Yesterday, the news first broke that Blizzard had applied for a trademark on the name "Cataclysm", in the fields of computer games, paper-based products, and online entertainment services, according to an article at WoW.com. Speculation has spread across the blog-o-sphere as to what this new trademark could be. Could it be the next WoW expansion? More likely it's the name of their next-gen MMO they're said to be working on.

But what if it's not? As the WoW.com article points out, StarCraft: Ghost was also trademarked, and it never actually materialized. Is this Blizzard trying to throw us a curve ball, or is it really a solid lead into what could be Blizzard's second go at a successful MMO? Of course it's all speculation at this point, but from the information presented, do you think Cataclysm is the next Blizzard MMO?

You may remember back during our coverage of PAX 08 last year when we reported on ArenaNet's announcement of a Guild Wars book trilogy, set up to explain the lore between Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2. Recently, Ravious at Kill Ten Rats wrote a great post compiling the information we have now, combined with some brand new info on what looks to be the first novel in that trilogy.

Guild Wars: Fall of Ascalon by Matt Forbeck is set to release on or around February 23, 2010. What's even more interesting is some speculation from a GW fan concerning what may be the second book, possibly being penned by J. Robert King, also for release in 2010. Of course this begs the question of timeline. Are these three books all being written at the same time, to be released around the same time, or will they be written and released well into 2011? As far as we know, Guild Wars 2 won't come out until these books have all been released, so with the first book coming out in February of next year, we probably won't hear anything new about Guild Wars 2 until then, at least.

Massively Speaking Episode 58 returns this week as Shawn is joined once again by Contributing Editor Colin Brennan and they discuss everything from LotRO Book 8 to Aion and Cities XL beta impressions, and more!

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GamesIndustry.biz recently reached out to Codemasters, publisher of the European version of Lord of the Rings Online and the upcoming Jumpgate Evolution, for their comment on a rumor that Warner Bros. may be getting ready to buy them out. The rumor was first seen at VG247 (warning: link contains colorful but entertaining language) and it claims that Warner has "completed due diligence and buyout discussions are ongoing". This prompted GI.biz to seek clarification from Codemasters.

Their reply? "We won't respond to that story. Everything is fine here." Ok, so sometimes 'no comment' does just mean 'no comment', but it certainly doesn't close the book on the whole rumor situation with any conviction. Warner Bros. didn't return GI.biz's calls (yet) so there's no confirmation to be had from them either. It looks like we might just have to wait and see if anything actually eventuates -- or for more insider leaks perhaps.

Ah, rumors. We know the game was just announced, but there are three major reasons this rumor carries some weight. For one, Final Fantasy XIV has a 2010 release date, which makes sense considering the development team claims to have been working on the game for nearly five years now. Also, the dev team has expressed that they'd like to have a longer beta than the one Final Fantasy XI had -- one which was only around four months long.

The biggest piece of information regarding this rumor is its source -- discovered by newly built fansite Eorzeapedia -- of several Square Enix Europe job listings for new game testers and game masters. The listing is very clear that any applicants are required to have "good knowledge" of Final Fantsy XI, which ostensibly already has these jobs filled. If new people are being hired, it means the more seasoned team are being shifted to the developer's other MMO, namely Final Fantasy XIV. According to those listings, the new game masters begin work in early September.

Loose reasoning? Maybe just a little, but when considering the release date, development time and this new information it all seems to make sense. We'd love to get our hands on some FFXIV beta action any time this year, especially as early as September, so here's hoping it's true!

According to a recent rumor at Variety, Cryptic Studios may just be developing a Neverwinter Nights MMO afterall. Of course the speculation first arose a few weeks ago when Atari acquired Cryptic, but the speculation has now reached full-fledged rumor status! *Gasp*

Of course there are two things you may be thinking on news like this: This is just a rumor, and seriously, another fantasy MMO? Cryptic Studios is already doing quite well for itself in the IP department with upcoming Champions Online and the Star Trek Online MMO, so would this new-found shower of capital really encourage them to take on a Neverwinter Nights MMO as well? From here we'll just have to wait and see, but let us know what you think about the possibilities, good or bad, in the comments below.

While we've known of a new Square-Enix MMO that has been in the works for some time now, we've recently received information that Square might be showing off this unannounced title during a special press conference on Wednesday at E3.

The conference doesn't have specific details as to what's going to be presented, but fellow press site Gameplayer has made the claim that it will be this unannounced project, codenamed Rapture. Rapture will be a PC and PS3 only title, with Sony announcing the game during their own press conference, scheduled for Tuesday.

