When it comes to big video game IPs and brand names, there are always rumors and speculation about their release dates and features. This was the case with Diablo III as much as any game ever.

Today Activision and Blizzard have finally announced just that, an official release date. Diablo III will hit shelves on May 15th - honestly.

You can pre-purchase the game now in order to pre-load it before it goes live or purchase the special edition for 99 bucks as it comes in physical form.

Blizzard likes the holidays as much as the next guy but they developer still wants to make sure we are aware that they're Christmas is a little more noisy than the average holiday party.

Thanks Blizzard.

Blizzard is arguably one the most reliant publishers when it comes to hitting announced release windows. Today however, the makers of Starcraft and World of Warcraft announced that the highly anticipated Diablo III will now ship in 'Early 2012'.

While this is some bad news for fans, know this, Blizzard will be extending the closed beta that started on September 20th. More players will potentially be added as well, make sure to 'have an active Battle.net account with any Blizzard game attached to it should visit Battle.net account management to opt in for a chance to participate in the beta test'.

For everyone (like me) who has been wanting to try Starcraft 2 but you didn't want to spend $50 bucks to check it out, Blizzard has finally released a demo for it on both Windows and Mac. The demo includes the first three campaign missions. So if you were wanting to multiplayer it up, looks like you are gonna have to purchase it. Download the demo here.

Happy Holidays from Blizzard! Have a Cataclysmic Holiday!

This morning Activision sent out a press release to flex their publishing muscles once again. World of Warcraft's latest big expansion, Cataclysm has sold (that is sell through numbers according to Activision) 3.3 Million copies of the game within 24 hours of its release.

This makes Cataclysm the fastest selling PC game of all time, eclipsing Wrath of the Lich King, which sold 2.8 Million copies in the same period 2008.

While Blizzard had to rebuild Azorath completly for this expansion, it sure seems to have been worth it as plenty of new and exsisting players jumped into the MMO that defined the genre.

It's rumor smash time people of Azerath. Blizzard today confirmed that the third WOW espansion will hit retail stores and digital download availablity on December 7th for 40 USD while a limited edition with extra goodies can be purchased for 80 bucks.

"Cataclysm includes the best content we've ever created for World of Warcraft. It's not just an expansion, but a re-creation of much of the original Azeroth, complete with epic new high-level adventures for current players and a redesigned leveling experience for those just starting out," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "With the help of our beta testers, we're putting on the final polish, and we look forward to welcoming gamers around the world to enjoy it in just a couple of months."

Blizzard, the developer of PC epic Starcraft 2 sent out a note regarding cheating in their game. Players will be 'permanently banned' from Battle.net and playing Starcraft 2. Here is the information Blizzard shared with its player base today.

Cheating in StarCraft II

Blizzard Entertainment has always taken cheating in any form in Blizzard games very seriously, and that's no different for StarCraft II. If a StarCraft II player is found to be cheating or using hacks or modifications in any form, then as outlined in our end user license agreement, that player can be permanently banned from the game. This means that the player will be permanently unable to log in to Battle.net to play StarCraft II with his or her account.

Playing StarCraft II legitimately means playing with an unaltered game client. Doing otherwise violates our policies for Battle.net, and it goes against the spirit of fair play that all of our games are based on. We strongly recommend that you avoid using any hacks, cheats, or exploits. Suspensions and bans of players that have used or start using cheats and hacks will begin in the near future.

Cheaters beware - the long hard ban-hammer is only a few clicks away!

Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty, the sequel to 1998's classic PC RTS Starcraft has broken the 3 Million mark in its first month according to Blizzard. The title had released simultaneously in North America, Europe, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau on July 27.

Are you playing Starcraft yet?

Activision Blizzard today announced that their third WOW expansion will get the Collectors edition treatment. The CE will actually be limited in quantities and only be available in retail stores when the game ships.

The CE will ship with a 176 page art book, an in-game pet and behind the scenes DVD among other things for a price of 80 Dollars. The complete contents are listed below:

• Art of the Cataclysm art book, featuring 176 pages of never-before-seen images from the archives of the Blizzard Entertainment cinematics department and the World of Warcraft development team, as well as progressive visuals from multiple stages of development.
• Exclusive in-game pet: he may not be a breaker of worlds just yet, but Lil' Deathwing will still proudly accompany heroes on their struggle to save Azeroth from his much, much larger counterpart.
• Behind-the-scenes DVD with over an hour of developer interviews and commentaries, as well as a special Warcraft(R) retrospective examining the rich gaming history of the Warcraft universe.
• Soundtrack featuring 10 epic new tracks from Cataclysm, including exclusive bonus tracks.
• Special-edition mouse pad depicting Deathwing menacing the ravaged continents of Azeroth.
• World of Warcraft Trading Card Game cards, including a 60-card starter deck from the Wrathgate series, two extended-art cards, and two Collector's Edition-exclusive hero cards, marking the first appearance of goblin and worgen heroes in the TCG.

Remember how PC games are dying? Turns out it's not true. At all. While this game might be an exception with the backing of it's massive fanbase and world wide appeal, Blizzard's latest installment in the Starcraft universe has been a massive success.

Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty, the first part of the trilogy has sold 1.5 Million copies in the first 48 hours making it the biggest PC game launch of 2010 and fastest selling RTS ever according to Blizzard.

I myself am not a huge Real Time Strategy fan but this game has made me consider a purchase, I'll watch some Koreans perform some Starcraft black magic on YouTube for a while.