Posts Tagged ‘diablo iii’

IGA provider Massive Inc. signs Blizzard – workin’ hard for the money

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

Holy smokes is Redmond turning up the heat.  In less than a week, the relatively quiet IGA (in game advertising) arm of Microsoft: Massive Inc. has sent up two very loud and clear flares, signaling that they are indeed very real, and mean business.  Last week, THQ, this week Blizzard, next week????

Massive announced yesterday that they’ve inked a multiyear deal with Blizzard Entertainment Inc. as exclusive advertising service provider for Blizzard’s website and Battle.net game service in the US, Canada, Europe, South Korea and Australia.

Sadly, Massive wasn’t able to achieve complete and total ad world domination, BUT…to really put the icing on this chocolate slice of IGA love, they’ve also announced that they’re teaming up with Intergi Inc., the world’s largest web-based video game and interactive entertainment network and advertising representation company.  This duo will power and provide ads to the massive (yes, pun intended) Blizzard audience.  Integri is currently powered by Microsfot Atlas AdManager platform, delivering advertising across it’s 700+ sites.

“We are thrilled to work with two industry pioneers; both Massive and Blizzard are two of today’s leading names in the world of gaming, and their confidence in our network and advertising representation services is a true testament to what Intergi offers when it comes to reaching today’s gaming enthusiast,” said Jayson Dubin, CEO of Intergi.

Massive will be delivering ads to an already captive audience across Blizzards’ network of heavily trafficked sites including Battle.net.  Titles across these sites include StarCraft, Warcraft, and Diablo series of games including the upcoming StarCraft II and Diablo III.  And naturally, Massive will be serving up fresh advertising goodness across the jewel in Blizzards crown: ‘World of Warcraft’ website.

COO Paul Sams has already anticipated the questions coming from all sides, and decided to squash any rumor mills before they even ground to life, “Our decision to partner with Massive was based on several important factors, including their technical expertise, global sales presence, and willingness to work with us to ensure advertisements appear only in contexts and environments that make sense,” said Paul Sams, chief operating officer of Blizzard Entertainment. “This partnership does not include in-game advertising, as Massive understands and respects our stance against advertising that might detract from gameplay or offend our players.”

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Blizzard to introduce cross game Achievement System in WoW, Starcraft, and Diablo

Saturday, August 2nd, 2008

World of Warcraft lead designer Jeff Kaplan recently revealed Blizzard’s plan in introduce an achievement system in conjunction with the Wrath of the Lich King launch.

“Eventually, our plans are for the Achievement system to become an account-based system,” he explained.

“It’s basically a gamerscore,” Kaplan said, when I made reference to Xbox Live’s Achievement system. “For now the points are just a ‘WoW’ character score. As we graduate to that Blizzard Account system, which is right on the horizon, it will switch over to a Blizzard Level.”

“Your ‘WoW’ score would be just one factor that will go into your Blizzard Level. And rather than call it a ’score,’ we just wanted it to be like you’re leveling up on Blizzard games… You’ll have this Blizzard identity, and you’ll be able to see things like ‘Oh, this guy was great at Diablo III, but he never played Starcraft and he was mediocre in WoW. That sort of thing,” says Kaplan.

Beta testers of Wrath of the Lich King have already gotten a taste of the new Blizzard Account system.  Beta players have been required to temporarily create a Blizzard Account that’s tied to the WoW accounts.  However, this beta is just that, a test account, and will not function as actual ‘Live’ Blizzard Accounts, and will not count towards purchases in the Blizzard store once the real system is active.

While achievement systems are nothing new to the gaming industry and games themselves, this is however a highly significant move from Blizzard.  Blizzard has bucked the trend for years now, firmly ignoring the growing trend in free to play, micro transaction based MMO’s, favoring the traditional subscription based model.  With the introduction of a pan-Blizzard product database, could there be a weakening of this philosophy?  Would it be possible someday in the near future to equip my Orc hunter with a new gun or outfit based on achievements?  And if I can get these items through an achievement system, how far off are we from dropping a dollar here, and a few dollars over there to grab that purple version of the gun and match it perfectly with newly acquired epic flying mount?

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Blizzard: Diablo III “Theoretically possible” for consoles

Tuesday, July 8th, 2008

Blizzard’s VP of game design Rob Pardo admitted to Eurogamer in their Diablo III Preview that a console version of Diablo is “theoretically possible”.

While Blizzard told fans at last weekend’s Worldwide Invitational that Diablo III is being developed exclusively for PC and Mac, and had no plans to bring the game to a console platform, Pardo said, “I think it’s theoretically possible. It would have some control changes that I think you’d have to make… But it’s probably, of our major franchises, the one that’s most console friendly, for sure.”

Pardo previously worked as the lead designer for World of Warcraft, and now oversees design for all of Blizzard’s titles.  He was quick to point ou the practical and design issues with bringing a Blizz title to a console version.

“You’d need to think about a lot of the point-and-click spells, like point to area-of-effect, or things like line-damage in this direction,” Pardo said. “Target selection is something you’re going to lose on console, you’re really going to be able to do targeting direction, but not specific targeting.”

