GameStop is banking on a new deal with Blizzard that it hopes will shore up its digital sales over the next several years. The deal will see GameStop offer customers the ability to buy games and digital goods for Blizzard games in the retailer’s stores in the U.S. and other regions. Diablo III, coming May 15, will be the first game sold via download codes in the stores.

For the first time publically, World of Warcraft maker Blizzard has acknowledged that Star Wars: The Old Republic is having some impact on declining World of Warcraft subscriptions.

With Blizzard announcing today that Diablo 3 will be released on May 15, it was only a matter of time before an analyst rolled out the cart with the crystal ball to make a prognostication about the game's sales.

"Our street-high FY12 EPS estimate of $1.05 assumes first year unit sell-through of 5MM for Diablo III, and assumes that over 1MM of the units incorporate the World of Warcraft 'annual pass' deal which allows WoW players who commit to a one-year subscription to receive Diablo III for free."

After an internal review, Activision has decided to eliminate 600 jobs across Blizzard's global workforce, according to GameIndustry.biz. Approximately 90 percent of these job cuts are unrelated to internal development, and the World of Warcraft development team will not be affected.

Blizzard Entertainment's next MMO project, currently an enigma in its scope and subject matter, will be a free-to-play game, according to a Develop report. This is according to a Develop source "connected to the matter." Blizzard had no comment on the story. Blizzard has been on the margins with the model, having dipped its toe ever so slightly in it by making World of Warcraft "free" up to level 20.

While Blizzard may have lost an estimated 100,000 subscribers in its most recently reported quarter, the good news for the World of Warcraft maker is that the bleeding is now trickling. In the quarter before that Blizzard revealed that it had lost a whopping 800,000 subscribers, so losing 100,000 in the three months ending December 31 seems almost like a reversal of fortune.

Blizzard has challenged Valve's efforts to secure a U.S. trademark on Defense of the Ancients - something it said it had no plans of doing. In 2011 Valve announced plans to create a sequel to the popular Warcraft II mod, Defense of the Ancients. At the time Blizzard said that it would not oppose the company, but said that it was confused by the move. Today we learn that Blizzard filed a complaint with the U.S. trademark in opposition of Valve's registration of the Dota name in late 2011.

If you were planning on heading to Anaheim, California at the end of this year to attend BlizzCon, we have some sad news for you today: Blizzard has decided not to host a 2012 event. BlizzCon will return in 2013. The reason for not running its fan event this year? The company says that it wants to spend all of its time developing the three titles it has in its pipeline: Diablo III, the StarCraft II expansion Heart of the Swarm, and the World of Warcraft expansion Mists of Pandaria. The company did announce details on the 2012 Battle.net World Championship. Details below:

Bloomberg is reporting that Activision-Blizzard's top stakeholder Vivendi SA has failed to obtain a new line of credit worth an estimated €1 billion. According to multiple sources with "knowledge of the negotiations," the credit deal fell through mostly because of wary investors who are dealing with the mounting pressure from the European debt crisis.

Blizzard Entertainment co-founder and executive vice president of product development Frank Pearce has joined the board of directors of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS). AIAS is s professional video game organization that advances "the artistic values of the interactive entertainment community." They also own and operate the annual DICE industry event in Las Vegas. The appointment is "effective immediately."

Blizzard Entertainment President Mike Morhaime has apologized for the video clip that ran during the final performance at BlizzCon. That video clip featured comments from George Fisher of Cannibal Corpse talking about the game, and using a number of homophobic slurs. He also performed at BlizzCon as part of the Blizzard rock group Level 90 Elite Tauren Chieftain. Morhaime, who is also a member of that group, threw himself on his sword in a letter to GayGamer.

The closing performance at BlizzCon 2011 by Level 90 Epic Tauren Chieftain has drawn strong criticism from gay and lesbian advocacy group GLAAD. The performance featured an opening video from guest singer George 'Corpseater' Fisher of the metal band Cannibal Corpse. In the video he talks about how much he hates Alliance using strong anti-gay language that we can't repeat here. While most of the foul language was censored in the video, those who saw it knew exactly what he was saying.

