Diablo 3 Bringing Real Currency Into Game

The hotly anticipated role-playing game will feature an online auction house in which players can hawk almost everything they find in the game for either in-game gold or real money. The company calls it a “convenient, powerful, and fully integrated” solution for players who want to turn their green boots into greenbacks.

By using a real-money auction house in Diablo III, the company is attempting to wrest control away from the lucrative gold-farming industry and back into its own hands.

“Acquiring items has always been an important part of the Diablo series, but the previous games have not had a robust, centralized system for facilitating trades, and as a result players have turned to inconvenient and potentially unsafe alternatives, such as third-party real-money-trading organizations,” Blizzard said. Read more

Blizzard Battle.net Mobile Authenticator for Windows Phone

"The Battle.net Mobile Authenticator, an application for mobile phones that provides an extra layer of account security, is now available as a free download for Windows® Phone 7 devices on the Windows Phone Marketplace. The Battle.net Mobile Authenticator provides a one-time password that you use in addition to your regular account name and password when you log in to a Battle.net account to play World of Warcraft or StarCraft II."

Looking to speed up your account authentication and enter the game play securely…then, go get yours and let us meet on the battlefront! OK too dramatic; however, the Authenticator has been designed to protect your online game security. There are two other WP7 Authenticators in the Marketplace but only one official one from Blizzard Entertainment themselves, with quick support.

On opening the Battle.net Mobile Authenticator for the first time, it will synchronize with the server and offer up a serial and timed code. The App Appearance is sharp, as one would expect from a game developer of this calibre, along with clear instructions. You could say it’s Battle-Hardened.

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StarCraft 2 Expansion/Sequel Out In 2012

Blizzard’s Battle.net project director, Greg Canessa, was quoted at GDC Online suggesting an early 2012 release window for sequel-spansion StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm.

GameSpot caught the quote during a panel, in which Canessa responded to future Battle.net upgrades by saying they are "a main area of focus we’re going to be seeing on the Starcraft side over the next 18 months between now and Heart of the Swarm." However, a Blizzard representative told Joystiq "We have not announced a release date or window for Heart of the Swarm."

Blizzard’s next release will be for the World of Warcraft (population 12 million) expansion Cataclysm on December 7. With that bit of news out there, hopefully BlizzCon‘s big reveal will end the hellish wait for a Diablo 3 release date.

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Blizzard Bans Over 5,000 StarCraft 2 Players For Cheating

You guys just couldn’t listen, could you? You’re way too cool to heed the warning issued by Blizzard a few weeks ago — you know, the one that said that StarCraft 2 hackers and modders were about to feel the crushing blow of the permabanhammer? As you might have expected, that wasn’t an idle threat. Blizzard recently announced on the game’s official blog that it had banned "over 5,000 StarCraft 2 players who were in violation of the Battle.net Terms of Use for cheating and/or using hack programs while playing."

This group of unfortunate, unsportsmanlike souls won’t be the only ones to suffer Blizzard’s retribution, as the blog update explained, "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." Keep it legit, friends — we’d hate for you to join the ranks of the damned.

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StarCraft 2 – Updates Coming ‘Soon’?

To hear Starcraft 2 designer Dustin Browder tell it, creating games at Blizzard takes years of fighting and yelling rather than coding or creating art — every little decision is a "a three-week or longer holy war." Browder says that the controversial decision to release the RTS as three titles was made to get the game out faster — after all that arguing, Blizzard figured that it needed to release something, and if that had been the whole game, we’d have been waiting even longer. As it was, he says, "we wanted to get a product into consumers’ hands sometime before the end of the decade. Even that we didn’t quite make, I guess, but it was still sooner!"

Browder answers fans’ concerns about how closely the second game resembles the first by suggesting that adapting RTS competitors’ innovations wouldn’t have made the game more successful. "I haven’t really seen another gameplay experience that’s attracted millions of players with hundreds of thousands playing online," he says. "I have not seen someone else be successful by removing economy. I have not seen other RTSes be successful by removing micro." Read more

Blizzard Talks About Lack Of LAN Support In Starcraft II

Well, it’s definitely true. Blizzard has killed LAN support in the upcoming StarCraft II, and here’s the official word from Bob Colayco at Blizzard PR:

"We don’t currently plan to support LAN play with StarCraft II, as we are building Battle.net to be the ideal destination for multiplayer gaming with StarCraft II and future Blizzard Entertainment games. While this was a difficult decision for us, we felt that moving away from LAN play and directing players to our upgraded Battle.net service was the best option to ensure a quality multiplayer experience with StarCraft II and safeguard against piracy.

Several Battle.net features like advanced communication options, achievements, stat-tracking, and more, require players to be connected to the service, so we’re encouraging everyone to use Battle.net as much as possible to get the most out of StarCraft II. We’re looking forward to sharing more details about Battle.net and online functionality for StarCraft II in the near future."

So, let it hereby be noted that pirates killed the LAN parrrrrty.

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Blizzard Tops List Of 2008′s ‘Most Successful’ Game Devs

The game industry’s annual popularity contest has begun making the rounds, and among game developers in 2008 there was none more in vogue than Activision stepchild Blizzard. According to Develop 100, a list of "the world’s most successful games developers," the dev WoW-ed its peers from atop a mountain of money with more than a billion dollars in revenue each year from retail and online sales.

Other notables on the list include 2007′s top company, Nintendo, which was forced to settle for second, followed by GTA‘s Rockstar North in third. LEGO everything manufacturer Traveller’s Tales ranked 11th on the list, while LittleBigPlanet‘s Media Molecule came in at a respectable 18th, the highest among indie UK studios. The complete list can be found on the official Develop 100 website. Check it out, and let us know if your personal favorites made the cut.

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Starcraft 2 Open Beta Test Opt-In Coming Soon

Some news about the beta from worldofwarcraft.com…

The StarCraft II beta-test period is coming in the months ahead! If you’d like a chance to participate, now’s the time to let us know. Simply go to the “Beta Profile Settings” page in Battle.net account management to go through the new beta opt-in process and upload a snapshot of your system specs. During this process, you’ll also have the opportunity to opt in to future betas for other Blizzard Entertainment games.

Please note that even if you’ve opted in to our betas previously, you’ll need to complete this new process and upload your current system specs to have a chance to be invited.

For more information, see the FAQ — or create a Battle.net account to opt in now. If you have an unused beta code from BlizzCon 2008 or WWI 2008, visit this site to enter your code.

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Blizzard Launches New Battle.net Site

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.

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Diablo 3 Teaser Trailer And Gameplay Videos

Here are a few videos of the new Diablo 3 from Blizzard. The first is a teaser trailer that came out a few months ago followed by a couple of gameplay videos.

Explore fully realized realms of Sanctuary – the living, breathing gothic fantasy world of Diablo III – rendered in gorgeous 3D.

Battle the unholy forces of the Burning Hells with all-new character classes such as the otherworldly Witch Doctor, or with re-imagined warriors from Diablo’s past, like the powerful Barbarian. Read more