According to a report from Edge Online, Stern Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia pegs WoW subscriptions as responsible for $400 million worth of Activision Blizzard's earnings per share. The mega-publisher is estimating $4.9 billion in revenue and $1.2 billion in operating income for the fiscal year. It will hold an earnings call on February 11th.

Analyst: WoW Made Up Half of Acti-Blizz Earnings [Edge Online]

Likewise, if a chap wants to master the power of sorcery then that chap shouldn't feel as though wearing a revealing dress is his only option.

Good news, then, that Blizzard has decided to move the Diablo franchise into the 21st century and make any Diablo III character class playable by either sex. Granted, it just means doubling the number of character models but it is stiill a nice gesture towards sort-of-realism.

For my money, though, it doesn't go far enough. Where are all the transgendered Necromancers? Don't oppress us, Blizzard!

Designer: ‘Diablo III’ Gender Choice A ‘Big Debate’ [MTV Multiplayer]

As you can see, it didn't World of Warcraft long to bypass former worldwide MMO champ Lineage. After that, it never looked back, cruising to 10 million without so much as a stutter. Those numbers don't appear to be tapering off in the slightest.

For anyone who has a remote interest in the MMO market or is surprised by the low numbers for EverQuest and high numbers for Final Fantasy XI, the data is worth looking at. It's also worth a peek if you want to point and laugh at the disaster that is Star Wars Galaxies.

An Analysis of MMOG Subscription Growth - Version 22.0 [MMOGChart.com via Waxy]

The team also revealed a list of the Blizzard games that have been canceled over the course of their 17 years, a list longer than you may think.

If you thought Blizzard was only focused on StarCraft, Warcraft and Diablo, think again. While they may have a few lesser known titles like Blackthorne and The Lost Vikings on their resumes, they were at one point working on all of the following.

• Games People Play
• Crixa
• Shattered Nations
• Pax Imperia
• Denizen
• Warcraft Adventures
• Nomad
• Raiko

A look at some of the preliminary artwork, in extra large size, can be seen here.

We know that Blizzard was unhappy with the quality of Warcraft Adventures and many of us were glad to learn of its termination and that Pax Imperia eventually went to another developer. Oddly enough, StarCraft Ghost did not appear on the list, despite appearing to be dead in the water. Unfortunately, Pardo, Morhaime and Pearce didn't expound upon the games in question, nor did they specifically reveal why they were canceled, but expect more from their talk later to shed more light on the decisions that go into canceling a game.

Vivendi pointed to lower earnings from its Sierra label, with sales of Crash of the Titans, Spyro: The Eternal Night, F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate, Timeshift and World in Conflict as "not as strong as the 2006 release slate." Let's hear it for World of Warcraft, ladies and gentlemen!

Vivendi Full Year 2007 Revenues Increase Significantly (PDF) [Vivendi]

My Tauren Shaman is not gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But, if he were gay, he wouldn't be allowed to settle down with another husky Tauren for a long-term relationship, according to one Blizzard GM. All of this just isn't boding well for Blizzard should legal action end up being taken.

Blizzard GM: No Same-Sex Marriages [Cathode Tan]
Gay Rights Group Examining World of Warcraft [Kotaku]

GameSpot reports that Blizzard is looking to hire a few people to work with "the team behind Diablo I and II" for "an unannounced PC project." Is a new and long-awaited Diablo sequel in the works? It certainly seems so. Blizzard needs something to announce at E3 besides the new Alliance race for WoW, anyway.

Blizzard bulking up Diablo dev team [GameSpot]

The New York Times has an interesting Q&A conversation with Jeff Kaplan, the lead game designer behind World of Warcraft. The key to WOW's success has been the balance between making the game easy early (to satisfy the n00bs) and harder—much harder—after Level 60 to appease the l33t. As Kaplan points out, "People talk about the game fundamentally changing at Level 60, and they are right." He goes on to discuss how to keep people interested who aren't interested in forming guilds to progress, and what's new in the expanded areas.

Also, this isn't news but hearing Kaplan describe it makes it friggin' awesome:

Q. What can you tell me about Naxxramas?

A. Naxxramas is going to be the most difficult thing in the game until the expansion pack comes out. It will be the pinnacle, and it's absolutely massive. You'll see this big necropolis floating above Eastern Plaguelands. It's a 40-man raid zone, and it's bigger than the Undercity [one of the main cities in the game]. Things could change, but we're up to something like 18 bosses in there, and they are really cool, too. But it's going to be hard. Really hard. We're hoping to release it in the spring.

Kill the Big, Bad Dragon (Teamwork Required) [The New York Times]

Computer and Video Games is reporting that Blizzard Entertainment president Mike Morhaime "would love for us to release feature-length films in each of the worlds." Those worlds are likely the universes of Starcraft, Diablo and World of Warcraft. Morhaime hopes to see something happen in the next five years. The only way this news could be more troubling is if Morhaime also talked about what a big Uwe Boll fan he is.

World of Warcraft: The Movie? [Computer and Video Games]