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IGN Pro League technology purchased by Blizzard
Do you like eSports? Blizzard Entertainment clearly does, as the company has just purchased the technology and assets of IGN Pro League. Several employees came along with the acquisition, including former IPL general manager David Ting. The hard assets will be used to promote various events centering around Blizzard's online games, while the staff members are joining Blizzard's internal eSports teams according to initial reports. Needless to say, this marks the end of IPL's competitive gaming coverage, which has in the past included games such as League of Legends and StarCraft II. The brand does not go with these employees or assets, meaning that last weekend's $100,000 Shootmania launch event was the final broadcast for the IPL. It remains to be seen what will be launched from the expanded Blizzard team, but representatives from the company were quite clear in stating that this is a move meant to promote the company's online and eSports presence.
Blizzard purchases IGN Pro League
Blizzard has bought the technology and other assets related to the IGN Pro League. The future of IPL was up in the air due to IGN layoffs back in February with 1UP, UGO, and Gamespy closing shop. Now we know what the fate of IPL will be. Some members of the team will be moving over to San Francisco to work on "high-quality web and mobile content in support of Blizzard games" but it appears that the actual operations of IPL will be coming to a close. Other members will be joining Blizzard's existing eSports team and possibly assisting them with the recently announced Starcraft 2 World Championship Series. Personally, I've enjoyed watching the League of Legends and Starcraft 2 tournaments that IPL held. I'm quite sad to see them go as I was impressed by the level of quality in their productions. Best of luck to everyone involved!
StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm infects 1.1 million in 48 hours
StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, the second salvo in Blizzard Entertainment's three-pronged sequel to the beloved RTS, has managed to entice 1.1 million gamers in its first 48 hours. The 1.1 million figure accounts for sales across both retail and digital.Predecessor StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty managed to sell 1.5 million copies worldwide in its first 48 hours. Both can't match Blizzard's launch of Diablo 3 last year, which moved 3.5 million copies in its first 24 hours and helped Activision Blizzard enjoy historical profits in 2012.
StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm review: Zerg rushing towards resolution
In music theory, there's a series of notes called a tritone interval. (I'm a writer and a Rock Band player, not a musician, so bear with me, band members.) The tritone consists of three different whole tones: The first sets the stage, marks the spot on the musical scale that our ear can attune itself to. The second note is actually dissonant – it throws off the harmony, and introduces new elements so distasteful that the chord used to be called "The Devil in Music."The third tone, however, finishes off the chord in exactly the right way, and brings resolution to all of the dissonance. Leonard Bernstein famously put the tritone to great use in the song "Maria" from West Side Story: "Ma-" is the beginning tone, "-ri-" shakes things up with some disharmony, and "-a" resolves the melody, justifying the lead couple's forbidden love.Now, using that theory to talk about Blizzard's StarCraft 2 trilogy is a little unfair. The second campaign, Heart of the Swarm, isn't anywhere near "distasteful." But it does introduce plenty of new elements to the series, spinning off the RTS classic into places that Wings of Liberty never dared to go. And like that second note of a tritone, it makes sure to leave plenty of ambiguity and promise out there, making sure we're all ready for the big finale in Legacy of the Void.%Gallery-176756%
Lich King easter egg discovered in StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm
"There must always be a Lich King," Bolvar reminded us, and he really, really meant it. Across all realities, in every Blizzard intellectual property, there must be a Lich King. That's right, take a look at that screenshot up there. Yup, that's the Lich King, buried in a sheet of ice somewhere in the Koprulu Sector. Redditor Aunvilgod laments, "I'm just making a map, and I see this..." I'm not sure it's really any major source of concern, though, considering we have recent confirmation that the Zerg would curbstomp the Scourge in a brawl. Then again, that's only good news if you're Zerg. Terrans and Protoss might have a slightly different perspective. Unsurprisingly, the thread is immediately flooded with cries for a Warcraft 4. I really don't think WoW is going anywhere anytime soon, folks, though I suppose fans can dream.
Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm launch schedule
Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm officially launches, as the image suggests, on March 12, but, with the game launching at midnight tonight, launch events have kicked off all over the world. The evening of March 11 is when celebrations began in Sydney, Australia, where, at the time of writing, the game has been available for purchase for a full eight hours. Events are currently taking place in Europe, with activities underway and being broadcast live on Blizzard's official twitch channel right now. The European events include a tournament featuring well-known players such as Stephano, LucifroN, Grubby and White-Ra, who are competing live on stage, mixed in with developer interviews, exclusive content and more! If you're too late to check out the European streams, which finish at 8pm EST, fear not, because the US events kick off at 9pm PST, with Day9 and Husky kicking off proceedings. There will be live show matches, displaying the new "take command" feature, and new custom games, and two attendees will have the opportunity to play with Suppy and ViBE in a 2v2 pro/am match. Mike Morhaime, Chris Metzen, Chris Sigaty and Sam Didier will be in attendance at the US event, taking part in developer presentations, custom games and much more. Again, if you weren't able to make it to Irvine to attend the event, this will all be broadcast live via the official Twitch channel. Do check out Blizzard's launch pages for further information on any of the events.
StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm server start times
StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm launches tomorrow, and in the interest of its international fanbase Blizzard has provided a handy list of server activation times (i.e. when you can connect and start playing), broken down by region. You'll find the list after the break. If you're playing StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty in preparation for the new expansion, you'll have to restart your game once Heart of the Swarm officially launches in your area, ensuring you'll have the very latest patch data upon starting. Changes in Heart of the Swarm includes a revamped replay system and ability to recover dropped games when playing online.
Get StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty for $18 on Newegg
While Blizzard dropped the price of StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty to $20 on Battle.net until March 12, Newegg managed to top that price with a deal of its own. By entering the code STW311 at checkout, players can snag the game for $17.99 on the retailer's site.The extra $2 could be put toward the second part of the three-part RTS, StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, which is scheduled to launch March 12.
StarCraft: Kerrigan -- Hope and Vengeance free on Comixology
This week, we had patch 5.2 to contend with, but next week it's all about the launch of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm for plenty of players. Blizzard has been slowly releasing promotional material for the new game, including a new cinematic and a pretty fascinating viral advertising campaign called Project Blackstone, which is still being updated as the time ticks down to Heart of the Swarm's launch. And now we have another piece -- a comic about Kerrigan and a glimpse at what she's been through that takes place at some point after she was rescued at the end of Wings of Liberty. Kerrigan -- Hope and Vengeance #0 is a relatively short comic, but the art and writing is top-notch. And here's the kicker -- it's absolutely free. You don't have to pay for the comic, you simply plunk it in your cart, checkout and read. The comic is a fairly brisk 8 pages, but with a story by Cameron Dayton and some really stunning art by Zoddd, not to mention the absence of a price tag, this is a nice treat for StarCraft fans. To my knowledge, this is the first time Blizzard's ever offered a free digital comic of this scope. And it does make one wonder.
Blizzard drops StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty to $20 until March 12
Blizzard is selling the first part of its three-pronged assault of a sequel, StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty, for half-off until March 12. You can get the game through Battle.net right now for $20.Wings of Liberty focuses on the Terran faction (see: future humans) on the single-player campaign, saddled on the back of the series' popular multiplayer component. The second wave of the three-part RTS sequel is due on March 12, StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm. A recent multiplayer beta for Heart of the Swarm concluded on March 1, allowing those who pre-ordered and opted in a taste of the new multiplayer changes.
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm Vengeance trailer debuts
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm launches March 12, 2013 -- are you ready for it? If you weren't already hyped for the next installment of the game, Blizzard has just released the new trailer shown above. Heart of the Swarm continues the story where Wings of Liberty left off, and follows the continuing tale of Sarah Kerrigan. Although the Xel'Naga artifact appears to have restored Kerrigan's human form, is humanity where her heart really lies? As usual, the cinematics team have outdone themselves. If there's one thing Blizzard has always excelled at, it's producing some seriously amazing trailers. Check out the trailer in full above, and don't forget to pick up your copy of Heart of the Swarm March 12.
StarCraft Universe prologue goes live on Battle.net
It's been quite a while since we heard anything about ambitious StarCraft II mod StarCraft Universe, which endeavored to turn the real-time-strategy titan into a full-fledged MMO. Well, it turns out that today the creators of the mod have launched the game's single-player prologue, which has been designed to introduce players to the story and teach them how to play. For those of you wondering why a mod aiming to recreate the MMO experience is launching with only single-player content, the devs state in the YouTube description of the game's trailer that they "need to release this project slowly to ensure all of [the] core systems work properly." So in a way, this could be thought of StarCraft Universe's open beta where players can play around and help the developers iron out the kinks before the multiplayer content launches. To get a look at this ambitious mod in action, skip on past the cut to check out the game's latest trailer. If you wanna go straight to playing it yourself, though, all you have to do is search for "Universe" in StarCraft II's arcade.
Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm public beta ends March 1
If you've been enjoying the StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm public beta, then we're afraid we've got some bad news – it all comes to an end on March 1. Blizzard has announced the end of the open beta, which concludes just under two weeks prior to the launch of StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm on March 12. StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm is the second volley in Blizzard's planned three-game delivery for the sequel to its highly-regarded real-time strategy series. We were able to spend some time with Heart of the Swarm last month, feel free to read our impressions – or, if you just want something pretty to look at, check out the game's introductory cinematic.
