Gaming News Round-Up: November 4th, 2004

Today's round-up includes a blissful release date for World Of Warcraft, financial results for Mad Catz, and a new video game soundtrack CD with a difference. - With the final stress test underway and the open beta just over the horizon, Blizzard Entertainment today announced that World Of Warcraft has at long last been given an solid release date for the PC. The highly anticipated massively multiplayer game is scheduled for release in North America on November 23rd, 2004, with its release in Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Europe and other countries throughout Asia shortly after (though the date is still unspecified). World Of Warcraft marks the series' first push into the massively multiplayer online (MMO) genre since the series debut back in 1994, and has players jumping into a Warcraft-themed world, interacting with thousands of other players. Upon North American release, World Of Warcraft will come in standard and limited edition collector's versions. The special collector's edition will retail for $79.99, and includes the game on both DVD and CD-ROM, in-game pet, a soundtrack CD, an artwork book, game manual, behind-the-scenes DVD, and a one-month subscription to the title. - Peripheral and now game manufacturer Mad Catz Interactive outlined its financial results for the second quarter ended September 30th, 2004. The company, which makes peripherals including game controllers and memory cards, and owns the GameShark and Xploder 'game enhancement' cheat devices, reported net sales at $20.7 million, down 2.9% from net sales of $21.3 million last year, but gross profit for the quarter was still a relatively healthy $5.2 million, down marginally from $5.3 million last year at this time. In a particular highlight, European sales were up 83.6% to $2.1 million from $1.2 million. The company took the opportunity to re-iterate the announcement of its MC Groovz Dance Craze game and pack-in dance mat for the GameCube, its first published game, as well as new accessories for the Nintendo DS and iPod set to launch this quarter. -In what could be argued to be a licensing deal too far, Spike TV and Artemis Records have announced Video Game Award Hits Volume 1 - Best Of Video Game Music. The new compilation CD contains what Spike TV describe as "the hottest music taken from today's hottest video games", but unfortunately steers clear of original game scores, containing all-licensed music tracks from the likes of Blink 182, Mystikal, and The Pixies, largely taken from EA and EA Sports titles. The CD will be released on November 30th, two weeks before Spike TV's "Video Game Awards 2004", to be presented by Snoop Dogg and screened live on Spike TV on December 14th.