ActivisionBlizzard

More than a decade in the future, we'll see a still-strapping Secretary of Defense David Petraeus greeting troops aboard the decks of the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Barack Obama.

OK, so that reality seems a little less likely in our world of carbon-based life forms now that Petraeus has resigned his CIA post amid an adultery scandal, but it's still very much part of the digital world in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.… Read more

There's sour news out of Irvine, Calif., today, as Activision Blizzard subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment announced that it will reduce its global workforce by 600 employees.

The company noted that 10 percent of its staff cuts--or about 60 people--were actively involved in game development.

Blizzard was quick to point out that the World of Warcraft development team will not be impacted by the staff reductions.

The company's massively popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game has struggled in the past year, slipping from 10.3 million to 10.2 million subscribers through the end of December.

Read more of "Blizzard laying off 600" at GameSpot. … Read more

Blizzard Entertainment announced in a brief press release this morning that its long-awaited PC role playing game, Diablo III, will not launch in the fourth quarter of 2011 as expected. Instead, Blizzard has pushed back the release of the game until early 2012.

This news will surely disappoint gamers who have had to wait more than a decade for a follow -up to 2000's Diablo II. Blizzard also spurred fans' hopes for an imminent release with the release of a closed Diablo III beta test, which was opened to the press earlier this week.

"We pulled together people from all of the teams involved with the game to decide whether we felt it would be ready before the end of December, and we grudgingly came to the conclusion that it would not," said Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime in a blog post. "The upside of today's announcement is that we will be running the beta test longer than we initially planned, which will allow us to invite more of you who have opted in."

Expanded beta access may sate some fans, but Blizzard's Diablo III forum is already alight with comments from gamers having difficulty with the extended wait for the final product.… Read more

Blizzard Entertainment opened its Diablo III beta trial to the press yesterday, giving us and many other outlets the chance to try out its forthcoming action role playing game. After taking a monk character through the beta content in single-player mode on normal difficulty, we have an overall positive impression of Blizzard's new take on its long-running franchise.

The Diablo series is known for fast, click-based combat, complex character development decisions, and a near-constant stream of monsters, gold, and loot thrown in your character's path. Diablo games also have a reputation for replayability because of randomized dungeon layouts and the number of possible character classes and skills. The series is also notorious for its ability to hook gamers into playing long into the night.

If the beta is any indication of the final product, Blizzard has successfully captured that "Diablo-ness" in Diablo III, while introducing some streamlined new game elements that make the experience more accessible than earlier titles. We need to play through the final product game before we decide whether that accessibility comes at the expense of depth, but we'll be interested to see how the more hard-core players adapt to some of Blizzard's new design decisions.… Read more

Activision Blizzard's two strongest franchises helped the company have a stronger financial showing in 2010.

The video game publisher announced yesterday that it generated over $4.4 billion in revenue last year, up from the nearly $4.3 billion it tallied in 2009. It was able to nab a profit of $418 million last year, nearly quadrupling the $113 million profit it posted in 2009.

Even with help from the recently released Call of Duty: Black Ops and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, the company reported that its revenue slid in the fourth quarter to $1.4 billion, compared with … Read more

If any game company stole the show at the end of 2010, it was Activision Blizzard.

After it announced record-breaking sales with Call of Duty: Black Ops recently, the game company is now touting the success of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.

The third expansion for the venerable massively multiplayer online role-playing game has hit 4.7 million unit sales since its launch on December 7, Blizzard Entertainment, a division of Activision Blizzard announced today. Blizzard said that based on its internal estimates, the milestone has helped the title reach a new record for monthly PC game sales.

WoW Cataclysm's … Read more

A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that a World of Warcraft-playing bot violated the online game's terms of use, upholding a lower court's 2008 decision against the so-called Glider software, and issuing a permanent injunction against its use.

The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled (PDF file) that the MDY's Glider bot--which helps WoW players by automatically playing early levels of the massively popular game--is a breach of a contractual covenant. In a post on their Virtual World Law Blog, lawyers at the law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman explained that the decision largely follows … Read more

It's apparently going to be a better year than expected for Activision Blizzard.

The World of Warcraft developer announced yesterday that its third-quarter revenue grew to $745 million, up from $703 million it posted during the same period in 2009.

The company also reported a $51 million profit, representing a gain over the $15 million it tallied in third quarter last year. Its adjusted earnings of 12 cents a share beat Wall Street expectations of 9 cents, according to the Associated Press.

In the first three quarters, Activision Blizzard's revenue stood at over $3 billion. Last year, it … Read more

Over the last decade or two, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly extended the First Amendment's formidable legal shield to the Web.

In 1997, the justices tossed out the Communications Decency Act, saying Congress could not outlaw making "indecent" material available on the Internet. Last year, the law's benighted successor met the same fate, as did a law targeting animal cruelty videos that the court rejected in April.

Today the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on whether to grant video games the same favored kind of laissez-faire treatment.

Unlike those other cases, the law in … Read more