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'Warcraft' among Universal's first Ultra HD Blu-ray offerings
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment detailed its list of Ultra HD Blu-ray releases scheduled this summer, and it's just the tip of the iceberg for 4K home video collectors. Beginning with Warcraft, Jason Bourne, and The Huntsman: Winter's War, more than 100 titles will be available by the end of the year for 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and digital formats. Each title will be mastered in Dolby Vision as well, with HDR and brighter colors across digital and physical releases.
'World of Warcraft' to get a book series aimed at kids
World of Warcraft has been around for more than a decade, fleshing out the world of Azeroth with new lands, stories and characters. Its subscriber base is slowly shrinking, but the Warcraft brand continues to evolve through games like Hearthstone and an upcoming feature-length movie. Now, developer Blizzard is teaming up with Scholastic for a new book series aimed at 8 to 12-year-olds. It's called World of Warcraft: Traveler and the first novel will be launching in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand this November. The second instalment is due in 2017.
The After Math: Pop culture phenoms
Quentin Tarantino is taking some serious flack this week for his comments on the #BlackLivesMatter debate. As such, we're taking a look at some other franchises that are sure to get your geek blood pumping harder than the first time you listened to Gangnam Style. Here are the numbers you deserve, not the numbers you need right now.
The first full 'Warcraft' movie trailer is, in a word, epic
Whether you're a veteran World of Warcraft player, a Hearthstone newbie or someone who loves a great fantasy story, the trailer for Legendary Pictures' Warcraft is captivating. Warcraft is due in theaters on June 10th. It's Activision Blizzard's first foray into movie-making -- but it's definitely not the last. The company today announced its own, in-house film and TV business, Activision Blizzard Studios. It's already working on a Skylanders cartoon series and films based on the Call of Duty franchise. Warcraft doesn't fall under this new studio's umbrella.
Here's a sneak peek at the new 'Warcraft' movie trailer
Legendary Pictures today released a 16-second clip of the trailer for Duncan Jones' upcoming World of Warcraft movie. The trailer itself will debut this Friday at Blizzard's BlizzCon event while fans will have to wait until June 10th to see the movie in all of its CGI-dominated glory.
Blizzard's huge 'World of Warcraft: Legion' expansion hits beta this year
Blizzard ended 2014 with a promise to release bigger, better expansions faster -- and today at Gamescom it finally showed off the goods. The next World of Warcraft expansion is called Legion, and like its name, its additions to the game world are many. Legion will bump the max player level up to 110 (from 100) and introduce a new continent: the Broken Isles. Here players will search for the Tomb of Sargeras, and prepare for the invasion of an all-powerful demon army. How do you fight demons, you ask? With an all-new Demon Hunter Hero Class, of course.
Fly over a giant 'Warcraft' city in a 360-degree video
Duncan Jones' Warcraft movie doesn't hit theaters for another year, but that isn't stopping Legendary Pictures from giving you a first-hand look at the cinematic version of Azeroth. The studio has released a 360-degree YouTube video (also available in VR, if you use Android and iOS apps) that has you flying over the human capital Stormwind on the back of a gryphon. While this isn't as juicy as a full-fledged trailer, it'll give you a sense of the movie's grand scale: there are giant towers, narrow streets and majestic mountains. Something tells us that Stormwind won't look quite so pristine once Jones is finished with it, so give this clip a look if you want to see the fantasy city at its best.
'Heroes of the Storm' pits 'StarCraft against 'Warcraft' in June
More than three years after Blizzard announced it would be making a competitor to League of Legends and Dota 2, that game finally has an official release date. Heroes of the Storm comes out June 2nd, brining with it seven maps for players to face off on using over 30 characters culled from the studio's famous Diablo, StarCraft and Warcraft series. As with other multiplayer online battle arena games, or MOBAs as they're commonly known, like the aforementioned League of Legends, Heroes of the Storm is free to download and start playing. Blizzard makes money on the game by charging for new characters as well as customization options.
