VideoGamer.com's recent interview with Blizzard's Tom Chilton, game director for the totally underground MMO World of Warcraft, is full of interesting tidbits for the WoW-innoculated -- info on the possible new races and classes that could make their way into the new expansions, in-game territories yet to be explored, etc. However, one blurb from the interview has the online gaming world a-buzzin' -- probably because said blurb references the possibility of a free-to-play, micro-transaction business model for the monolithic title.

Don't get your dander up too fast -- Chilton merely said, "I certainly think it's possible that we could do some kind of micro-transaction stuff," later adding that, "whether we ever shift to a free-to-play model is really too hard to say at this point." It's unlikely they'll make the switch as long as the game continues to be a veritable assembly line for giant bags of money, however. What do you guys think? Would you support a transaction-based WoW?

The identity of Blizzard's unannounced MMO project may have just been revealed. Anonymous gaming news bloodhound superannuation recently uncovered a trio of trademarks from the MMO juggernaut, reserving the name "Cataclysm" for use in the fields of computer games, online games and paper-based products. We assume that last one doesn't mean Blizzard's dealing in Cataclysm-branded stationary.

Our acronym-infused sister site WoW.com reminded us of a very important point -- not all Blizzard trademarks turn into actual games (isn't that right, StarCraft: Ghost?). However, they also noticed that the domain name wowcataclysm.com recently expired and is now held by GoDaddy -- who handles all of Blizzard's domains. It looks like Big Blizz is up to something -- but we might have to wait till BlizzCon to find out what that something is.

[Via WoW.com]

Pepsico announced that its World of WarCraft-branded Game Fuel beverages are available this month, and will be in stores "through the summer." So if you're in the US and want to drink things that are packaged in a bottle with the logo of a game you like on them, head to your local grocery store.

To celebrate the launch of WoW Game Fuel, Blizzard will open a site at www.warcraft.com/dew, where downloadable 14-day trials of the game can be found for new players, and a free downloadable in-game pet called a "Battle Bot" can be found for existing players. The Battle Bot has a speaker on the top of its head that constantly blasts guitar solos and the phrase "DO THE DEW!!!" (It doesn't.)

Mountain Dew will also give away items like laptops, various peripherals, and Game Fuel-branded merchandise every 15 minutes.

If you missed out on the first batch of golden tickets to Blizzard's annual nerd mecca BlizzCon -- which we imagine you did, since they sold out in a nanosecond -- the second round of tickets will go on sale tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. PST. If you've got an extra $125 lying around, you can grab a ticket through the Blizzard store -- so make sure your Battle.net account is still up and running!

If you're horribly agoraphobic (or simply terrified of Murloc-clad cosplayers), you can also watch the two-day convention from the safety of your own home via DirecTV Pay-Per-View or via online streaming. These options will set you back $39.99, but ordering one of them gives you an in-game WoW item -- don't say your crippling social anxiety never garnered you any sweet bonuses!

News

• Welcome to WoW.com!
  Yes, WoW Insider has undergone a facelift. And we've got some new junk in the trunk too, actually.
• Patch 3.2 details released
  Information from Blizzard about the game's next big content patch: a new BG, a new instance.
• More information on 3.2 release date, Coliseum, new battleground
  Filling in some of the blanks on what's in patch 3.2.
• Patch 3.1.2 goes live today
  Meanwhile, the Equipment Manager finally goes into the game, along with a few other changes.
• Insider Trader: Jewelcrafting nerf incoming
  Blizzard's taking the nerf bat to jewelcrafters and their prismatics.
  

Features

• Bolfang and the future of the Horde and the Alliance
  Bolvar, one of the Alliance's biggest lore characters, is MIA. We wonder where he might be...
• WoW.com Help
  Need to know how to get our new addon working or share your profile page with friends? Here you go.
• Phat Loot Phriday: Porcelain Bell
  Our weekly loot spotlight column examines the most valuable gray in the game so far.
• Time is Money: Saronite
  How to make some big bucks with some shiny ore.
• Forum Post of the Day: The end of big guilds
  The game seems targeted at making smaller, more flexible guilds the most successful. Could giant megaguilds be a thing of the past?