In an interview that took place at BlizzCon over the weekend, Blizzard President Mike Morhaime reiterated to Eurogamer his company's stance on Valve Software’s attempts to trademark the term "DOTA." Valve has made a move to try and trademark the name of the wildly popular Warcraft 3 modification, much to the chagrin of several companies - including Blizzard Entertainment and League Legends maker Riot Games - as well as the DOTA community at large.

Blizzard Entertainment will host a series of special charity auctions featuring server-blade hardware that was originally used during the early days of World of Warcraft. The money generated from the auctions will go to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, one of the world's premier centers for the research and treatment of pediatric cancer and other catastrophic childhood diseases. The auction consists of the original HP Blade System servers that once housed hundreds of different realms across North America and Europe.

You knew that inevitably in all the sweet talk going around about Diablo III's current beta, that someone would run into a problem with Blizzard's "Always-On" save system. The system requires that players always be connected to the Battle.net server - even in single-player. Also the game saves character data online.

While everyone else is ranting and raving about Diablo III and having to be "always connected" to Battle.net to play it - even in single player - our very own Andrew Eisen takes a different approach with the following heartfelt letter.

If Blizzard listens, this could be the best Christmas ever! Check out his heartwarming plea to Blizzard to your left or visit YouTube.

The latest edition of Gus Mastrapa's Joystick Division column, Pretension +1, tackles the recent player rage over Blizzard's decision to require a connection when playing Diablo III. Let's jump straight to the main thrust of the column entitled "How To Freak Out About A Video Game":

An interesting article in IT News, a site dedicated to IT professionals, explains why being a team leader in an MMORPG or online game such as World of Warcraft or Battlefield is a good training tool for anyone that wants a leadership role in the field. The article highlights the kind of player that is either familiar with a given mission or map, and what skills they might exhibit.

Blizzard Entertainment announced that its virtual pet sale has raised more than $1.9 million for Japan's earthquake relief efforts. Thanks to the generosity of World of Warcraft players, around the world who purchased the in-game pet, the Cenarion Hatchling, the company has managed to raise nearly $2 million for continued efforts to help those in Japan affected by earthquakes and tsunamis that hit the country earlier this year. More from Blizzard:

Gamasutra Editor-at-Large Chris Morris pens this editorial to complain about what he calls an over-reaction to Blizzard's announcement that Diablo III will require a constant connection to play all modes including single-player. Diablo series fans lashed out at the company, calling it a horrible idea and pointing out that there are better methods for dealing with hacked characters online.

Blizzard announced today that its hotly anticipated (no hyperbole - everybody wants to play it) action RPG Diablo III will require players to be connected to a server at all times in order to play. When we say "at all times" we mean even when you are playing the single-player game. Blizzard also announced that players will be able to create up to 10 characters, which will be stored on Blizzard's servers. This is the main reason why you will need to have a constant connection to a server.

Blizzard Entertainment announced that its new World of Warcraft feature, Real ID Party, is now available for public testing. According to Blizzard this feature allows World of Warcraft players to invite their Real ID friends of the same faction to a party regardless of the realm they play on, and then queue up for a 5-player normal or Heroic dungeon.

Blizzard also sent along a handy dandy mini-FAQ, which you can read below. For even more information on this feature, check out the Battle.net Real ID.

Real ID Party FAQ

In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Trion senior VP of publishing David Reid said that he knows why Blizzard lost 600,000 subscribers - detailed in Activision's most recent earnings call: because of his company's new MMO Rift. Rift recently hit its one million games sold milestone, and according to Reid, this has a lot to do with the decline in World of Warcraft subscriptions.

"We're really pleased with what we're seeing," said Reid. "And beyond that, it was a pleasure to see that in the latest Activision Blizzard earnings call, they inquired about Rift when Blizzard announced that their subscriber numbers went from 12 million to 11.4 million."

"You can do some math... We know very well where those 600,000 people are," he added.

Just a friendly reminder that the second batch of tickets for BlizzCon 2011 go on sale to the public tonight at 7 p.m. Pacific Time through the online Blizzard Store for $175 USD each. Those interested in grabbing a ticket will want to watch the BlizzCon ticket sales page. Tickets will sell out fast, so get them while you can. Blizzard says that the first batch of tickets that went on sale last Saturday sold out quickly. This is not surprising news.

