Blizzard Drops Korean eSports Agency Deal

According to Yonhap news, Blizzard has ceased any further talks with KeSPA in continuing their relationship. The main problem is the intellectual property right about broadcasting Starcraft game. With the impending release of Starcraft 2, Blizzard is seeking bigger share of the broadcasting licensing fees. Currently, Blizzard is not compensated for the broadcasts. With KeSPA holding some of the biggest... [Read more]

Blizzard to milk expansion as well

Recently, Blizzard announced standard version and collector’s version for their upcoming Starcraft 2 release. Blizzard’s VP of creative development Chris Metzen has indicated that the expansions could see collector’s edition as well. As if splitting up three games to make more profit was not enough, Blizzard is looking to release higher priced version of the impending Zerg and Protoss expansions.... [Read more]

Blizzard to appeal AO rating of Starcraft 2 in Korea

The upcoming Starcraft 2 release in Korea received +18 or Adults Only rating in South Korea. Without a doubt, South Korea is one of Blizzard’s most important market. So much so, Blizzard decided to announce the game in South Korea amidst massive media and fan attention. With +18 rating, the game will be restricted in terms of sales. According to the Games Rating Board, Starcraft 2 contained high... [Read more]

StarCraft 2 LAN petition reaches 200,000

Fearing the piracy, Blizzard opted to leave out LAN play as part of StarCraft II’s multiplayer. Blizzard is in the middle of launching Battlen.net 2.0 that will funnel every Blizzard game into that service. Some fans were upset at the exclusion of LAN play and started a petition to show support for the LAN play. Now, over 210,000 people have signed the petition since June. Blizzard has always marched... [Read more]

New interview with Dustin Browder

Gamasutra recently published a new interview with Blizzard Entertainment’s head game designer, Dustin Browder, for StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. As most StarCraft fans know, Blizzard will release StarCraft II in three parts with first part being Wings of Liberty. Ben Browder talks about multiplayer vs single player experience as well as the story line of Wings of Liberty. He talks about the continuity... [Read more]

Newest StarCraft 2 Q&A

Karune of Blizzard has posted newest Q&A on the Blizzard forum. Karune usually does great job answering questions regarding the upcoming StarCraft 2.There are some interesting tidbits about the online play and the map editor. Other than that, this batch seems to lack real big revelations. 1. Computer AI – Does the computer’s online AI vary from its offline counterpart? No. They are the same.... [Read more]

Endless iteration key to success?

Most of the games get boring if there is endless iteration to achieve certain goal. However, Blizzard said the secret behind the success of their games is the endless iteration. On the surface, this seems absurd as you would not want to do the same thing over and over in a game. However, when you look closely at Blizzard games, most of them are repetitive. This holds true for the mega successful World... [Read more]

Starcraft 2’s DRM Protection

With all their games, Blizzard has simply used CD=Key to combat piracy. Other protections were not necessary as their game’s strength was the online play. If another player with same CD-Key logged on to Battle.net, they would automatically be disconnected. This protection was enough to discourage most piracy. With more integration built into the Battle.net 2.0, it looked like CD-key would be enough... [Read more]

Razer jumping into StarCraft 2 related peripherals

Razer has steadily built a solid reputation for their gaming grade PC peripherals including mouse, keyboard, and headphones. They have also released various World of Warcraft specific keyboards and mouse. Now, they are increasing their R&D and staff at their headquarters in Singapore in anticipation of massive growth in gaming sector. Interesting tidbit from their press release was their intention... [Read more]

Battle.net 2.0 to improve on Xbox Live and Steam

Greg Cannessa, the creator of Xbox Live Arcade has stated that Battle.net 2.0 will be feature rich service that builds on various other platforms. In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Canessa explained the difference you can expect from Battle.net 2.0. "That system (Xbox Live), as brilliant as it was, was a platform. And PlayStation Network and Steam, they're also very platform-based," Canessa explained.... [Read more]