Hasta La Gadget!

When Diablo 3 was revealed, Blizzard also announced that they would be introducing a proper PvP system in which players would be able to battle each other in an arena-like setting, much like how World of Warcraft gamers can participate in arena matches for various rewards. Now given the amount of success that Starcraft and Starcraft 2 had, many are wondering if perhaps Diablo 3’s PvP scene could perhaps become an eSport. Of course Blizzard has to release the PvP feature first for that to be even considered, but it looks like even when it does, it does not seem that it will be made or pushed towards being an eSport.

This was confirmed by Blizzard’s Mike Morhaime  during a press conference last week at the Battle.net World Championship finals in Shanghai as transcribed by TeamLiquid. While this isn’t to say that PvP in Diablo 3 won’t be competitive, Morhaime rightfully distinguishes that while PvP in Diablo 3 will be competitive, creating a professional tournament around it would be an entirely different story. “There are certainly competitive things that we’ll be able to do with Diablo, and I think that at future Blizzcons we might set up different ways for people to compete at the game, but that’s very different from creating a professional tournament structure around something like that.” In any case we’re still waiting on Blizzard to release the PvP portion of the game whose date still eludes us.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Dead Or Alive 5 Costume Pack Gets All Risque, Battlefield 3 Patch Corrects Input ful Lag, Balances Weapons And Squashes Bugs,

StarCraft II players have been waiting a long time for Blizzard to announce a release date for the game’s first expansion, Heart of the Swarm, and it seems the big day has finally arrived. Earlier today, Battle.net was showing a release date of March 12, 2013 for Heart of the Swarm, a date that Blizzard later confirmed. So, only five more months and you can finally get your hands on Heart of the Swarm. Exciting, no?

On its own, Heart of the Swarm will cost $39.99 and will be available physically at brick and mortar stores as well as digitally over on Battle.net. If you’re new to the world of StarCraft II, you’ll be able to pre-order a bundle that packs Wings of Liberty and Heart of the Swarm together for $60. Players who pre-order this bundle (pre-orders open up today, by the way) will have immediate access to their copy of Wings of Liberty.

There are also a couple collector’s editions for Heart of the Swarm. The first is the Digital Deluxe Edition, which as you may have guessed is only available digitally. This comes with Heart of the Swarm (naturally), a Torrasque skin for Zerg Ultralisks, special StarCraft II portraits and decals for your Battle.net account, a Baneling companion pet for World of Warcraft, and finally, wearable bladewings and a banner sigil for use in Diablo III.

The physical Heart of the Swarm Collector’s Edition features all of the digital goodies found in the Digital Deluxe Edition, along with a behind-the-scenes DVD/Blu-Ray, a copy of the Heart of the Swarm soundtrack, the compulsory art book, and a Zerg Rush mouse pad. The Digital Deluxe Edition will cost $59.99, while the full blow Collector’s Edition will set you back $79.99. Are you ready for some more StarCraft II action?

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm finally gets a release date is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Just like Diablo 3 and World of Warcraft, Starcraft 2 was released for several different regions which means that not everyone can play together. This is a bit of a bummer if you have friends living in a different region, which means you won’t get to play with them and there will be maps on either region that either side won’t have access to. Well the good news is that Blizzard has announced that in the coming months, they will be introducing Global Play in an upcoming patch.

According to Blizzard, Global Play will allow players to freely switch between regions while retaining your game language and user interface. However the drawback is that your character, profiles, stats and ladder positions will not carry from region to region, which means that switching regions would be equivalent to a fresh start. This might not be a big deal to the casual player who is looking to play with friends, but for the more competitive, this could be inconvenient as they’d have to work their way from group up. In any case Blizzard will be releasing more information on Global Play soon, so stay tuned for updates!

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Blizzard looking into turning Starcraft 2’s multiplayer into a free-to-play experience, StarCraft 2: Heart Of The Swarm unit details unveiled,

While Blizzard’s Diablo 3 might not have been the successor to Diablo 2 that many fans were hoping for, it is still an enjoyable game nonetheless. It probably helped Blizzard garner new fans as well and we guess many are wondering what sort of new features and content an expansion could introduce. Now it’s pretty much a given that Blizzard will create an expansion for Diablo 3, but we guess it’s always nice to hear it from the developers themselves. In an investor call, it has been reported (via Joystiq) that according to Blizzard’s president, Mike Morhaime, it was revealed that an expansion has been planned for Diablo 3. That’s pretty much as official as it gets, but unfortunately there was no mention as to what sort of content we could be looking at, and when we might be able to expect it. However Blizzard tends to release expansions every couple of years, so with Diablo 3 having been released this year, it would be a safe bet to assume its expansion might only see a release in 2014. In the meantime what do you think we can expect – apart from possibly killing Diablo all over again?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Diablo 3 Linux users auto-banned by Blizzard, Diablo 3 patch 1.0.5 arriving on October 16th,

Activision, perhaps the biggest name in video games at the moment, has reported its financial results for Q3 2012, and as you’ve probably already guessed, they’re pretty darn great. The company brought in a GAAP net revenue of $841 million during the quarter, which up significantly from the $754 million in took in during Q3 2011. It’s also $101 million more than the company originally projected, so you can bet that Activision’s executives are smiling this evening.

Its earnings per share for the quarter also grew year-over-year and topped projections. The company is reporting a GAAP earnings per share of $0.20, rising $0.07 from the year prior and beating projections by a healthy $0.14. Non-GAAP net revenue came in at $751 million for the quarter, while non-GAAP earnings per share is at $0.15. Since the company performed better than expected in Q3, it has revised its forecast for the full year, now expecting GAAP net revenue to come in at $4.57 billion as compared to a previous projection of $4.33 billion.

In the earnings call to accompany this report, Blizzard‘s Mike Morhaime announced that the studio is planning an expansion to Diablo III, though didn’t give any other details on it. We also heard the unfortunate news that StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm won’t make a 2012 release, though that was pretty easy to figure out considering that it’s now November. Now Blizzard is shooting for a first-half 2013 release date for Heart of the Swarm, though it wouldn’t out an specific release date.

Now Activision is in its Q4, which will definitely be bigger than the quarters before it thanks to next week’s release of Black Ops II and the fact that the holiday shopping season will shortly be in full swing. Make no mistake, Black Ops II is going to make Activision a lot of money in Q4, as will Skylanders Giants. We’ll be watching for Activision’s next round of financials at the end of Q4, so keep it tuned here to SlashGear for more.

Activision Q3 2012 results give info on Diablo III, Starcraft II expansions is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.