My New Year's day hangover was mercifully shorter than my fading fond memories of 2009, but looking back through that skid-tinted pane and with the aid of a little perspective from M2 Research, I've realised just how bloody awful 2009 was for many people in the games industry:

The Chinese version of World of Warcraft is back online after an enforced 2 month hiatus following Blizzard changing local operators from The9 to NetEase. The whole process, which could have cost Blizzard and its partner NetEase an estimated $9 million, should have been a simple swap from one operator to another but was held up by Chinese government bureaucracy. Blizzard needed a new permit from the General Administration of Press and Publications (GAPP) department of the Chinese government, but ...

When StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty was delayed earlier this month, Blizzard claimed that it was in order to finish up the new version of their online match making service Battle.net, which they claim is a cornerstone of the StarCraft II experience. With anticipation ridiculously high for the long promised title, and Blizzard keeping a tight lid on exactly what they intended to do with Battle.net, players had plenty of questions as ...

Blizzard has announced the long awaited third expansion for World Of Warcraft. Cataclysm introduces two new races, the Worgen for Alliance and Goblins for Horde along with race/class combinations like the Troll Druid and Tauren Paladin. There's a new profession - archaeology - and the anticipated level cap increase, to 85. Blizzard's Chris Metzen told the raving crowd at Blizzcon '09 that Cataclysm would be "nothing less than earth-shattering" and would "literally change the face of Azeroth." ...

Over 100,000 people have signed a ‘LAN in StarCraft II Please’ petition over on PetitionOnline.com. The petition was started following the announcement that Blizzards much anticipated RTS sequel wouldn’t come with the ability to play across a ‘Local Area Network’ or LAN, which  for many fans of the first game was a staple way to play multiplayer. Instead Blizzard has said it will only be playable online through Battle.net, leaving a large number of fans unhappy about ...

It’s always important to go out with a bang, so perhaps that’s why Blizzard have chosen heavy metal icon and the original Prince of Darkness Ozzy Osbourne  to headline the closing concert at this year’s BlizzCon on the 21-22nd of August at the Anaheim Convention Center in California. We imagine he’ll be playing in front of a full house as the 20,000 tickets to the semi-annual convention that celebrates all things Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo sold out in less than eight ...

Following the ominous silence around the StarCraft II beta, which was expected in July but failed to appear, we all suspected that StarCraft II might not see the light of day this year  and Blizzard has confirmed that it’s long awaited RTS sequel will be delayed until sometime in 2010. The games publisher Activision Blizzard, announced the delay during an investor’s earnings report yesterday. According to Blizzard, the decision for the delay was based in their desire to release the first ...

We’ve all joked for years about just how addictive World of Warcraft can be, but some UK addiction experts are taking it so seriously that they’ve decided to jump into the 11 million strong MMO  with WOW characters to provide ‘online counselling’ for younger gamers. According to a report by the Telegraph, Dr. Richard Graham, a psychiatrist at London's Tavistock Center is so concerned that he plans to provide in-game therapy ...

There I was thinking Blizzard dreamt up the phenomenon that has been World Of Warcraft, when all the time Gene Roddenberry and company had dreamt the concept up around a decade before. My epiphany came to me while watching Star Trek: The Next Generation last night - check the link and then read a few choice excepts from the transcript  below:...

While you were unshackled from your PC this weekend, Square Enix officially swallowed Eidos up, Blizzard revealed a fifth new IP and Braid PC has slipped from its original 31 March release. SquEnix's acquisition of Eidos brings two important series' into its catalogue:  Tomb Raider and Hitman. The Japanese company will allow Eidos to develop independantly out of London, but the publishing fate of games like Age Of Conan is as yet undecided. Blizzard's fifth new IP - which definitely isn't the recently announced MMO ...

Wouldn't it be refreshing to see that headline for a change, no? Instead I've got this for you - it's been relegated to the blog section for being too bloody inconsequential and trite to warrant a news post (bearing in mind my last news post was about a Spore expansion pack – whoop!): "A 17-year-old Fairfield Twp. teen… was arrested Monday, Dec. 29, for inducing panic after patrol officers and medics responded to the boy's home in the 3000 block of Pimlico Court. The ...

It's the day before Halloween and while some of you will be experiencing the delights of an excruciating Fallout 3 download session, or the wait for retail tomorrow, MMO gamers like myself will already be enjoying the in-game festivities of several leading MMOs. Let's take a brief look at what's on offer… World Of Warcraft: It's not like Blizzard likes to brag or anything, but it recently announced that WOW has hit 11 million subscribers. Laid on for its metropolis of ...

Blizzard has released another new batch of concept art for Diablo III. We've been treated to a relatively large number of screens and art for its long-awaited action RPG already, so we feel it's safe to assume this will be the trend leading up to the release next year. You won't find us complaining. Check out the website here.

Blizzard has announced that its long anticipated third episode to the classic RPG series, Diablo, is in development. It's the first Diablo game since 2001 and it sees Deckard Cain return to a full 3D Sanctuary, a much-improved Battle.net platform and new character classes such as the Witch Doctor. No official word on a release date yet, but we're not expecting to see it this side of Christmas. The official website can be found here.

Blizzard, creator of World Of Warcraft is suing the maker of a software tool that it says infringes its copyright. Michael Donnelly, creator of the MMO Glider program that automates everyday actions in the game, denies any infringement. He states that no copy of World Of Warcraft is ever made using his program. Blizzard is demanding that he cease selling Glider and hand over all profits he's made from the program. This could amount to several million dollars as Michael claims to have sold over 100,000 copies, which ranges in ...