as you get older, you lose some reaction time, and as a result, I’m getting slaughtered by them. A real-time strategy [RTS] game, however, is more my [preference], a good resource game is what I love. Battleswarm is both an RTS and a shooter, a mash-up between StarCraft and Starship Troopers, if you will. You can switch sides, too, if you feel like an RTS instead of a shooter, or vice-versa.

Sounds pretty awesome, can we get a release date?

Read (USA Today)

Those hoping for World of Warcraft 2 or World of Starcraft to be Blizzard’s new MMO are met with a sad day — Zarhym, Blizzard community manager, has recently confirmed via the official World of Warcraft forums that the new MMO will be based on a “brand new franchise”.

That’s all we have to go by for now but Joystiq is reporting that the game is being developed using the World of Warcraft engine for the time being. Whatever the new franchise is, Blizzard is sure to be rollin’ in the dough by the time it rolls around.

It was recently announced that CEO of Vivendi, Jean-Bernard Levy, will replace Rene Penisson as Chairman of Activision Blizzard.

According to Joystiq, Vivendi is the majority owner of Activision Blizzard, just to give you a whiff of the company’s scale.

Let’s see, Activision Blizzard has Warcraft, Starcraft, Guitar Hero, Diablo, and Call of Duty; all colossal franchises. Vivendi, hower, has Activision Blizzard and Universal Studios. Yeah, big companies.