List last updated: March 2012
Many people spent Martin Luther King Jr’s holiday schlepping around their house, possibly at work or, and this is the really good-natured people out there, donating their time to a charity. Me, well I spent my time re-organizing my gaming shelves (due to in-home construction).
During the shuffling of games, the mingling of HDDVD (fail) and BluRay and coupling of previous and current generation peripherals I stumbled across a “lost” form of entertainment, the tactile sensations of books, board games and graphic novella. During the organization of this unconnected form of entertainment I realized one important fact: There’s a lot of Expanded Universe material to Blizzard’s universes.
Hit the Continue Reading stub to have your mind blown by the vast amounts of novels, board games, manga, comics and trading card game paraphernalia that have been created to extend one of Blizzard’s three universes.
Diablo is easily the least licensed universe that Blizzard has created. One can only assume that this will dramatically change as Diablo III’s release date slowly approaches. At the very least, expect a tie in novel.
Comics:
- Tales of Sanctuary (2001)
Games:
- Diablo (1996)
- Diablo: Hellfire (1997) – not considered canon
- Diablo II Battle Chest (2000, 2001)
- Diablo III (2011?)*
Novels:
- Diablo Archive – The Sin War (2006, 2007, 2007)
- Demonsbane (2000)
- Legacy of Blood (2001)
- The Black Road (2002)
- The Kingdom of Shadow (2002)
- Moon of the Spider (2005)
- Diablo: The Order (May 29, 2012)*
StarCraft took the crown of the most licensed universe until World of Warcraft began to dominate the universe, all of them. The franchise is seeing its expanded universe rekindle thanks to the continued success of StarCraft II domestically and abroad.
Board Games:
- StarCraft: The Board Game (2007)
- StarCraft: The Board Game: Brood War (2008)
- Risk: StarCraft (2012)*
Comics:
- StarCraft: Book 1 (2010)
Games:
- StarCraft Battle Chest (1998, 1998)
- StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (2010)
- StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm (2012?)*
- StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void (2013?)*
Manga:
- Frontline: Volume 1 (2008)
- Frontline: Volume 2 (2009)
- Frontline: Volume 3 (2009)
- Frontline: Volume 4 (2009)
- Ghost Academy: Volume 1 (2010) – Check out our review.
- Ghost Academy: Volume 2 (2010) – Check out our review.
- Ghost Academy: Volume 3 (2011) – Check out our review.
Novels:
- The StarCraft Archive: An Anthology (2000, 2001, 2001, 2002)
- Queen of Blades (2006)
- Ghost: Nova (2006)
- The Dark Templar Saga: Firstborn (2007)
- The Dark Templar Saga: Shadow Hunters (2007)
- I, Mengsk (2008)
- The Dark Templar Saga: Twilight (2009)
- Heaven’s Devils (2010) – Check out our review.
- Devils’ Due (2011) – Check out our review.
- Ghost: Spectres (2011)
Web Stories (free):
- Changeling
- Mothership
- Broken Wide
- Collateral Damage
- Stealing Thunder
- Heaven’s Devils: Lost Transmissions
- Colossus – Check out our review.
Warcraft is the leader in Blizzard’s licensing war with dozens of items spread across all forms of nerdy entertainment. The comic, trading card game, manga and miniatures endeavors have each seen a bit of turmoil, but the novels garnered Blizzard and Christie Golden their first New York Times Bestseller honors.
Board Games & RPG Books:
-
Yeah, that says 'Free Parking.' Too much research for 'Free Hearthstone'?
- Manual of Monsters (2003)
- Alliance & Horde Compendium (2003)
- Magic & Mayhem (2004)
- Lands of Conflict (2004)
- Shadows & Light (2004)
- World of Warcraft: The Board Game (2005)
- More Magic and Mayhem (2005)
- Lands of Mystery (2005)
- Alliance Player’s Guide (2006)
- Horde Player’s Guide (2006)
- Monster Guide (2007)
- World of Warcraft: The Adventures Game (2008)
- Dark Factions (2008)
- Monopoly: World of Warcraft (2012)*
Comics:
- The Comic: Volume 1 (2008)
- Ashbringer (2009)
- The Comic: Volume 2 (2009)
- The Comic: Volume 3 (2010)
- The Comic: Volume 4 (2010)
- Curse of the Worgen (2010-2011)
Games:
- Warcraft: Orcs & Humans (1994)
- Warcraft II Battle Chest (1995, 1996)
- Warcraft III Battle Chest (2002, 2003)
- World of Warcraft Battle Chest (2004, 2007)
- World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (2008)
- World of Warcraft: Cataclysm (2010)
- World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria (2012)
Manga:
- The Sunwell Trilogy (2005, 2006, 2007)
- Legends: Volume 1 (2008)
- Legends: Volume 2 (2008)
- Legends: Volume 3 (2009)
- Legends: Volume 4 (2009)
- Legends: Volume 5 (2009)
- Death Knight (2009)
- The Dragons of Outland: Volume 1 – Shadow Wing (2010) – Check out our review.
