In preparation for the rollout of Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3, Blizzard have been revamping their free Battle.net service. As part of this, and no doubt to decrease their overheads from maintaining separate authentication services, they’re also shifting World of Warcraft over to Battle.net as well. Account migrations have been available for some months already, and Blizzard announced at the recent BlizzCon ‘09 that some time in the near future, migration would be mandatory. According to MMO-Champion, an apparently accidental FAQ update to the European site has indicated that the cutoff date may be in mid-November.

Cue the crazy:

they are transferring your account from Blizzard incorporated in California to Blizzard incorporated in Oregon Such a transfer across state lines CANNOT be required and is a federal crime.

No indication whether this is a deliberate troll or not, but it’s hardly more nonsensical than the allegedly ‘legitimate’ complaints about the migration. The good news is that there is a slim chance these chicken littles might actually follow through on their threats for once, and leave the game.

Update: Blizzard has made it official, and provided a focal point for the madness. Thanks Blizzard. Thizzard.

Update 2: It’s an assault on personal liberty.

Blizzard (a company who has not exhibited anti-competitive behaviour) has announced that the Wrath of the Lich King expansion will be released on November 13th, coincidentally the first Monday after I finish University. Bastards.

Following from its premiere at Leipzig, Blizzard have uploaded the new Wrath of the Lich King cinematic. I still haven’t watched it, because Blizzard are cheap bastards, and make everyone else transfer their files for them.

In somewhat related news, Mythic recently put up a new cinematic for Warhammer Online. Blah-ish female content aside, the video is definitely well put together and reflects at the very least a somewhat chaotic sense of humour which will work in the game’s favour if they manage to include it beyond pre-rendered animations.

Penny Arcade weighs in on the debate over Diablo 3’s art-direction, which seems to have disappointed certain members of the Diablo 3 community.