Blizzard Game Pipeline Solid

During Activision Blizzard's quarterly conference call, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime outlined Blizzard's future plans and discussed the past quarter stating that their game pipeline was 'solid'.

Blizzard figures have been impacted by the change of their Chinese service provider to NetEase following a longer than expected transition period from The9. However, he was keen to stress that WoW in China is continuing to grow and just recently they had their highest online concurrency rate ever in the region.

Morhaime also pointed out that the new WoW v3.3 patch will be released in the 'coming weeks' which is great news for fans keen to get started with the latest update which  includes new dungeon content and the usual balancing changes.

Blizzard has also rolled out the pet store where players can purchase in-game pets. Morhaime was asked if there were further micro-transaction plans and he added that all the features being added to the game that utilise micro-transactions have been added to enhance the playing experience but they would not be adding  any features that would detract from that experience. Item sales spring to mind here.

When asked about Blizzard's new unannounced MMO Mike did give an interesting answer confirming again that there is an unannounced MMORPG in development that is not a "direct" sequel to World of Warcraft. This may well have just been the way he phrased his answer but could Blizzard be looking at doing what has been done with Star Wars: The Old Republic and taking the Warcraft universe back in time for an all-new game? We'll have to wait and see.

Morhaime also said that StarCraft 2 was still on schedule for release in the first half of 2010.