Blizzard's 'Hearthstone' card game lands on your smartphone
There goes your hope of staying productive at work. Blizzard has updated Hearthstone for Android and iOS to support smartphones, so you can indulge in its Warcraft-themed free-to-play card gaming while you're stuck in your cubicle. You shouldn't lose any content in the translation, but there's an "all-new" interface designed for smaller screens. Just be sure to exercise some restraint -- it could be tempting to squeeze in one more round before that big meeting.
Dozens of Blizzard's biggest game characters are getting figurines
You're typically lucky if you get even a few figurines based on your favorite games. That's certainly true with Blizzard -- despite its deep game universes, you seldom get more than a handful of characters. Thankfully, that relative drought is about to end soon. The National Entertainment Collectibles Association (NECA) is launching a collectible line based around Blizzard's multi-franchise online battle arena, Heroes of the Storm, and it's planning figurines for all 34 playable characters. If you want to have a Diablo III demon hunter or StarCraft II's Tychus on your desk, you can.
World of Warcraft outlines February's events
There are a lot of holiday events in World of Warcraft this month. February contains the Lunar Festival, Love is in the Air, the Darkmoon Faire... heck, it's also going to be the month that the next major raid opens up. Luckily for avid World of Warcraft players, the official site has put together a comprehensive schedule of the month's festivities, starting with the Valentine's Day event and the new raid opening tomorrow. Astute readers will note that Blizzard suggests players prepare for patch 6.1 with no hints about when it's coming out. Whether this means it's going to be later in the month or won't be dropping until March remains to be seen. Then again, the raiding crowd will have plenty to do through the month with Blackrock Foundry, and if you like holiday events, you've got several of those coming around as well.
Rumor: Leak suggests the next WoW expansion is nearly feature-complete
So, ready to jump on the rumor mill? Because it's churning out big stuff about Blizzard today. An anonymous source from inside the company has apparently claimed that World of Warcraft's next expansion has quadrupled its art outsourcing and is nearly feature-complete. The source also claimed that Hearthstone is doing banner business, with its next expansion set to release in April with a heavier PvE focus. Darker news was revealed for the other franchises under the company's banner. The next part of StarCraft II is done but with no release date. Overwatch is in the midst of debates over business model and payment plans, with the studio pushing for a 2015 release but most likely going for 2016. Meanwhile, Heroes of the Storm has low expectations among the upper management and the Diablo III team has been "completely gutted." It's up to you you believe the rumors, of course, although come April, they might look rather plausible.
World of Warcraft adds selfie support
Were you afraid that with the addition of Twitter support in the next World of Warcraft patch you would be deprived of the joy that is taking selfies in-game? Worry no longer. The addition of the S.E.L.F.I.E. camera in patch 6.1 ensures that you can indeed log in, find a nice view, and then duckface at the camera before shooting off a character picture for all of your devoted followers. It's the best thing in the expansion so far. Grabbing the item requires nothing more than a rare follower mission with no significant bells or whistles, with another upgrade mission available to pick up a set of various filters for the camera. Our sister site has a guide to making use of the new device, along with the requisite speculation that it will tie more directly into the Twitter integration. That feature isn't currently enabled, but it can't be coincidence that the new camera arrived at the same time, can it?
World of Warcraft unleashes its full patch 6.1 patch notes
The first major patch for World of Warcraft's latest expansion is here! If by "here" you mean "on the test realm," anyhow. So not here at all. The opposite of here; still preparing to be here. One might even go so far as to say it's there. But the full (preliminary) patch notes for the test realm are available right now for those who'd like to see what's around the corner aside from brand-new Blood Elf models. Garrison fans will have plenty of things to enjoy, with new visitors offering quests, new follower missions, and a new music box available. Players can also make use of a new Twitter integration feature and the new heirloom collection tab. Several classes are also seeing talent and balance adjustments, including across-the-board buffs to healer damage output for adventuring in the world. No word yet on when the patch will drop, but you can see what it contains from the patch notes.
PAX South 2015: Why aren't MMOs more social?
