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Blizzard COO one of the Pittsburgh Steelers' new owners

by Ben Gilbert { Sep 26th 2009 at 11:00PM }

Sure, he could buy his own private island or snag a ticket for the first Virgin Galactic flight to space, but Blizzard COO Paul Sams would much rather just buy a chunk of the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers' official website names Sams and his family as one of 10 new joint owners of Pittsburgh's football team.

We've already seen some of the fruits of Blizzard's labor in the company's fawncy new campus, but buying a share of a major football team wasn't exactly what we expected. Though with upcoming World of Warcraft expansion Cataclysm not too far in the distance and a subscriber base of over 11 million strong, we suggest owners of other football teams watch their backs. You could be next!

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BlizzCon 2009: Diablo 3 not yet ruled out for consoles

by Kevin Kelly { Aug 21st 2009 at 6:20PM }

Blizzard COO Paul Sams mentioned at BlizzCon that they haven't yet ruled out Diablo 3 for consoles. "We've met with the major manufacturers, and they've made some pretty compelling arguments," Sams said. We can safely assume he means Sony and Microsoft, because it's nearly impossible to imagine this game running on the Wii.

Sure, it's what Blizzard says about all of its projects as they relate to consoles and yet, here we are, with nary a Blizzard console game in sight. But Sams did reiterate Blizz's interest saying that we will be seeing its games on consoles in the future. "Whether that's three years from now, five years, I can't say," Sams noted. "But I have no doubt that we'll be making games for consoles."

Ex-PopCapper Canessa heading up new Battle.net

by Ben Gilbert { May 12th 2009 at 8:15PM }

Well folks, it took approximately 12 hours to squash the rampant rumors and speculation surrounding Greg Canessa. Bob Colayco of Blizzard Entertainment, Canessa's new employer, informed us today that the man will be taking the reins of Battle.net as project director.

The former VP of game development at PopCap jumped ship recently to work on an "unannounced project in the online space." Apparently that "unannounced project" is a revamping of the Battle.net structure, totally announced last February by Blizzard's own Paul Sams. Colayco clarified Mr. Canessa's role in the project, saying, "He will report to our vice president of online technologies and work closely with the executive team to help fine-tune the next version of Battle.net, currently in development." Speculation officially squashed.