Currently only Gameplayer has announced these details, putting this story firmly in the category of rumor. However, Massively.com's Shawn Schuster, Elizabeth Harper, and Krystalle Voecks will be on site to follow up on the story and deliver the latest announcements as they occur during our coverage of E3. If this is a taste of what Square-Enix has to offer us, then it's going to be one heck of a week next week!

In a recent set of statements to Gamasutra, Mike Hickey, an analyst with Janco Partners, brought up the profitability of an MMO set within the Grand Theft Auto franchise.

While Hickey notes that success would only be possible if Take-Two partnered up with another company who had a well designed infrastructure and MMO experience, the whole paragraph is certainly a nod in the direction of online crime games at large -- a genre relatively untapped in the MMO landscape.

Certainly a Grand Theft Auto MMO would be the new gorilla of the online space, one can't easily forget about the stylized and anticipated offering from Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds, All Points Bulletin. A GTA MMO would certainly be nice, but APB will certainly be setting the bar for all upcoming crime MMOs, regardless of a GTA entry into the scene.

We've got a good reason to believe that Blizzard's next MMO is in actuality a new IP, which means it's the perfect time to discuss the potential of this newly crafted world. Assuming that Games Workshop isn't the inspiring factor for yet another Blizzard game, I'll lay out five settings that I hope will catch a few of you off guard.

Here's the thing about Blizzard, they rarely stick to vanilla settings. Diablo is the only real exception, but even it had the addition of the Japanese inspired Assassin class and Celtic inspired Druid class. StarCraft's races range over a several influences and Warcraft pulls stuff from all over the place, chief among them being some steampunk.

Will it be the same for this new IP?

GameDaily has dug up some deets which give further weight to the rumor that Lord of the Rings Online is coming to the Xbox 360 as well as fresh new information on its potential pricing. The source is an online survey from the aptly named Intellisurvey, and there are screens to prove it.

Other information gathered by looking at the survey includes a question asking about microtransactions for things such as equipment and other items like additional classes/races. This doesn't confirm that such a thing is happening for the game, but merely that Turbine seems to be looking into the prospect.

As GameDaily points out, this is hardly the first time details about upcoming games have been revealed via online surveys. The very same thing happened with Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars last year, setting a precedent for this information containing at least some truth. So now the question is: When will the official announcement be made? Well, E3 is right around the corner, so there's one guess.

It seems like Realtime Worlds' upcoming crime, cops and online drive-by MMO All Points Bulletin is attracting some rather high profile attention. Or at least, that's the rumor floating around right now. Whispers abound of recently dethroned President and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, David Reeves heading off for a "senior" position at Realtime Worlds have got us stroking our chins.

If true, this would mean that Reeves -- like much of the MMO community -- has taken notice of the potential of this game. Potential for copious amounts of success, otherwise known as raining dollars and uh, euros.

We may be looking a bit too deeply into this, we admit. But when it comes to games that headbutt the mold, we're really more than happy to make a couple leaps of logic for the sake of our geeky conscious. Now if you'll excuse us, we must return to our shrine dedicated to wishing a good Shadowrun and/or Fallout MMO game into existence.

We must confess our lack of shock concerning today's rumor that Bethesda could be taking legal action against the previous owner of the Fallout IP. The rumor traces back to the MMO rights for everyone's favorite post-apocalyptic jaunt.

Interplay was supposed to have engaged in full-scale development on the Fallout MMO by last Thursday, April 9th and this apparently also included raising the funds for the game as well. We know some sort of movement had been made, but apparently it was too little, too late. That's a tall order for any company to pursue, especially one with a very sordid financial history.

Should Bethesda move forward with this and win, we can only assume the company will pursue its own Fallout MMO. Then again, who's to say they haven't been planning for such an occurrence all along? Bethesda was contacted for comment, but declined to do so.

We've come across a rumor about Lord of the Rings Online over at Destructoid, from Brad Nicholson. If his information is correct, Lord of the Rings Online may have an Xbox 360 release in its future. Nicholson writes, "According to a reliable source, Turbine is currently eyeing their MMO, Lord of the Rings: Online, for an Xbox 360 release. The source added that Turbine has hit a snag, unrelated to the development process. Microsoft, allegedly, won't commit to allow Turbine to utilize a free-to-play model, which is what the developer desires for the console version of LotRO."

Nicholson writes that he contacted Turbine about the matter, but they neither confirmed nor denied that LotRO on 360 is in the works. Joystiq also got in touch with Turbine's PR director Adam Mersky, who stated, "We saw that rumor, too... We're not talking about what we're working on specifically, only that we're making a console MMO and actively working with Microsoft and Sony." Mersky added that their unnamed console project is progressing and that they'll have something to show by this summer.