Escalation to add four new Scenarios with its own Heroic mode and loot specialization feature.

Blizzard has posted new information about the upcoming World of Warcraft 5.3 patch on its official site.

The new 5.3 patch will bring in new scenarios for players to fight and loot in.

The update will add four new scenarios–Blood in the Snow, Dark Heart of Pandaria, Secrets of Ragefire, and Battle on the High Seas–and also a heroic difficulty mode. Players will also be able to handle off-spec loot drops with a new loot specialisation feature.

Blizzard also mentioned general bug fixes, class balancing, pet battles, and changes to PvP. For more information, head to the World of Warcraft site.

Blizzard recently confirmed that World of Warcraft subscriptions had fallen to 8.3 million, but that the company will be looking to release more frequent updates for the long-running MMO to stem further player decline in the future.

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Global competition to take place in Europe, North America, Russia, Southeast Asia, and more.

Publisher Wargaming will be hosting a series of World of Tanks tournaments to celebrate its 15-year anniversary.

The winning team from each region will score a free trip to Wargaming’s studio.

The tournaments will be held in Europe, North America, Russia, South Korea, Southeast Asia, China, and Vietnam. The winning teams from each of these regions will fly on an all-expenses-paid trip to Wargaming’s studio in Minsk, Belarus.

The event will start on May, with the finals scheduled for the end of June. The tournaments will use a seven-versus-seven format. For more information, check out the registration pages for Europe, North America, South Korea, and Southeast Asia.

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“It’s important to note that the nature of online games has changed,” says Activision CEO as subscriptions fall 1.3 million in three months.

World of Warcraft will receive content more frequently to help stem the decline of players and combat the rise of free-to-play games, Activision and Blizzard have said.

Last night it was revealed that the subscription-based MMO lost 1.3 million players over the last three months, pointing to the decline of interest in the game from the East. World of Warcraft now has approximately 8.3 million subscribers.

Speaking to investors during Activision’s Q1 2013 conference call, CEO Bobby Kotick spoke of a need to address the changing online market, but emphasised that Activision will continue to invest in the long-running subscription MMO.

“It’s important to note that the nature of online games has changed, and with the environment becoming far more competitive, especially with free-to-play games,” said Kotick (via Seeking Alpha). “To address this, we’re working to release new content more frequently to keep our players engaged longer and make it easier for lapsed players to come back into the game. We believe in the long-term value of this franchise and will continue to commit substantial resources to World of Warcraft.”

Since its launch in 2004, World of Warcraft has seen numerous updates, as well as four fully-fledged expansion packs: The Burning Crusade in 2007, Wrath of the Lich King in 2008, Cataclysm in 2010, and Mists of Pandaria in 2012.

“We’re examining ways we can ease the transition back into the game for returning players,” added Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime. “We’ve always seen players come and go from World of Warcraft. Smoothing out that transitional period is something we’re studying, as we adjust our approach to player behavior and preferences.”

Kotick says that the publisher expects further subscriber declines to World of Warcraft before the end of the year, but points to the game’s continuing success. “While we do believe further declines are likely and we expect to have fewer subscribers at year end than we do today, World of Warcraft remains one of the most successful franchises in the history of entertainment,” he said.

Blizzard is currently working on bringing Diablo III to PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4, its MOBA Blizzard All-Stars, as well as free-to-play card battler Hearthstone.

“There’s still more in the pipeline with our teams continuing to work on Blizzard All-Stars and our unannounced MMO,” added Morhaime.

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Activision Blizzard has released its quarterly report for the first quarter of 2013, which ended March 31, 2013. Revenue beat out expectations with $1.32 billion in sales, compared to the expected $1.16 billion. This is also an increase over the $1.17 billion earned during the first quarter of 2012. Profits reached $456 million, up from $384 million a year ago.

Of the total revenue 68 percent or $896 million came from retail channels, while 28 percent or $377 million came from digital channels. The other four percent came from distribution. By percent this is nearly identical to the first quarter of 2012, where 68 percent of the sales were at retail and 28 percent were digital.

World of Warcraft remains the most subscribed MMORPG with 8.3 million subscribers. However this is a drop of 1.3 million compared to the end of 2012. The company repeated that StarCraft II: Heard of the Swarm managed to sell 1.1 million units in its first two days.

Diablo III and StarCraft II: Heart of Swarm were both in the top 10 selling PC games for the quarter in North America and Europe. Activision Publishing was also the number one publisher for the quarter when you combine North America and Europe.

Skylanders Giants, when you add in the sales of accessories and figures, was the bestselling game in terms of overall dollars in both North America and Europe. The game was followed by Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

“Our first-quarter performance was driven by continued consumer interest in all of our key franchises,” said Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick. “Blizzard Entertainment’s StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm was the #1 PC game for the quarter.”

Kotick did add that while the start of 2013 has beaten expectations, the second half of the year has many questions that remain open. He stated the poor Wii U sales as a problem, as well as how well the PlayStation 4 and next Xbox will sell. He also mentioned the decline in the number of World of Warcraft subscribers.

“However, our focused and disciplined approach to our business has served us well in the past, and through continued investment and careful management of our costs, we expect to continue delivering shareholder value over the long term as we have for the last 20 years,” added Kotick.

Despite the uncertainties Activision did increase its expectations for revenue for the full 2013 fiscal year. The previous outlook was $4.09 billion and is now $4.22 billion. The publisher also expects revenue of $980 million for the second quarter of 2013.

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Subscriber base for aging MMO dips 1.3 million in three months; Activision Blizzard posts $456 million profit on $1.32 billion in revenue for Q1.

