The GameShadow Blog

Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures have announced that Sam Raimi is to direct the upcoming World of Warcraft movie. Raimi’s previous movies include the Spider-Man trilogy. No concrete release date has been set for the movie yet.

Develop Magazine has released its annual Top 100 Game Studios list. Blizzard Entertainment (creators of World of Warcraft) rules at the top, with the likes of Epic Games, Capcom and Infinity Ward in the Top 10. The full list is available on the official Develop 100 website.

Blizzard Entertainment has revealed the anticipated release date for World of Warcraft – Wrath of the Lich King. The second World of Warcraft expansion pack will be released on November 13th, and will aim to achieve the success of the first expansion pack, The Burning Crusade, that sold a record number of copies on release [...]

Update: Also confirmed that the Barbarian will be the only returning class in Diablo III. MTV is carrying word from Lead Diablo Designer Jay Wilson that Blizzard has more planned in the Diablo series after Diablo III – no more decade long waits. “It’s not just ‘Diablo III’ — we’ve got plans beyond,” said Wilson. [...]

  As an upshot of the Diablo III unveiling last weekend, Blizzard let slip a whole load of juicy goss on the subject of their other projects. To be honest, Blizzard isn’t the most exciting developer in the world – the emphasis is firmly on polish and evolution rather than on actually coming up with [...]

In a recent Eurogamer interview with Gaute Godager of Funcom fame, the Conan Director has… not slammed… but had a cheeky dig at genre competitor WoW. “But you know… I’m going to be a bit cheeky now, but if you’ve been to McDonalds for four or five years, and had your burger and your coke, [...]

  WoWInsider is running a whole shed load of Lich King details, fresh from the Blizzard event in Paris over the weekend. Check it out here. Doesn’t really do it for me, but then elves aren’t really my bag.

So, the big news is that Diablo III’s definitely on the way, and is a good way into its dev cycle. The surprising news is that Blizzard released a lot of details of the weekend. You can grab a huge 20 min gameplay trailer right here, while there’s a flashier but less informative cinematic trailer [...]

Edit: Loads of game details here. Edit: This just in, it’s been confirmed. That really was the world’s worst kept secret. GamesIndustry.biz is running a story around Blizzard’s big event in Paris this weekend, reporting that the mega-dev is to announce a major new project. If it’s not Diablo III I’ll eat my hat. And, [...]

Finally. It had to happen. Launched this Autumn, the WoW Miniatures Game – snappy title – will feature Leeroy Jenkins, some dwarves, probably some elves and other things with weird ears. Maybe a Half-Giraffe or soemthing. I don’t know. Anyway, find the mini-site here. No, this doesn’t meen I like MMOs now. I just know [...]

A Chinese partner involved with Blizzard’s new MMO project has let slip the details: it’s Starcraft Online. A report on Tradingmarkets.com has revealed that NetEase – a Chinese online game operator – will be running Starcraft Online for Blizzard. Blizzard itself has not confirmed the game, but has been advertising for staff to work on [...]

A German gamer has reached the wealth limit imposed in World of Warcraft. He now stands at 217, 748 gold, 36 silver and 48 copper. The player is said to be the leader of the largest guild on his server, and one of the top ten guilds in the world. This position of authority grants [...]

Fed up with being ripped off by gold farmers? Want a trustworthy way of buying your way to the best equipment in Everquest? Well it looks like your prayers are answered. Yesterday, Live Gamer announced that it had raised $24 million to build a “legitimate market for virtual trading”. Think of it as an ebay [...]

Job postings on the Blizzard website have indicated a new MMO is underway at the genre-defining developer. The company is looking for experienced staff to work on a next-gen MMO – not just another expansion to World of Warcraft. Blizzard later confirmed speculation by stating, “No, it is an unannounced Next-Gen MMO. And that doesn’t [...]

At his Montreal Game Summit keynote, Jonathon Blow (the one man band behind 2008′s time-warping platformer, Braid) has railed at the McDonalds-esque game design in MMOs and in Bioshock. “MMOs have empty gameplay, but keep players hooked with constant fake rewards,” said Blow. His concern is that, like fast food, MMOs are empty, and ‘nutritionally’ bereft – [...]