Just when you think World of Warcraft has reached its peak, Blizzard comes out and surprises everyone. The company has announced that the game now has over 10 million subscribers. In addition, they also gave word of how the population is split in the international scene.

Want to find out more about this? Head on over to the full article.

Blizzard performed a massive account ban yesterday for behemoth MMO video game World of Warcraft. According to our sources, Blizzard targeted gold farmers but reports claim that regular users were also affected by the purge.

Website NotAddicted.com managed to get hold of one of the gold farmers who got banned yesterday. The farmer claims that he's from Colorado, strengthening previous speculations that gold diggers also abound in first world countries and not only in China and other parts of Asia.

According to the botter, the purge caused him around 100 accounts of characters with levels ranging from 40 to 70. One account, the botter calculated, gives a revenue of US$ 5,000, and that's around US$ 50,000 lost in just one day. The botter lamented that the business isn't quite profitable anymore,

A lot of competition. Add in when you try to make money, takes 3 weeks to lvl an account to 70 and work, it makes an ok amount of gold then you lose the account, paypal reversals, list goes on and on. We don't really get banned for botting very often. I keep it minimal and out of the way of normal traffic where players dont come by very often.

Furthermore, the gold farmer from Colorado shared that aside from profits lost in massive bans, his company needs at least US$ 13,000 just to stay in business. Because of yesterday's incident, he is currently considering to layoff some of his workers. A regular employee earns US$ 10.50 a day plus an hour minimum.

Yes folks, in the other side of the world its already May 1 and the first day of the 2007 World Series of Video Games has already kicked off to a huge start - with pretty fanfare and all. The 2007 WSVG in Wuhan, China is a two-day affair to bring together the world's best in Counter-Strike 1.6, Quake 4, World of Warcraft PvP and Warcraft 3: The Reign of Chaos for a chance to win approximately US$ 750,000-worth in prizes.

The U.S. realms' very own Power Trip, sponsored by the veritable Team Pandemic of WCG fame, will be doing battle against Asia's best in World of Warcraft competitive PvP 3v3 Arena series to be held within the two days of heavy gaming battle. We've oriented you on the inventory, the rules and the prizes before. Now you can keep up to date on the news as well, with WSVG's very own Videos on Demand (VODs) providing in-depth coverage of the entire event.

In league with this, the WSVG 2007 season is also rocketing off to Dallas, Texas with the 2007 WSVG in Dallas. Registrations are now open for participants who want to show their professional gaming skills at the Gaylord Resort in Dallas on July 8 - 9, 2007. The event will sport six games plus one game that has been voted as the Gamer's Choice at the WSCG polls on their website.

So what are you waiting for? Get that mouse moving and navigate your way to the WSVG official site now. We'll keep tabs on the latest developments and especially on the World of Warcraft PvP bracket. So keep your eyes peeled, readers!

In an exclusive interview with Sony Online Entertainment's David Christensen, new vice president of business development and international operations, Next-Gen was able to extract SOE's desire to trace Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft and deliver an MMO champ to be remembered by. Their first order of business was to establish an international footprint.

So while keeping a firm hand on Europe and North America, Sony Online Entertainment glanced over to the other half of the world and saw how much work lay waiting for them.

South America, India, Vietnam and the Philippines were just some of the names mentioned by Sony, after they identified the most active countries where MMO gamers would love to try out new games given the chance

But of course, Sony does have its share of competition. So far, Korean development companies have been also successful with their own local products that had taken Asia and parts of the West by storm. Trying to insert a viable product in the same market to compete with tried-and-tested (and free for the most part) MMOs would prove unnervingly difficult.

Hakkyu Kim's Granado Espada (Sword of the New World) is one such title that has just recently been tapped into by the Asian market following the recent announcement of a closed beta program. It's been gaining amazing foothold on most Asian countries and could become a brilliant Asian WoW by itself.

But Christensen is still keeping positive, claiming that they do have an ability to enter the local markets and not "be competing with several hundred MMOs" that gamers are already hooked into. SOE is currently trying to establish relations with key entertainment and online technology companies.

They already have games in Taiwan, China and Korea, but Christensen remains adamant that it's just "a very small footprint" they they have established on foreign markets. Is it safe to say that the world MMO market should be seeing Sony branded MMO games coming to other countries soon? With Sony's premier focus on catering to low-cost local economies, you could say that.

The World of Warcraft Oceanic realms go down at 21:00 AEST. That's when all the realms come down, but the thing that some players are complaining about is that it happens during Oceanic prime time. Europe and Asia have their own unique maintenance time slots, so why can't Oceania have its own, too?

Blizzard poster Tseric says that one of the larger reasons for this is that the Oceanic realms "are not separate from other realms in so far as the maintenance procedures are concerned. They are integrated with other realms, so maintenance must be done for all realms in a given group."

As for the recent separate Oceanic maintenance, that was apparently a one-off. "Our recently stated realm maintenance schedule is what we are running with," posted Tseric. "I have not heard any word that we will be changing this to accommodate what you've outlined here."

MMOGs (massively multiplayer online games) are taking over the world. Screen Digest studied last year's numbers and found that the MMOG market outside of Asia have reached US$ 1 billion. This isn't really as surprising as it looks for the rest of the world, with titles like World of Warcraft conquering boundaries.

