Blizzard has spelled out in legal terms their definition of “Soon™” in their news release last night.  They also revealed that Sam Raimi will be the director for the new Warcraft movie.

I absolutely loved the first Spiderman movie, but I’m not sure if that kind of experience can be translated over to Warcraft.  I’m going to try not to get my hopes up too much.  On the one hand, I trust Blizzard completely to deliver a very good, well polished product.  On the other hand, I know its very difficult to make a good movie even when your audience has no pre-established expectations.  I think it will be very difficult for them to deliver on the astonomical expectations people are going to have for this movie.

The best part will be seeing the magical effects they use: frost bolts and blizzards and shaman calls and druid forms and warlock’s demons and seeing them all fighting in real life.  From what I’ve heard, the movie will be about a war between the Alliance and the Horde… but I hope its actually a war against the Burning Legion.  I think seeing our heroes fighting against Eredar and Pit Lords and Succubi and Fel Reavers and imps and infernals and natrhrezim and satyrs and shivvara and all the other demons would be a whole lot cooler.  Or even have them fight against an old God and his minions or include the Titans somehow.  They need to include some giant monstrous beings to fight or the movie just won’t be as cool.  We all know what a human warrior fighting an orc warrior looks like.

Anyways, as for the topic of this post, here is Blizzard’s definition of “Soon” as defined by their press release:

“Information in this press release that involves Blizzard Entertainment’s expectations, plans, intentions or strategies regarding the future are forward-looking statements that are not facts and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Blizzard Entertainment generally uses words such as “outlook,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “might,” “remains,” “to be,” “plans,” “believes,” “may,” “expects,” “intends,” “anticipates,” “estimate,” future,” “plan,” “positioned,” “potential,” “project,” “remain,” “scheduled,” “set to,” “subject to,” “upcoming” and similar expressions to help identify forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause Blizzard Entertainment’s actual future results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements set forth in this release include, but are not limited to, sales levels of Blizzard Entertainment’s titles, shifts in consumer spending trends, the impact of the current macroeconomic environment, the seasonal and cyclical nature of the interactive game market, Blizzard Entertainment’s ability to predict consumer preferences among competing hardware platforms (including next-generation hardware), declines in software pricing, product returns and price protection, product delays, retail acceptance of Blizzard Entertainment’s products, adoption rate and availability of new hardware and related software, industry competition, rapid changes in technology and industry standards, protection of proprietary rights, litigation against Blizzard Entertainment, maintenance of relationships with key personnel, customers, vendors and third-party developers, domestic and international economic, financial and political conditions and policies, foreign exchange rates, integration of recent acquisitions and the identification of suitable future acquisition opportunities, Activision Blizzard’s success in integrating the operations of Activision Publishing and Vivendi Games in a timely manner, or at all, and the combined company’s ability to realize the anticipated benefits and synergies of the transaction to the extent, or in the timeframe, anticipated, and the other factors identified in Activision Blizzard’s most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements in this release are based upon information available to Blizzard Entertainment and Activision Blizzard as of the date of this release, and neither Blizzard Entertainment nor Activision Blizzard assumes any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements believed to be true when made may ultimately prove to be incorrect. These statements are not guarantees of the future performance of Blizzard Entertainment or Activision Blizzard and are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors, some of which are beyond its control and may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations.“