Gamers are continuing to exit Azeroth. Activision Blizzard announced today that as of March 31, World of Warcraft has 8.3 million subscribers, down from 9.6 million at the end of 2012.

According to Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, World of Warcraft subscriber declines were mainly from the East, but the Western market also made an impact, he said in a statement. He further explained that subscriber figures are expected to fall throughout the year.

Despite the subscriber attrition, World of Warcraft remains the number one subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game, according to Activision.

The news comes as part of Activision Blizzard’s first quarter earnings report, which saw the publisher post $456 million in profit on $1.32 billion in revenue for the three-month period ended March 31.

Kotick said that though the year has gotten off to a solid start, there is reason to be skeptical about Activision Blizzard’s prospects for the second half of the year.

“While we have had a solid start to the year, we now believe that the risks and uncertainties in the back half of 2013 are more challenging than our earlier view, especially in the holiday quarter,” Kotick said in prepared remarks. “The shift in release dates of competing products, the disappointing
launch of the Wii U, uncertainties regarding next-generation hardware, and subscriber
declines in our World of Warcraft business all raise concerns, as do continued challenges in the
global economy.”

These issues are cause for concern, Kotick said. However, he also acknowledged that Activision Blizzard will be able to deliver shareholder value by employing the same tactics that has made the company one of the industry’s biggest publishers for the past 20 years.

“For these reasons, we remain cautious,” he said. “However, our focused and disciplined
approach to our business has served us well in the past, and through continued investment and
careful management of our costs, we expect to continue delivering shareholder value over the
long term as we have for the last 20 years.”

Activision is currently holding a post-earnings financial call.

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Creative Director Jean Maxime-Moris discusses chief gameplay mechanic

In a new trailer for Capcom and developer DONTNOD’s action game Remember Me, Creative Director Jean Maxime-Moris takes some time to explain the chief mechanic of stealing and remixing memories. See that, background information on Remember Me‘s world, and more in the video after the jump.

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CCP gives update on long-in-development vampire-centric MMO that is still in pre-production.

Eve Online studio CCP Games has provided an update on its long-in-development massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Darkness.

Massively reports that during the EVE Fanfest 2013 this week, a CCP Games representative revealed that the game remains in pre-production and is being worked on by 70 developers.

In 2013, the developer plans to work on the game’s clothing systems and PvE environments, as well as “out-of-game web-based social tools” and art tools and server infrastructure.

CCP also showed off some “interesting tools” it will use to create procedural content like buildings and cityscapes, Massively reports. On top of this, a video highlighting internal visual targets was shown, but media were prevented from filming.

The vampire-centric World of Darkness was announced in 2006 and is based on White Wolf’s supernatural role-playing game franchise.

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Cowen & Company industry watcher says post-holiday sales of latest Call of Duty game tracking better than Modern Warfare 3.

Call of Duty: Black Ops II is on pace to become the best-selling entry in Activision’s military shooter series to date, according to one analyst.

In a note to investors today, Cowen & Company analyst Doug Creutz said post-holiday sales trends for Black Ops II have been “significantly better” than those for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

Thanks to this sales jolt, Black Ops II will likely surpass the original Black Ops’ estimated life-to-date sales of 25 million units to become the franchise’s overall top performer.

Activision has confirmed a new Call of Duty game for 2013, but has yet to divulge any details about the project. In an earnings call in February, Activision Blizzard CFO Dennis Durkin said the company does not expect sales of this game to match Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

Activision Blizzard will report earnings for its latest quarter on May 8. Creutz believes the company will outperform guidance thanks to in-line or better-than-expected sales of Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Skylanders.

The analyst expects World of Warcraft to have lost as many as 300,000 subscribers during the latest quarter, though this attrition is in-line with expectation. The game had 9.6 million paying members at the end of December.

Creutz described 2013 as a “bridge year” for Activision Blizzard, with strong earnings expected in 2014-2015 thanks to Bungie’s Destiny, Blizzard Entertainment’s Titan MMO, and the new console cycle.

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Users to get 300 World of Tanks in-game credits for resetting account password.

The World of Tanks account servers have been hacked by unknown parties.

Wargaming urges all World of Tanks players to reset their account passwords.

According to a statement, publisher Wargaming said that no financial information was accessed, but password hashes and email addresses may have been affected. The company urges all World of Tanks users to reset their Wargaming ID account password via the account management page.

Players who reset their password will get 300 units of World of Tanks’ in-game credits. For more information on the game, check out GameSpot’s coverage on the title.

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Wargaming has announced a free-to-play mobile MMO action title built specifically for smartphones and tablets; World of Tanks Blitz expected to grow the publisher’s multiplatform strategy.

Wargaming has revealed plans to expand its multiplatform efforts with the announcement of World of Tanks Blitz, a free-to-play MMO title for smartphones and tablets.

According to the publisher, the new title was inspired by the PC version of World of Tanks.

World of Tanks Blitz will feature touchscreen controls, 7 vs. 7 PvP battles and the series’ trademark combination of action, teamwork and strategic gameplay. Nations appearing in the game include USA, Germany, and USSR, and the roster of vehicles will include medium tanks, heavy tanks and tank destroyers.

According to Wargaming, World of Tanks Blitz will join the recently announced World of Tanks Generals, a browser-based TCG set in the World of Tanks universe, as an example of the company’s vision to expand their multiplatform strategy into the mobile space.

Wargaming said both games will fit into the soon-to-be-launched Wargaming.net Service, which will reportedly see all Wargaming titles unified under a single login system.

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