On Friday, Alex Albrecht from ZergID and formerly of the Totally Rad Show headed up a PAX South panel about the social side of MMOs, inviting Patrick Mulhern from Lorehound, Jenesee Grey from Camelot Unchained, and me to join to discuss community in MMOs and why it's seemed so absent in recent years. Meg Campbell from YouTube moderated the panel discussion, calling us the PAX MMO guild. I admit that I considered naming this piece, "How Star Wars Galaxies did everything right and World of Warcraft did everything wrong" because I am obviously biased. But I really was completely surprised at how much SWG came up during the panel. Many former Galaxies players will tell you that there was a lot about that game that was pure crap, but when you talk about the social implementations of SWG, there just aren't many games that compare.
WoW's new Blood Elves arrive in update 6.1
Our sister site WoW Insider reports this morning that World of Warcraft's Blood Elves, left off the roster of races that received model revamps with the Warlords of Draenor expansion last November, will finally meet their new faces. Actually, it's just the bodies: The male faces aren't entirely done yet and currently share the same facial geometry. "While we're excited to share with you our progress on these new models, I do want to stress that the models, textures, and animations are not entirely finished. Bug fixing and iteration can and will occur, and that's where you come in!" writes Blizzard QA on the US and EU forums, soliciting costructive feedback. MMO Champion has full-size, head-to-toe bikini shots of both the female and male models because of course it does. Also arriving in update 6.1 are class tweaks, new heirloom gear, garrison expansions, follower mission fixes, and the chance to buy (with gold) those followers you missed while questing. The first iteration of the update landed on the PTR in early January; the patch's launch date on production servers has not been announced.
World of Warcraft player hits 100th level 100
Do you like playing World of Warcraft? Would you like to play a thousand levels of World of Warcraft? Because the player known as Watola did just that. Watola has 100 characters at level 100, a project that started during the exceptionally long twilight of Mists of Pandaria. With 20 characters already at the level cap back then, another 80 apparently seemed like a doable project, which started a cycle of very efficient leveling and copious use of recruit-a-friend tricks. The method outlined on the the forums involves essentially rotating through full rest state on various characters and having a set plan of attack, along with using tank characters via recruit-a-friend to ensure that queues for dungeons are more straightforward. If you'd like to do the same, it's still perfectly functional now, although you'll have to do so knowing full well that you can never have a world-first level 1,000. (That seems a fair nod for the achievement.)
Did you get a World of Warcraft anniversary statue?
The World of Warcraft community is abuzz with the revelation that Blizzard is sending out a special thank-you to its most dedicated fans for its 10th anniversary: a physical 9" statue of an Orc. Only fans who have been with the game for the entire ride are eligible to get the statue, however,. According to Blizzard's qualifications, "A player must have created a World of Warcraft account within 60 days of the game launching in the NA or EU regions and maintained their subscription or game time for all 10 years." Our question today is, if you qualify for this, have you indeed received your spiffy statue? And do you have a picture to prove it?
WoW Archivist: 10 years, 10 amazing moments
WoW Archivist is a biweekly column by WoW Insider's Scott Andrews, who explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? It first appeared on our sister site on January 1616, 2015, and is included here by permission. In 2004, I bought a brown box with some discs inside it. On the cover was a close-up of a woman with crazy purple eyebrows and an angry bearded guy -- possibly Matt Rossi -- holding a gun. I didn't know anything about the Warcraft universe at the time. I'd watched someone play Warcraft III once (or was it II?). I remember chuckling at the peons' comments as they got to work. That was the extent of my experience. I'd been playing Final Fantasy XI, and I loved the concept of an online world. I was hoping for a game that was more accessible than FFXI but with all the cool monsters, grouping, exploration, and loot. I never imagined the journey that I was about to take, the people I would meet, the opportunities that would become open to me as a result of that purchase. Many of us who played back then had no idea what was about to happen to the gaming world because of that brown box.
The usual suspects dominate December's Raptr rankings
Do you quote Raptr data when having unscientific discussions about MMO playerbase numbers? If so, rejoice, because here are some more numbers based on a sample size of dubious value! As you might expect, League of Legends, Dota 2, and World of Warcraft continue to dominate Raptr users' attention spans, while ArcheAge, Final Fantasy XIV, and Guild Wars 2 all dropped from their position in November's rankings. Click past the cut to see the full list. [Source: Raptr press release]
