world-of-warcraft posts

Last week Red 5 Studios admitted to a "restructuring" of its MMO game development studio which included layoffs of a number of its team members. At the time the company announced it had secured a new investor but declined to give details. Now a Reuters story reports that the investor happens to be China-based The9.

The9 is best known as the former World of Warcraft administrative company in China. It looks like the company is now looking for developers to fill their void with more games. There's no word on exactly how much money The9 is investing in Red 5 Studios and in fact none of the companies involved have officially confirmed this new investor relationship.

A few months ago there were strong indicators that the 2010 edition of BlizzCon would be held in Las Vegas. Those reports were pretty quickly proven to be incorrect. Now our sister site WoW.com has posted up word that Blizzard's (sort of) annual fan event may have a final date and location.

According to a post at the Anaheim (CA) Convention Center web site (that has since been removed after WoW.com's first story) BlizzCon 2010 now has a date of October 22-23. Of course the convention center has been the home of BlizzCon since its start. Blizzard has yet to officially confirm the dates and location for BlizzCon. Last year the event had 26,000 fans attend (ticket sold out almost immediately) who got to play new builds of StarCraft II and Diablo III. What's in store for this year's show? Stay tuned.

This patch updates World of Warcraft and its expansions from v3.3a to v3.3.2. It mostly includes bug and gameplay fixes but also adds some additional content. Links to Mac patches can be found after the jump. Full patch notes can be found here.

Download World of Warcraft v3.3a to v3.3.2 Patch [DE] (180 MB)
Download World of Warcraft v3.3a to v3.3.2 Patch [GB] (180 MB)
Download World of Warcraft v3.3a to v3.3.2 Patch [ES] (180 MB)
Download World of Warcraft v3.3a to v3.3.2 Patch [MX] (159 MB)
Download World of Warcraft v3.3a to v3.3.2 Patch [FR] (180 MB)
Download World of Warcraft v3.3a to v3.3.2 Patch [KR] (152 MB)
Download World of Warcraft v3.3a to v3.3.2 Patch [RU] (180 MB)
Download World of Warcraft v3.3a to v3.3.2 Patch [TW] (157 MB)

Gallery: World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Screenshots

This patch updates World of Warcraft and its expansions from v3.3a to v3.3.2. It mostly includes bug and gameplay fixes but also adds some additional content. Full patch notes can be found here.

Download World of Warcraft v3.3a to v3.3.2 Patch [US] (159 MB)
Download World of Warcraft v3.3a to v3.3.2 Mac Patch [US] (158 MB)

One day after rumors hit the interwebs about mass layoffs at Red 5 Studios, the MMO game developer has now issued an official press release confirming that the company has undergone a "restructuring". The press release states, " . . . some team members chose to part ways while others were let go" but specific numbers were not revealed in the press release.

Red 5 Studios, formed several years ago by former World of Warcraft team leaders from Blizzard, has been working in near secrecy on their debut MMO project. The company did license the Offset Engine from Offset Software several years ago (ironically Offset Software has also been working in near secrecy on their own game) but it's currently not known if the engine is still being used. Unconfirmed rumors on certain web sites said the developer's first project, a FPS MMO, is now on hold while the remaining team members are now working on a game for the Chinese market. However, Red 5's own press release today said the company " remains committed to releasing a AAA quality, online title targeted for a worldwide release."

Check out an update we received from the company's PR rep after the jump

Last December we put Creative Labs' upcoming World of Warcraft-branded PC gaming headset in our Vaporware section since the company was supposed to release the product by the end of 2009 but failed to do so. Now it looks like the company is gearing up to finally release the headset. As evidence the company has now launched a dedicated web page for the product.

There's a lot more info about the headset itself in terms of its technology and features, but Creative Labs is still being cagey on a release date and price. Their FAQ page does say they will be taking pre-orders in "early 2010" and will ship the headset (in wired and wireless versions) shortly after pre-orders are launched. The product looks like it will be worth the wait but the question is how much longer will we have to sit around before Creative Labs brings the headset to light.

It's Sunday. Maybe you are watching the AFC Championship game or maybe you have a hankering to purchase a PC game on sale. It it's the latter, GoGamer.com has some solid deals on a number of games that will expire at 3 am ET on Monday morning.

The about-to-be-released PC port of Mass Effect 2 can be picked up at the site for just $41.90 during the sale. Some older PC games have some rock bottom prices as well. They include Company of Heroes for just $3.90, City of Heroes for $9.90 and a free copy of The Burning Crusade expansion with the sale of World of Warcraft for $19.90.

2009 was a rough year for the game industry as a whole and very rough for the PC game industry, at least in terms of sales of game titles at brick and mortar stores in the US. Industrygamers.com reports that according to the NPD Group, sales of PC games at the retail level totaled only $538 million last year. That's a whopping 23 percent drop from 2008. By comparison, console game sales "only" went down eight percent in 2009. Of course these numbers do not include any sales of games via digital download services which are taking a bigger piece of the sales pie every year.

As expected, The Sims 3 was named the number one best selling PC game in retail stores in 2009, followed by World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. The full list is below.

1. The Sims 3 - Electronic Arts
2. World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - Blizzard
3. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe - Electronic Arts
4. World of Warcraft: Battle Chest - Blizzard
5. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Infinity Ward/Activision
6. World of Warcraft - Blizzard
7. The Sims 3: World Adventures - Electronic Arts
8. Spore - Electronic Arts
9. Dragon Age: Origins - BioWare/EA
10. Empire: Total War - The Creative Assembly/Sega

It was a busy day in Hollywood on Monday and one of the biggest stories was the revelation that director Sam Raimi and star Tobey Maguire won't be involved in the making of any more Spider-Man movies. Both were supposed to be involved with Spider-Man 4 but script disputes with Sony Pictures have caused the entire project to be scrapped. Sony will still make a new Spider-Man movie but it will be a new reboot of the franchise with a new director and cast.

Last July, Raimi was announced as the director of the long-in-development movie adaption of World of Warcraft. At the time of the announcement, Raimi was supposed to start work on the movie after completing his work on Spider-Man 4. With that movie no longer part of the equation, our sister sister WoW.com asks if the movie version of Blizzard's MMO champion game will be fast tracked. So far there's no word on what Raimi's next project will be.

While we wait to get into the StarCraft II beta a few folks are getting ready to play Blizzard's other major game due out in 2010. World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, the upcoming third major commercial expansion to the hit MMO game, is prepping to launch their "Friends and Family" alpha test.

The info, from our sister site WoW.com, indicates that the alpha will launch on Tuesday for those very few select friends and family members of Blizzard Entertainment employees. While not officially confirmed by Blizzard the schedule certainly fits for the expansion to have a release sometime later in 2010.