With the release of the recent full-length trailer for Modern Warfare 2, the gaming populous' attention has been turned away from the original Modern Warfare (considering the game's getting a follow-up, we think its Modern-ness could be disputed by this point, but we digress). However, Infinity Ward community commissar Robert Bowling (a.k.a. fourzerotwo) recently stopped by Major Nelson's podcast to explain why CoD4 shouldn't be ignored quite yet -- it just hit the remarkable 13 million player mark on Xbox Live.

This number is impressive for two reasons: First, it's two million more players than the last Xbox Live total we heard for Modern Warfare back in March. The second reason has been mentioned by a few gaming blogs already -- it's surpassed the total number of World of Warcraft players. Impressive? Well, yes -- though nobody is forced to subscribe to Call of Duty 4. As far as pure, lucrative retention is concerned, we think WoW still takes the cake.

A year and a half ago, we learned that Blizzard was hiring for an infinitely titillating "Next-Gen MMO," one which we assumed would be based on brand new intellectual property (as repeatedly hinted at by Blizzard COO Paul Sams). We haven't heard much about the project since then. However, the silence was recently broken by Blizzard community manager Zarhym, who confirmed on the official WoW forums that the upcoming MMO will "be a brand new franchise."

While this is the first official confirmation of the franchise's freshness we've heard, it's still up in the air as to what the genre of said project will be. If you'll remember, the game is reportedly being developed on the World of Warcraft engine until its developers work up a fittingly new interface. Therefore, we think it's safe to assume it won't be an online dating sim. (Unfortunately.)

Blizzard recently mrguggugguggled that Grunty, the Space Marine Murloc, will be one of the giveaways in the BlizzCon 2009 goody bag. Those who purchase the DirecTV pay-per-view will also receive a redemption code for the little gurgler with a gun. So, if you aren't looking to go down the DirecTV route, you'd best be prepared to get your golden ticket when the rapid fire purchasing begins May 16.

Four days, Charlie. Only four days till Willy "Morhaime" Wonka gives you a chance to enter the factory.

[Via WoW Insider]

The game industry's annual popularity contest has begun making the rounds, and among game developers in 2008 there was none more in vogue than Activision stepchild Blizzard. According to Develop 100, a list of "the world's most successful games developers," the dev WoW-ed its peers from atop a mountain of money with more than a billion dollars in revenue each year from retail and online sales.

Other notables on the list include 2007's top company, Nintendo, which was forced to settle for second, followed by GTA's Rockstar North in third. LEGO everything manufacturer Traveller's Tales ranked 12th on the list, while LittleBigPlanet's Media Molecule came in at a respectable 18th, the highest among indie UK studios. The complete list can be found on the official Develop 100 website. Check it out, and let us know if your personal favorites made the cut.

If you needed further proof that the folks over at Valve are cheeky, cheeky scoundrels, you need not look further than a recent piece of code in the latest patch for Team Fortress 2:

• // TF2 MMO
• "TF_MMO_LFG" "Looking For Group"
• "TF_MMO_Quest1" "You must kill %s1 %s2 to complete this quest."
• "TF_MMO_Monster1" "Boars"
• "TF_MMO_Monster2" "Rats"
• "TF_MMO_Monster3" "Bats"
• "TF_MMO_Monster4" "Wolves"
• "TF_MMO_Monster5" "Spiders"

Great, Valve. That's really great. Now we can't stop thinking about how much we want to play an MMO'd version of TF2. We've already got a debilitating addiction to WoW. Now we're addicted to the idea of a spy-checking, sentry-sapping, rocket-jumping, chaingun-toting MMO. That's just what we needed.