Blizzard's Project Blackstone is a Heart of the Swarm viral campaign
Blizzard Entertainment registered a site called ProjectBlackstone.com late last year, and fans wondered if maybe it might be related to the mysterious upcoming Blizzard project code-named Titan. But no such luck, it seems: The domain went live this week and, soon after that, some crafty Redditors found the password. (It's "Y7_$0>0k_3<$m," if you want to try it yourself). The whole campaign has been revealed as a Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm tie-in.Opening the site up reveals emails between various Terran characters talking about experimenting on Zerg lifeforms and presumably we'll see updates in the future that will fill out the story heading into the new game. Heart of the Swarm, the second part of the trilogy that Blizzard's Starcraft 2 has become, is due out on March 12.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Touring the Art of Blizzard at Gallery Nucleus
Earlier this month, Blizzard celebrated the release of its newly published book The Art of Blizzard by opening the doors to a new art exhibition in Alhambra, California. The exhibit, hosted by the local Gallery Nucleus, kicked off with a well-attended Saturday night reception that drew in visitors more accustomed to Fel Reavers than fine art. Attendees covered the full range of demographics, wearing anything from Horde hoodies to shiny stilettos (since people in costume were let in for free, it's important to note that we're referring to the shoes, not the daggers). Massively and our sister site WoW Insider were on hand to take in the spectacle. So what did we see?%Gallery-176765%
StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm cinematic intro lives up to Blizzard's pedigree
Blizzard does like to put on a big show with its opening cinematics, and this one for StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm is no exception. The expansion arrives on March 12, but in the meantime you can check out Mike Schramm's recent hands-on preview.
Mission to evolve StarCraft 2 with 'Heart of the Swarm'
It was nearly five years ago now that we heard Starcraft 2 wouldn't be one game, but three: The long awaited sequel would become a trilogy, cemented into a three-year release schedule, with each iteration following a new race in the series. Though Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty arrived to critical and commercial acclaim in the summer of 2010, Blizzard is only now making its trilogy concept a reality. Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm is almost done, and set to be released this March.Blizzard showed off the first three missions of Heart of the Swarm this past week (and the studio has been running multiplayer beta additions and features for quite some time), and from our experience it's becoming clear the second release in this trilogy isn't a simple expansion pack. With the Zerg-focused Heart of the Swarm, the Irvine-based company has crafted something new within the renowned Starcraft tradition; a game intensely focused on the Zerg, their units and abilities, and of course the story of their Queen, Kerrigan.%Gallery-176756%
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm cinematic revealed
Blizzard revealed the StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm opening cinematic late last night. Sure, it isn't Warcraft material, but it's fair to say we all enjoy the work that comes from the team that made the Mists of Pandaria cinematic. And don't lie -- you pet collectors are going to be picking up the Collector's Edition of Heart of the Swarm for its Baneling pet anyway. The cinematic, which you can view behind the cut below along with its accompanying blue post, depicts a Zerg siege of the Terran Dominion as Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades, seeks vengeance against Arcturus Mengsk. We really could have done without the Wilhelm Scream at 1:43 in the cinematic, but to be entirely fair, StarCraft has a long history of using it and other cliché stock sound effects.
Weekly maintenance extended to 3pm PST
Realm maintenance for all Warcraft realms as well as Diablo III and StarCraft II has now been extended to 3pm PST, according to the official BlizzardCS Twitter feed. Maintenance was originally extended to 1pm PST, but apparently some unforeseen issues have come up which require some additional work. What exactly this maintenance is addressing is unknown at this time, but hopefully realms will be up and playable soon. Blizzard does have a thread that is being updated as more information comes in, so if you're waiting for realms to come back up, you may want to keep an eye on the official thread. Alternatively, if you have a Twitter account, following @BlizzardCS is an excellent way to keep tabs on maintenance issues as well. If there are any further extensions, we'll update this post as needed. Edit: All servers are now back online and available for play!
StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm set for March 12, says Battle.net [update: confirmed]
StarCraft 2 expansion Heart of the Swarm deploys on March 12, 2013, according to a listing on Battle.net. There isn't an official announcement yet, but the digital purchase page for StarCraft 2 indicates Heart of the Swarm will be "available for play" on said date. The second expansion, combined with StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty, is currently priced $59.99.During Activision's earnings call last week, Blizzard head Mike Morhaime said his studio was "working hard towards a first half 2013 launch" for Heart of the Swarm. This release date matches up, but it's surprising to see so soon after the reveal of a vague timeframe.Update: Blizzard confirm Heart of the Swarm arrives in stores and online on March 12, 2013, released individually at an expected price of $39.99. The game will also be available in Digital Deluxe and Collector's Edition versions, priced at $59.99 and $79.99 respectively. The Digital Deluxe version includes a Torrasque look for Ultralisks, new Battle.net decals and portraits, a Baneling pet for World of Warcraft, and a new sigil for Diablo 3 along with zerg wings for your character. The Collector's Edition includes all of what's in the Digital Deluxe version, and in addition a behind-the-scenes DVD/Blu-Ray, unique soundtrack, Heart of the Swarm hard-cover art book, and 'Zerg Rush' mousepad.
