Blizzard celebrates eight years of World of Warcraft
Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft marks its eighth anniversary next week, and to celebrate the occasion, the developer will give away in-game items and achievements. All who log in to World of Warcraft November 18 and December 1 will receive a special Feat of Strength achievement and a Celebration Package item.
This item will shoot off fireworks, apply a cosmetic tabard to players' characters, and grant an 8 percent bonus to experience and reputation from any enemies conquered with it applied. Additionally, Blizzard has produced a video to mark World of Warcraft's latest anniversary that documents the evolution of the game over the years. It is embedded below.
World of Warcraft launched in November 2004. It has since added four expansion packs, the most recent of which was Mists of Pandaria, which launched in September. The game currently boasts 10 million subscribers who pay $15 per month to traverse Azeroth.Legendary Pictures' adaptation of Blizzard's world-conquering RTS and MMO series will be a live-action movie with a budget "north of $100 million" , according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Shooting for Warcraft is expected to start later this year for an intended 2015 release. The eight-year-old MMO World of Warcraft, which still boasts 9.1 million monthly subscribers, saw its fourth expansion, Mists of Pandaria, released last year."So the gauntlet was thrown down ages ago: Can you make a proper MOVIE of a video game. Ive always said its possible. Got to DO it now! ;)" wrote Jones on Twitter last night.
The script for Warcraft --which is being kept "under wraps" according to The Hollywood Reporter--has been penned by Charles Leavitt, who has previously worked on The Express, Blood Diamond and K-PAX.Spider-Man director Sam Raimi had originally been down to direct the film, but had to leave the project in favour of the upcoming Oz the Great and Powerful.For more information on World of Warcraft, check out GameSpot's previous coverage.
The World of Warcraft movie has suffered a setback. CraveOnline caught up with Spider-Man director Sam Raimi at Comic-Con last week, where the filmmaker confirmed that he was no longer attached to the forthcoming film based on Blizzard's massively multiplayer online role-playing game due to his work onOz: The Great and Powerful.
World of Warcraft remains the most popular MMORPG on the market. It has 10.2 million paying subscribers, and a new expansion--Mists of Pandaria--is in development.
