World of Warcraft reaches 9 million subscribers
admin - Wednesday, July 25, 2007
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
admin - Tuesday, July 24, 2007
- 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
admin - Friday, July 20, 2007
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
admin - Friday, July 20, 2007
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
admin - Thursday, July 19, 2007
- The Playstation3 finally breaks the 1 Million unit mark in Japan.
- Brazilian gamer fixes the “Red Ring of Death” without having to open their Xbox 360! (YouTube footage Included here)
- Producers of GTA IV – Rockstar, are allowing fans of the series to call up one of the radio stations featured in the upcoming title, with a chance to be included in the upcoming GTA IV soundtrack.
- MGS4 is still a PS3 Exclusive.
- Halo 3’s co-op mode will only be offline (for now).
Many people who are accustomed to the shooting ‘realism’ of CS and Battlefield will notice that this is a slightly faster paced game, which brings back the quick strafe and shooting style of yesteryear. Three head-shots are required to kill a person, as opposed to the common one-headshot requirement in CS and BF. This may not be for everyone, but it does set a more challenging scenario.
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is no doubt going to be a big title this year which will hopefully pump some fresh competition against Electronic Art’s dominating Battlefield Series. This game is a lot of fun and it requires a slightly steeper learning curve over other multiplayer FPS games out on the market. The makers of the game have managed to create a previously unseen balance between vehicle utilisation and on-foot combat which will hopefully satisfy both audiences. The emphasis on team work which has always been a strong point with the original RTCW and RTCW:ET sequel, has now been brought into ETQW thus making it unique from other similar titles, which ultimately is a defining trait setting it apart from the current BF games.
Overall, I believe the beta has helped ease a lot of the anticipation of this game’s release, which was originally due for release as early as 2006 but was pushed back to encourage more vigorous testing; coming in line with John Carmack’s philosophical “when it’s done” ethic. As with the previous RTCW titles, there will eventually be a public demo closer to the release date of the title which is so far predicted as the final quarter of 2007. The delay has been largely attributed by the early 2007 announcement that ETQW will be released on PS3, Xbox 360 and even Macintosh platforms. There will also be a ranking system similar to BF2/BF2142 – details on this system are yet to be released.
You can download the Quake Wars HD trailer from the 3FL Download Vault – here. Otherwise, eager fans may find the below links interesting:
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars on YouTube.
