MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
While the company still has 8m people paying subscriptions for World of Warcraft, it recognises that free-to-play gaming can’t be ignored. When asked about creating free-to-play MMOs in the future, WoW’s lead designer Tom Chilton told Polygon that his team is open to the idea, but remains cautious. "For Blizzard …
Read More »Embracing casual key to World of Warcraft longevity
Lead designer says it would make sense for Blizzard to go free-to-play at some point
Read More »Guild Wars 2 breaks MMO sales records
NCSoft claims their game is the fastest selling title in genre history
Read More »Another 300,000 gamers abandon World of Warcraft
The number of monthly subscribers still enjoying Blizzard’s MMO phenomenon World of Warcraft has dropped to 7.7m. It was last reported at 8m back in April, having dropped by 1.3m since February. The game’s population has been gradually dropping since it peaked at 12m subscribers in October 2010. This is …
Read More »Activision becomes independent from Vivendi in $8.2bn deal
One of the world’s biggest games companies is set to buy back its independence from owner Vivendi. The Call of Duty publisher Activision will buy 429 million shares from the French Media and Telecoms conglomerate for $5.83bn. Meanwhile, Bobby Kotick (current CEO) and co-chairman Brian Kelly have formed a investor …
Read More »Blizzard’s Battle.net launcher beta looks like EA Origin
The first video footage of Blizzard’s long-rumoured Battle.net launcher beta has hit the internet. What it shows is basically something that looks very much like EA’s Origin client or even Ubisoft’s uPlay. As well as allowing gamers to launch their Blizzard titles such as World of Warcraft, StarCraft II or …
Read More »Blizzard mulling World of Warcraft microtransctions
Premium in-game items are being considered for World of Warcraft, according to a Blizzard rep. Community representative Jonathan Brown wrote on the possibility via Battle.net forums – specifically noting that only certain regions are being considered for the additions at this time. We are currently exploring the possibility of adding …
Read More »Blizzard mulls World of Warcraft microtransactions
Developer looking at adding in-game purchases in certain regions
Read More »Ex-Blizzard dev: World of Warcraft killed a genre
Mark Kern claims WoW team lowered the MMO difficulty curve too much
Read More »Wildstar dev: ‘We can fill the World of Warcraft void’
The team behind NCsoft’s new MMO Wildstar says it will win back gamers who have abandoned World of Warcraft. Blizzard’s market-leading MMO lost 1.3m subscribers between February and April this year, and many other titles in the sector have been forced to adopt a free-to-play model to survive. But Carbine …
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