What a week in the World of Warcraft -- we've explored even further into the mysteries of Ulduar, we saw Peggle in WoW and WoW on the iPhone, and the Easter holiday of Noblegarden has arrived (even though it is a little late thanks to Blizzard's long testing periods) in Azeroth. But even though all of this is happening at once, there's no need to fear -- Joystiq's sister site WoW Insider is here every single day with news and views about what's going on in Azeroth. Whether you're a complete noob, you left the game at level 60 (boy howdy things have changed since then), or you're currently rolling through the 80 endgame, we've got news for you.

News

• Val'anyr stats discovered
  A new legendary mace has been discovered in the game's new Ulduar instance.
• WoW Insider exclusive: PopCap releases Peggle for WoW
  Insert joke here about one addictive substance inside another.
• Video teases iPhone WoW client
  Blizzard will likely never let it happen, but a third party says they've gotten WoW running on the iPhone.
• Today's in-game fixes
  Two weeks later, Blizzard is still fixing a few issues from patch 3.1.
• The OverAchiever: Guide to Noblegarden Achievements
  Albeit a little late, Blizzard is finally celebrating their version of Easter on the live realms.

Features

• Varian Wrynn is right
  The Alliance's latest leader really, really hates the Horde. And here's why he should.
• The Queue: Raid goes up, boss goes down
  A little Queue and A about... whatever you want to know.
• Loot, rationality and The Sunwell Effect
  A great essay about what drives us to do what we do in-game, and how Blizzard can use that.
• Lichborne: A Patch 3.1 talent build cookie platter for Death Knights
  So you're a DK and you have no idea what talent build to choose after 3.1. If you're OK with a cookie cutter build, boy do we have a batch for you.
• Eggsellent Guidance: 30 Noblegarden eggs in 15 minutes
  The easiest and quickest way to collect some yolks for the latest holiday achievement.

We all know that World of Warcraft is a demonic friend-stealing engine with terrifyingly potent addictive properties, and that the only thing keeping this beast at bay is its relative non-portability. If the above video, depicting the WoW client running on a jailbroken iPhone using the Vollee app, proves to be on the level, then consider us terrified for the fate of the sociable world as we know it.

The video's authenticity is a toss-up -- as our raiding-obsessed sister site WoW Insider reports, Vollee was contracted to whip up a Second Life port for the iPhone, so a WoW port isn't completely beyond the realm of possibilities. What do you guys think? Is the above video too good to be true?

If you're a frequent visitor to the fantasy-filled environs of Azeroth (and its Outlandish suburbs), brace yourself for a number of huge changes which are being implemented in the game as we speak type -- World of Warcraft's much-anticipated Patch 3.1 is going live on all servers today.

Some of the new features 3.1 will bring to the table include the long overdue "Dual Spec" functionality, the introduction of the terrifyingly difficult Ulduar raid, and a number of changes to every single class in the game. There's more meat on them there bones than we could ever describe in a single post -- luckily, our ninja-looting sister site WoW Insider has been tracking the update for months. We suggest studying up with their comprehensive Guide to Patch 3.1 in order to more thoroughly complain about how your class got "totally nerfed."

[Update: Hey, US-based WoWers, having trouble downloading the patch? No worries – we've got it up on the fast and the free-ious Big Download.]

Critical acclaim is a swell bullet point for the back of a box, but, really, who bases their buying decisions on what the so-called "experts" have to say? Let's face it, we buy certain games because they're staring us down every which way we turn -- on the internet, on the TV, on the frickin' subway -- and because, well, sometimes we're just suckers for the ol' "Chotchkie" Editions. And, while we might curse the thought of marketing (and our powerlessness against it), the MI6 Awards celebrates this integral component of the game industry machine.

So, just this once, let's all give a hand to the brilliant minds that so craftily offered us many, many valuable opportunities to ride their hype waves all the way to the checkout last year. View the complete list of awards and "Gold Winners" (no euphemism necessary, huh?) after the break.