This is bad. The prisoners have grabbed the keys. Activision Blizzard, the world’s largest producer of video games, is publicly threatening to abandon Sony’s PS3 and PSP platforms.
We found a video showing an iPhone running World of Warcraft. It looks surprisingly full-featured, but this isn’t a standalone app— more of an evolution of what we’ve seen before.
I’ve generally found that the only people who get to enjoy pay-per-view entertainment on Foxtel (or Austar and Optus) are those who like watching grown men fight with eachother (boxing) or pretend to fight with eachother (professional wrestling). Now a third group of people are being catered for: the gaming geek.
Main Event is broadcasting Blizzard’s annual conference, BlizzCon 2008 over two days in October. And while I personally can’t justify $30 over two days to watch stuff I can read on Kotaku, I’m sure there’s plenty of you guys who will thoroughly enjoy the experience. Plus, if you buy both days, you get some weird polar bear thing (WOW isn’t my thing, I’m afraid).
So the question needs to be asked: how many of you guys are thinking about buying this? Even if it’s just for the cosplay?
The Germans who hacked a Wii Balance Board from Wii Fit to surf Google Earth have found a much more fun use for the peripheral – running around World of Warcraft. In this follow up video, Simon and Mattieu control a low level gnome exploring Ironforge, avoiding wolves and slamming into tree trunks. Now all they need to do is hack the Wiimote and Nunchuck to understand macros and I will be the fittest WoW player EVER. [Technabob]
Windows Media Player 11 discovers a purpose in life—how awesome is that? (Seriously, who actually uses it for anything?) Apparently, European forums started reporting last month that running WMP 11 in the background noticeably cuts World of Warcraft load times, especially in stickier areas, though American slackjaws have just recently caught on. Game|Life confirms WoW Insider’s post on the bizarre performance steroid with a test on their own machine. But will it help your rig run Crysis—or any other game for that matter? [WoW Insider via Game|Life]
Most of my friends play World of Warcraft. I don’t. I suspect that these hilarious new spots featuring cult icons Mr. T and William Shatner are aimed at me—if you’re not a geek or know nothing about the game, they have little appeal, like an earlier spot. But they’re going to be national TV ads, leading me to two conclusions: WoW’s popularity is peaking/has peaked. So they’re wrangling the offbeat pop cultural status its South Park episode cemented to try to lure in people of my ilk. Or maybe I’m just reading it wrong. Either way, catch at least the Mr. T ad after the jump. It rules.