All hope is not to be lost though.  When asked if a console version would require a ‘from the ground up’ redesign, Pardo responded, “Oh, I don’t think it would be a redesigned game. Out of StarCraft, Warcraft or WOW, Diablo would be the easiest game to translate. But it would still take a bit of work”.

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More info about Lich King from WWI

Thursday, July 3rd, 2008

Last weekend’s Worldwide Invitational brought a whole lot of info regarding the upcoming Lich King expansion pack into the daylight.  While dropping the Diablo III package on participants, there was still a major focus on the Lich King and all the exciting new details.

WOW Insider has yet to disappoint, and has provided a boatload of details.  They brought us extensive details regarding the changes of faction rep, including deets on the new system called Championing.

Championing will allow a player to wear an item, let’s say a Tabard, from your chosen faction and then earn rep for this faction from any dungeon you choose.  W00T!  Gone are (will be) the days of endlessly waiting in the pug queue and grinding the one dungeon that grants your related factions’ rep.

The Oculus also came to light during the dungeons and raids panel.  This dungeon is set to be a flagship as players will fly through it on drake mounts.  The drakes have group roles associated with them (DPS, Tank, and Healing) that allow players to change things up and try different roles for a welcome change.

Speaking of dungeons, the panel also confirmed that there will be 8, count ‘em 8, level 70-79 dungeons, and 4 level 80’s.  All of these will be 5 man based areas, and available in normal and heroic modes.  There will also be 3 first tier raids for 10 – 25 man parties.  The panel also spoke on a return to Naxxramas; the Halls of Stone which will include stories and quests from Uldaman and require a flappy to get to.  Also joining the impressive lineup will be a new Caverns of Time instance that has players battling alongside Arthas in the Culling of Stratholme mission from Warcraft III.  Again, WOW Insider has full details in their notes section.

New Battlegrounds you say?  If PVE wasn’t exciting enough, the PVP panel released that they Lich King will include an assault type battleground.  One side will attack, while the other defends.  This battleground is slated to be set on an island off the coast of Northrend and will have a Titan theme.  Need a lift?  Oooo yeah…this BG will have vehicles, siege weapons, and destructible buildings (taking cues from Diablo?), and will be a 10-15 man battle.

Personally, I dig instanced PVP zones, but Blizz is also kicking in a non-instanced area as well.  Lake Wintergrasp will feature some new vehicles including:

    • The Demolisher – a siege vehicle for a driver and passengers with short and long range attacks and a ram.
    • The Foresaken Catapult – a fast and nimble machine for one player with a flame attack
    • The Siege Engine – a driver, passenger, and gunner vehicle.
    • A Flying Mount – a delicate flier for pilot and gunner.
    • The Anti-Air Goblin Shredder –a personal armor suit that allows you to rocket boost into the air to attack airborne objects (and people).

    Blizz also did a delicate dance around the topic of two talent specs.  This would allow players to play two different roles without the laborious task or respeccing and spending a small fortune with various trainers.  For example, a Warrior class might want to Tank on one instanct, and do DPS on the next.  If this flirtation with dual spec comes to light, this task could be accomplished with a few clicks.

    More and more info is hitting the streets regarding Blizzard’s impressive plans for the new Lich King expansion.  Obviously they’ve been hard at work…let’s just battle through the summer, and do everything we can to be ready for the new package!

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    Diablo III revealed!

    Saturday, June 28th, 2008

    I’m not even going to pretend that you didn’t hear about this already.  :)   The gaming world pretty much did a backflip on itself today, when Blizz dropped the clams and officially released Diablo III today.

    Blizz made the announcement at the 2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational with only a tad bit of fanfare.  Here’s a peak at the cinematic trailer:

    YouTube Preview Image

    It appears as though Blizzard has put the fears to rest that they would massively change the play style/structure of the game.  They’ve already got the super (not so) secret recipe of loot dropping, blitzkrieg attack, slash and burn play that’s made them the success that they are today formula perfected.  Why mess with it?

    Naturally in Diablo III we’re presented with the norms we’ve come to expect: mobs of zombies and minotaurs, a dungeon, gore, and a dash of magic thrown in for good measure.

    Following the release, the Blizzard team confirmed that Diablo III will be available in PC and Mac platforms, also saying it had “no plans” for console versions, and added that it was too early to talk about a release date.  Frank Pearce did however add, “as much as possible it will be our goal to release simultaneously worldwide”.

    Lead designer Jay Wilson took to the stage and gave viewers a walkthrough and introduced the barbarian class.  Using a new streamlined interface, Wilson took his barbarian cross water covered walkways in a dark table, slaying hundreds of demons along the way.  Quick skills are now an addition to the mouse wheel and tab key, along with left and right mouse buttons.  Wilson said, “It will all be so simple that you can play it with just the mouse”.

    A nice nifty new drop is included in Diablo III, red globes that allow a speedy return to full health.  The environment is also fully destructable, with Wilson taking out tens of demons with his barbarian smashing down a destructible wall over their heads.

    ….and that was just the beginning.  Our mouths are certainly watered…what are your thoughts on Diablo III?

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