That's right folks, Blizzard is being nice and giving everyone with a StarCraft II battle.net account a free name change. However, they've also said that future name changes will cost an undisclosed amount of money. Is this a precursor to Blizzard charging money for every little thing online, similiar to XBox Live? Let's hope not.

Quote from Blizzard's blog

We wanted to let everyone know that in the near future we'll be allowing everyone a chance to change their chosen StarCraft II character name for free.

In some cases, people chose character names that don't represent their usual multiplayer nicknames, as they were unaware of how the character names were being used. It's important to us that everyone is represented by a name of their choosing in their multiplayer games, ladders, and on the forums and community site.

In addition, beyond this initial free name change, we'll be launching a service similar to the one we offer for World of Warcraft which will allow additional character name changes for a fee. We'll announce more details on how the free name change and additional paid character name changes will be implemented in the near future.

See more at http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/blog/572264

The Blizzcon Movie Contest is back! Basically, you have to make a movie up to 3 minutes long, using footage recorded from a Blizzard game. You can use SC1, 2, WoW, D2, WC3, etc. and go wild! The prizes are pretty good too:

Grand Prize:
$5,000, one BlizzCon Virtual Ticket to watch the event live online, and an "Oswald" award statue
First Place:
$3,000, one BlizzCon Virtual Ticket to watch the event live online, and an "Oswald" award statue
Second Place:
$2,000, one BlizzCon Virtual Ticket to watch the event live online, and an "Oswald" award statue
Third Place:
$1,000, one BlizzCon Virtual Ticket to watch the event live online, and an "Oswald" award statue

Quote from Blizzard's Site

Polish your lenses and ready those editing scissors: The BlizzCon movie contest is back!

Over the years, we've come to expect fantastic flicks from World of Warcraft filmmakers, and with the recent release of the StarCraft II editor, we're anticipating some stunning sci-fi spectaculars at this year's show. To enter, create an original movie (up to three minutes in length) using footage from Blizzard Entertainment games, and submit it before September 27. Winners will be announced and shown live on stage at BlizzCon. The silver screen awaits!

All entries must be received by September 27 and meet the formatting requirements in the official rules to be eligible to win. Check out the prize details below, or read the official rules for more information.

More information at http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/community/contests/blizzcon10-movie/index.html

Blizzard just trumpeted the sales numbers for StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty, the first instalment in its long-time-coming sequel to the strategy classic. The numbers: "a day-one sales milestone of more than 1 million copies sold worldwide" and "1.5 million copies in its first 48 hours." The context: It's already the "best-selling PC game of 2010 within its first 24 hours of availability" and now holds the "record for fastest-selling strategy game of all time." With a global launch spanning five continents and over a dozen countries, not to mention a dozen years of anticipation, solid sales were to be expected.

A source inside Blizzard confirmed the information with Joystiq, saying that approximately 1.2m StarCraft 2 accounts had been activated - not necessarily sold! - worldwide as of 4pm PT on the 28th, less than two days after the game went on sale. Roughly 620K of those accounts were in the US. Now that we're a full week out from launch, it's anyone's guess how many copies have been sold by now ... though we imagine if sales keep up, it won't take long for Blizzard to share its success again.

Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2010/08/03/starcraft-2-sells-1m-day-one-1-5m-in-first-48-hours-roughly-62/