Tag: blizzard (Page 4 of 4)

Blizzard bends you over the customization fence…again

WoW race change.Blizzard’s unveiled its latest scheme to boost profits from World of Warcraft in the face of declining subscriptions: race change. You no longer have to traipse about Azeroth wishing you had made your warrior a Tauren. You can finally pay to get the best arena racials without buying yet another account.

The service costs $25, and only works for a change within your current faction. A faction change runs $30, though you obviously get a race change for free. Personally, this isn’t something I’d be spending money on, but it’s been a while since I’ve been in that unique state of WoW-drunk where almost anything seems reasonable.

Though I wish for the people still playing that Blizzard would lump some of these customization fees together, I also realize people are paying for this crap, so it’s hard to blame Blizzard. At least let me say, I feel for you, crackheads. It’s tough to pay for stuff like this when you’re calling off work to grind out those last few levels.

Blizzard COO Buys A Chunk Of The Steelers

Blizzard COO Paul Sams.Blizzard COO Paul Sams has reportedly gotten into the football business, and I’m not talking about a Madden competitor. No, Sams and his family are listed as one among ten of the new joint owners of the Pittsburgh Steelers franchise. The news came courtesy of the Steelers’ official website, which gives a quick bio for both Sams and his wife.

I guess when you’re at the top of a company whose biggest title has 11 million subscribers and sits on the verge of another expansion, whose critically acclaimed RTS has an upcoming sequel, and whose dungeon masher is about to become a trilogy you simply have more money than god and can buy just about whatever you want. That includes Super Bowl champions.

WoW Faction Changes Go Live At $30 A Pop

For the horde.I really hate the fees that come along with Blizzard services for World of Warcraft. Name changes are a completely absurd $10, server transfers are $25 per toon, and the “re-customization” service, which will include a name change, runs $15. Blizzard made an addition to the list of money-minting scams with the faction change. The service, which a lot of people have been after for some time, will run you a whopping $30. That’s almost 3 months of gameplay on a subscription plan, which is just ridiculous.

While the rest of the services seem to truly be aimed at character customization, and not necessarily just making money, this one looks to be designed to bleed players dry. For starters, there’s no included server transfer. I don’t know about you, but for my part, changing factions to play with other people means changing servers. I would think it’s pretty rare that your friends just happen to play the opposite faction on your server. Changing factions for this reason means you’ll be spending $55 per toon. Pretty rough.

Also, Blizzard is looking to roll out a Race Change feature in the future, at what I assume will be similarly rapacious prices. For a full list of limitations to the new service, check out Blizzard’s two-page FAQ.

Analyst Says Starcraft II Won’t Release On Time

Starcraft II logo.According to a recent WSJ article, analysts are expecting Starcraft II to catch some delays. The article is based on speculation from Stern Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia, who thinks the latest from Blizzard will see the same fate as Activision’s Singularity. The time-manipulating FPS has been pushed into Q1 2010.

Originally set to release this October, Bhatia doesn’t think the SC:II delay would hurt Activision in any way. It’s hard to think that a serious Starcraft release could ever hurt that company (and no, I don’t consider the original Starcraft:Ghost concept to be serious).

If SC:II does get pushed into next year I hope Blizzard has some incredible news for us at BlizzCon. New IP maybe? Just maybe? Don’t forget, BlizzCon’s happening the third week of August. If you haven’t picked up your tickets yet, I hate to say it, but you’re too late.

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