In addition to the two batches of general-admission tickets, approximately 200 special event tickets will go on sale May 28. These tickets entitle Blizzard fans access to an exclusive pre-BlizzCon dinner to benefit the Children's Hospital of Orange County. They go on sale Saturday, May 28, at 10 a.m. PT for $500 USD each and include admission into BlizzCon.

Blizzard Entertainment posted a reminder on Battle.net that tickets for its annual fanfest, BlizzCon, will go on sale this weekend. The very first round of tickets will go on sale Saturday, May 21 at 10 a.m. PT through the online Blizzard Store. If you intend on attending the event, you'd better act fact because these tickets tend to sell out very quickly.

A second round of tickets will go on sale Wednesday, May 25 at 7 p.m. PT. Tickets for the special pre-BlizzCon charity dinner to benefit the Children's Hospital of Orange County will go on sale Saturday, May 28 at 10 a.m. PT.

For more details on all the activities planned for this year's BlizzCon, check out www.blizzcon.com.

Source: Blue's News

During its post-earnings call this week, Activision blizzard revealed that World of Warcraft subscriptions are down by about five percent. In October 2010, the popular MMORPG had around 12 million subscribers. Now the game enjoys about 11.4 million subscribers. To deal with the drop off, Blizzard's president Michael Morhaime said that the company has to release future expansion packs in a more timely fashion to contain player drop-off.

"As our players have become more experienced playing World of Warcraft over many years, they have become much better and much faster at consuming content," said Blizzard president Michael Morhaime during a conference call. "And so I think with Cataclysm they were able to consume the content faster than with previous expansions, but that's why we're working on developing more content."

iPhone and Android phone users can take Blizzard's World of Warcraft Remotes service for a test drive. Blizzard is offering a week-long free trial of the service beginning today but it is only offering it (initially anyway) for the most popular Mobile operating systems.

World of Warcraft Remotes cost $2.99 per month and lets users control a couple of in-game functions. Remote Auction House lets users check on active auctions, allowing them to bid, buy and create auctions, and more. It also provides notifications for those more important auction activities and allows you to renew those expired auction offerings. The second part of Remotes is Remote Guild Chat, which obviously lets you chat with your mates without actually being logged into the game.

You can download the free trial from Battle.net.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation announced that World of Warcraft maker Blizzard Entertainment has given an $800,000 donation to the charity dedicated to making the dreams of sick and terminally ill children come true. The donation amount represents 50 percent of the total sales during November and December 2010 of a special World of Warcraft in-game pet, the Moonkin Hatchling. Ultimately, that generosity is the result of WOW players, who spent the extra money to get the in-game pet.

Blizzard Entertainment celebrated the donation on World Wish Day (April 29) by granting the wishes of two boys at the company's headquarters in Irvine, California. Blizzard welcomed the two fans and their families to enjoy an exclusive learning experience with the World of Warcraft development team, including an inside look at how the game is created.

Blizzard Entertainment has released a new World of Warcraft companion to the pet store, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to relief efforts for Japan. World of Warcraft players that purchase the new pet can take comfort in the fact that they are getting a new in-game friend and that all the money they paid for it goes to help Japan with its ongoing relief efforts. The Cenarion Hatchling costs $10 USD.

The Cenarion Hatchling is the twin of the rare Hippogryph Hatchling pet players could randomly encounter in the first World of Warcraft Trading Card Game set, Heroes of Azeroth. Now he is available for your pleasure. For every Cenarion Hatchling purchased between now and July 31, Blizzard will donate 100 percent of the $10 USD "adoption fee" to the American Red Cross's Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami relief efforts.

For more information, check out this page.

Blizzard Entertainment will start selling tickets for its sixth BlizzCon gaming convention in two batches on Saturday, May 21 and Wednesday, May 25. In addition, a limited number of tickets to an exclusive pre-BlizzCon dinner to benefit Children's Hospital of Orange County will go on sale Saturday, May 28. As Gamasutra points out, this year's tickets will cost much more than last year's entry fee. This year a ticket costs around $175; in 2010 they were $150, in 2009 $125, and from 2005 - 2008 they costs $100. Approximately 28,000 tickets were sold for the 2010 event.