The research called "Western World MMOG Market: 2006 Review and Forecasts to 2011" studied the current economy of the MMOG world, which business models are better, and gives a forecast on subscriptions and revenues up to 2011.

All the MMOGs currently in North America and Europe are collectively currently worth US$ 576 million and US$ 299 million respectively. Of course, everybody can guess the number one heavyweight of the MMOG subscription market - World of Warcraft, which has 54% of the market (translating to revenues of US$ 471 million last year). Number two on the list, believe it or not, is Jagex's Runescape.

The subscription business model dominated during the previous year - getting about US$ 875 million. The other two business models are expected to flourish this year (though maybe not a booming success like the subscription type): in-game items and currency sale and in-game advertisements. According to Piers Harding-Rolls, Games Analyst at Screen Digest:

During the past few years the Western landscape for MMOGs has become increasingly fragmented following the introduction of new genres of game including social networking, virtual pet rearing and virtual world building titles. These new games and platforms have brought with them many new gamers and also new business models that are generating revenue that is largely incremental to the incumbent subscription business.

Screen Digest foresees an increase of subscriptions to 10 million in 2011 and will get a whopping US$ 1.5 billion. Plus Europe's subscriptions will increase with countries Germany, UK, France, Spain and Italy (respectively) at the frontlines of subscription numbers and growth. Along with this increase comes the increase of broadband in homes, online console platforms and an increase in casual MMOGs. Harding-Rolls concludes:

Our analysis shows that the MMOG content pipeline differs from the current commercial climate in areas such as platform support, intellectual property licensing and content origin. MMOG developers and publishers should be aware of the implications of these trends to stay ahead of the market.

"A Game Developers Conference in China is long overdue," said Hugo Shong, President and CEO of IDG Asia. "At long last, there will be an opportunity for Asian and Western game makers to discover everything that the Chinese game market has to offer."

Yes folks, the GDC is coming to China. CMP Technology, the people behind the GDC, have partnered with IDG to produce GDC China. The inaugural event, featuring content programmed by an advisory board consisting of local Chinese developers who share a commitment to promote and support their country's game industry, is set to take place August 27 to 29 in Shanghai.

The most telling difference between GDC China and the original GDC is that GDC China will be produced "by China, for China," offering unique learning, sharing and networking opportunities for the Chinese market, and those looking for a vertical reach into that market.

"GDC is about connecting the worldwide game development community, but it has become more and more apparent to us that certain markets require a unique, specialized experience," said Meggan Scavio, Senior Conference Manager of CMP's Game Developers Conference. "The local developers on the GDC China advisory board hope to make that experience a reality and give the burgeoning Chinese market an infusion of creative ideas and strategic partnerships."

PC World, naming the Top 50 Most Important People on the Web, has placed Blizzard Entertainment's President Mike Morhaime at the top four spot in the list, sandwiched between Wikipedia and BitTorrent. Largely attributed to their blockbuster MMORPG moneymaker World of Warcraft, Morhaime has become an icon to players and critics alike. This is a big improvement since CNN rated him at the lowest four of the "Top 50 People Who Mattered July 2006".

Because of WoW, eight million online gamers look forward to grinds of several hours online, through different modes of play aside from the ordinary RPG levelling chore. Blizzard has shipped out WoW and The Burning Crusade with services provided in America, Europe and Asia. It grosses US$ 1.5 billion every year, taking it a notch higher than before.

Since he's the fourth most influential dude on the Web, perhaps you frustrated WoW folk can get him to patch up your worries. Or did he just use that influence to serve a nerf sandwich to almost every class out there?

Fantasy games provide players an escape from the real world. Oftentimes, people see themselves in the characteristics of these made up magical creatures; a lot go for characters who they actually want to become. Such are the considerations Blizzard had while creating the new races of The Burning Crusade.

No less than Vice President for Product Development Frank Pearce himself gave the in-depth previews of these new races. According to him, "The aesthetic look of our new characters was certainly a consideration and it wasn't just a consideration for female players. In Asia, we've found that players of both genders are more attracted to the Alliance characters, which they find more visually pleasing."

Of all the new added races, the Blood Elves might be the most beautiful and compelling as they were once part of the High Elves. With an insane lust for magic and self-preservation, the Blood Elves are vain, haughty and selfish creatures. Their red and gold hues remind us of Christmas and tell of their cheery and grandiose character.

Next is the blue-skinned, cloven-hoofed, and semi demonic race of the Dareen. They are actually a jewel-crafting alien race that crash-landed on Kalimdor. However, Draenei's shaman class holds access to the Alliance while the paladin is able to access the Horde. With these new development, gamers feel that this could be the end for variety as these used to be a notable difference between the races.
 
Furthermore, there's a new area called The Outlands located beyond the Dark Portal in the Blasted Lands. The added location may prove to be dangerous grounds because of the high-level content for levels 55-70. Also, the most anticipated flying mounts can be found here.

Other noteworthy additions to The Burning Crusade include five new spells/skills per class, two new tiers for the talent trees, teleporters that link cities together, and outdoor arenas for gladiatorial style combats. Unfortunately though, Pearce could still not commit on the date of release. His only quip was, "This year."