Irvine-based Blizzard Entertainment Inc. is throwing a 21-hour launch party leading up to the March 12 midnight release of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm.
It’s the first time the video game maker will invite fans into its closely guarded headquarters for a behind-the-scenes look.
The tickets for the exclusive visit were distributed through social media by eSports personality Sean “Day[9]” Plott and TeamLiquid, a community site for StarCraft II.
“Within minutes, all tickets were claimed,” Blizzard spokesperson Shon Damron said.
Plott will broadcast a show with Twitch.tv, streaming from Blizzard’s headquarters until 9 p.m., when the festivities shift to the nearby Irvine Spectrum Center mall.
The event at the retail center will include prize giveaways, autograph sessions, and broadcast matches between pro gamers from the U.S. and South Korea.
Sales will kick off at midnight, with fans able to buy standard editions of the game for $40 at the GameStop store at the mall.
A collector’s edition—which includes an art book, figurines, a DVD and other items—will sell for $80.
At 3 a.m., the stream will showcase launch events at other U.S. locations, as well as Australia, South Korea and France.
Company and industry watchers will keep close tabs on sales of Heart of the Swarm during its first weeks on the market. Blizzard sold more than 1.5 million copies of the prior edition of the game—StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty—in the first 48 hours of its July 2010 release, setting a then-record for games of its type.
The title has sold more than 6 million copies to date.
Heart of the Swarm will continue the storyline of the real-time strategy game, in which three races of characters face off in a science-fiction world.
New features include global and group play, enhanced graphics and replays, among others.
Broadcom, Ingram in Barcelona
Irvine-based chipmaker Broadcom Corp. and tech distributor Ingram Micro Inc. in Santa Ana were among the newsmakers at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
Broadcom announced its first integrated chip geared for small cell base stations, which are expected to debut next year.
Small cells, which are geared for offices, shopping malls, schools and other enclosed areas, is a growth market fueled by the race for 4G supremacy among the nation’s largest wireless carriers. The small cells are billed to unclog traffic that’s currently taxing the nation’s wireless and fibre-optic communication systems amid a crush of data from smart phones, tablets and other devices.
Campbell-based research firm Mobile Experts LLC predicts small cell base station shipments will grow to 24 million units by 2016.
Broadcom’s chip, which is being sampled now, is billed to improve interference monitoring, security, download speeds and transfer rates. It has 3G, 4G LTE and Wi-Fi capabilities.
Some of the technology for the processor was acquired through its $3.7 billion buy of Santa Clara-based chipmaker NetLogic Microsystems Inc. last year.
Broadcom projects to begin shipping its new line of chips in the coming months.
The company, a longtime leader in connectivity chips that power Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and other applications, reported record revenue of $8.01 billion last year.
Wireless carriers tested the first small cells at the Super Bowl, London Olympics and the Republican and Democratic national conventions.
Ingram Micro Inc. took the opportunity at the Mobile World Congress to announce a new mobility business unit that links its existing division with operations acquired last year in the $840 million buy of Indianapolis-based wholesale distributor BrightPoint Inc.
Ingram Micro Mobility offers transportation and logistics management, recovery services and customer support, among others.
The BrightPoint buy added more than 25,000 customers and 100,000 distribution points across the globe.
The company saw $6.3 billion in sales in 2011 with earnings of $48.8 million.
It had competed with Miami-based Brightstar Corp., which generates more than $5.7 billion in annual revenue, for the title of the world’s largest wireless device distributor.
Ingram Micro Chief Executive Alain Monié pegged the mobility segment, which includes smart phones, accessories, tablets, laptops and activation services, for growth since taking the helm at the world’s largest tech distributor a little more than a year ago.
The mobility market holds the potential to high-growth, high-margin business lines of products and services coveted by Ingram Micro, which competes under razor-thin margins.
The company posted revenue in 2012 topping $37.8 billion, up 4.1% from 2011.
Net income hit $306 million, up 25.2%.
