Latest Headlines

World of Warcraft reaches 9 million subscribers

In a press release on their website, Blizzard announced that their subscriber base to World of Warcraft has now reached the 9 million mark, which seems to have dismissed earlier rumoured claims that the subscriber base was on the downfall. The 9 million figure is a sum of all their international realms (Europe, US, China etc).  

Many have asked whether the 9 million mark includes previous cancelled subscriptions and expired accounts. In the announcement, Blizzard made clear the definition of what 'subscriber' entailed:

World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees’ territories are defined along the same rules.

One interesting point the press release highlights is the fact that mainland China has yet to see the release of the first expansion "The Burning Crusade". In the European and US servers, the release of the expansion saw unsurpassed sales figures (2.4 million in 24 hours) and ignited both new interest in the title and brought several 'retired' players back into the World of Warcraft. The release in China, the country notorious for MMORPG addictions and Gold farming, will surely see that figure rise again (there are more than 3.5 million subscribers in China alone).  

News

• Microsoft's Xbox division posts a $1.9US Billion loss.
• Book your next Japanese holiday stay at the Pokemon Hotel.
• 4 out of 5 of the top selling video games in the US in 2007, are for Nintendo.
• A real-life Halo-Warthog.
• Last week, the Chinese government launched restrictions on teenage gaming.

Make Love Not Warcraft – Emmy Nominated

The "dedicated player". 

The Blizzard team rush to Stan's house in an attempt to deliver the Sword in time, but find that he is not home. Stan's dad reveals that he is over at Cartman's basement with the other boys. After the Blizzard employees update Stan's dad on the situation, he reveals that he is also a player ('a noob at best') and would be able to deliver the sword in game, of course. Randy and the crew comandeer a civillian's vehicle and rush down to Best Buy to use one of their terminals to access World of Warcraft.

Randy manages to deliver the sword just in time, in which Stan is able to finally kill the 'dedicated player'. Upon finally killing this player, they ask Cartman "what now?", in which Cartman replies that they can finally start playing the game again.

The game draws not only parallels to the apparent WoW Dedication and addiction on a global scale, but the mentality of many (stereo?)typical MMORPG players in general. Alot of the terminology in the game was blatantly and incorrectly mis-used, which personally made the episode alot funnier. Soon after the episode aired it was reported that the episode's Wikipedia article was 'corrected' of all their  incorrect applications of the in-game jargon, you can read some more specific information here.

Players and non-players of the game alike deemed it an instant hit, the episode drew large audiences and even attracted several non-regular viewers of the show (however, I'm a self-confessed South Park fan). This is not the first time South Park has touched on Internet/Video game related culture with similar reactions. In the same season, we saw Cartman Freeze himself in an attempt to quicken the Nintendo Wii's release date (ends up becoming frozen for 540 years instead), and an earlier season yielded Chinpokemon – which was a blatant go at the Pokemon Craze and another recent episode ridiculed artists such as Britney Spears and Lars Ulrich (Metallica) of MP3s and peer to peer sharing.

Overall, this was definitely a great episode and proves that the writers of the show are on the pulse of current events, with online/internet phenomenons by no means playing an exception to their addictive, yet undeniable ridicules. Up against South Park is Family Guy (who they have also had an episode on), Robot Chicken, and The Simpsons (they have also featured an episode based on The Simpsons, titled "Simpsons did it"). The show has been nominated for an Emmy seven times, having only won with their Super Best Friends episode. Another Emmy nominated episode was the timeless Trapped in the Closet episode, where they satirise the Scientology religion and subsequent following of Tom Cruise. The second half of season 11 will commence in October '07, which I'm sure we're in store for some absolute gems.

You can read a bit more about this episode on Wikipedia here, where some of the more intricate details (production etc.) are disclosed. 

Far Cry 2 – Announced

Ubisoft have come out of the woodwork with an official announcement for Far Cry 2. Not alot of information has been issued with the official announcement, however an anticipated release date of Spring 2008 [US] has been penned in. To mark this event, developers Ubisoft – have launched a teaser site here with what appears to be little or no information/content available about the upcoming title (tease, it did!). 

For those of you that are a little eager, can have a bit of a squander at some of the leaked media and concept at FarCry2.com.

Industry News

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars [BETA]