How about owning the “undisputed ruler of the night skies”? Blizzard is offering up the Armored Bloodwing mount for purchase from the Blizzard Store for $25. The Armored Bloodwing is a giant bat with blood red eyes and a very dark and awesome look. The mount, when purchased, will be available for all of your characters on a single account.
PC
Blizzard’s Project Titan Back To The Drawing Board
Blizzard Entertainment’s top secret MMO project “Titan” has apparently had a complete reboot and has essentially gone back to the drawing board. Many fans of Blizzard have been anticipating some details on the secret MMO project, but now they may not get anything until at least 2016.
ZAM contacted Blizzard about the rumors and received this response:
We’ve always had a highly iterative development process, and the unannounced MMO is no exception. We’ve come to a point where we need to make some large design and technology changes to the game. We’re using this opportunity to shift some of our resources to assist with other projects while the core team adapts our technology and tools to accommodate these new changes. Note that we haven’t announced any dates for the MMO.” – Blizzard Entertainment
It’s likely that they have pulled some resources form Titan, which currently has no release schedule, to work on higher priority projects while Titan catches it’s breath and gets an overhaul.
Microsoft Introduces New Sculpt Mouse
With Windows 8 beginning to really settle in, it seems that Microsoft has decided to launch a new mouse to make the whole experience feel better. The Microsoft Sculpt Comfort Mouse is designed to work Windows and it also has some features that are specifically for Windows 8.
The most obvious feature on the mouse is the Windows Touch Tab, which is the big blue strip on the side mouse that allows you to quickly return to the Start Screen when pressed in the center. With Windows 8, if you swipe up on the blue strip you can switch between open apps, if you swipe down it will show you all open apps. The stripe can also be used to open the Start menu on older versions of Windows.
The wheel offers up four way scrolling and the mouse movement is captured using Microsoft’s BlueTrack technology. This mouse is wireless and uses bluetooth which will also allow you to connect it to a tablet. You can also get a mobile version of this mouse which boasts many of the same features except that it lacks the blue Windows strip on the side.
The Sculpt Comfort is selling for $39.95 and the mobile version is selling for $29.95. You can read the full hardware specifications on Microsoft’s hardware page.
Microsoft Getting Rid of Points and Going With Cash
Most of us hate virtual currencies, myself included, they never seem to add up the way you want them to and there’s always a few virtually unusable points left over in the end, just enough to make you consider buying more right? Except that you probably don’t because you need to buy a preset amount that’s more than what you need. This is all very bad and the big question is, what’s wrong with the currencies we already have?
Microsoft has apparently been thinking about this and thankfully will likely be switching over to a gift card system that uses cash instead of virtual currency like Xbox Points. It’s also highly likely that this change won’t just be for Xbox users, it will also be applied to the Windows Store and Windows Phone Store as well.
Many other companies use a standard cash based gift card system and it works out quite well, Microsoft’s gift card and cash based system should be just as successful. It will help tie together Microsoft’s marketplace and hopefully make it a more appealing place to shop.
Diablo III Anniversary Brings Gifts
It’s hard to believe that it has already been a year since the release of Diablo III (May 15 2012) but it’s not time to sit and reflect, it’s time to celebrate. Blizzard is offering players who login to Diablo III between May 15 and May 21 a 25% boost to their Magic Find and +EXP stats plus your magic find bonus will stack above the 300% cap. That’s a pretty sweet deal.
To make your desktop look a little less lame and a little more evil, Blizzard has also put up some new Diablo III wallpapers. Blizzard also has a few other fun things going on in celebration of the anniversary including live streams and having you spread the word by showing off your love of the game by taking a picture of you and your friends holding a “Happy Birthday Diablo III” sign and then tweeting it, and if they like what you send them they will re-tweet it.
*Interesting Fact: Diablo III sold 3.5 million copies in the first 24 hours after it’s release, making it the fastest selling PC game.