- Mage (2010) – Check out our review.
- Shaman (2010) – Check out our review.
- The Dragons of Outland: Volume 2 – Nexus Point (2011) – Check out our review.
- The Dragons of Outland: Volume 3 – Untitled (Limbo)*
Novels:
- Warcraft Archive (2001, 2001, 2001, 2001)
- Warcraft War of the Ancients Archive (2004, 2004, 2005) – Check out our review.
- Cycle of Hatred (2006)
- Rise of the Horde (2006)
- Tides of Darkness (2007)
- Beyond the Dark Portal (2008)
- Night of the Dragon (2008)
- Arthas: Rise of the Lich King (2010)
- Stormrage (2010) – Check out our review.
- The Shattering – Prelude to Cataclysm (2010) – Check out our review.
- Wolfheart (2011) – - Check out our review.
Trading Card Game & Miniatures:
- Heroes of Azeroth (2006)
- Onyxia’s Lair (2006)
- Molten Core (2007)
- Through the Dark Portal (2007)
- Fires of Outland (2007)
- Magtheridon’s Lair (2008)
- Black Temple (2008)
- Servents of the Betrayer (2008)
- The Hunt for Illidan (2008)
- Drums of War (2008)
- WoW Miniatures Core Set (2008)
- Blood of Gladiators (2009)
- Spoils of War Booster (2009)
- Fields of Honor (2009)
- Scourgewar (2009)
- Naxxramas (2009)
- Wrath Gate (2010)
- Icecrown (2010)
- Worldbreaker (2010)
- War of Elements (2011)
- Twilight of the Dragons (2011)
- Aftermath: Throne of the Tides (2011)
- Aftermath: Crown of the Heavens (2012)
- Aftermath: Tomb of the Forgotten (June 2013)*
Web Stories (free):
- The War Effort
- The War of the Shifting Sands
- Road to Damnation
- Unbroken
- Glory
- Heart of War
- Genn Greymane: Lord of His Pack – Check out our review.
- Gallywix: Trade Secrets of a Trade Prince
- The Council of Three Hammers: Fire and Iron
- Vol’Jin: The Judgement – Check out our review.
That took way longer to research and compile than I expected…
Notes:
When available, compilations are listed instead of individual pieces.
* denotes upcoming or on-going releases.
I think I hear my credit card squeling. Had no idea there was THIS MUCH crap released by Blizz.
PS diablo 3 pic is badass
January 20th, 2011 at 4:10 pmQuote
Didn’t know I had acquired so much of their stuff. I think i have everything on that list. TCG cards the only exception because I don’t have every individual card. Damn thats still alot of stuff. Not even adding in all the individual clothing and accessories.
January 20th, 2011 at 7:31 pmQuote
Wow theres a LOT of gear there…
I’d love to ‘read’ the Warcraft novels, but don’t know whether they do them in audiobook format. Or if they do, I haven’t found anywhere that sells them, otherwise I’d have the whole set. I have a hard time reading normal boooks, as my sight isn’t great.
Seeing as a 7.99 book can be sold for between 25.00 and 50.00 (insert currency here) in audio format, I feel whomever is publishing is missing out on a rather large cash injection.
:)
January 20th, 2011 at 8:11 pmQuote
@Stormkiller
January 24th, 2011 at 2:48 pmBlizz could only release audio books if Chris Metzen narrated them in character, naturally.
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@Twong
Why don’t they then? I mean, seriously. I’ll pay just to hear him voice act. Major bucks to be made here, Blizzard!
DO IT!!!
January 24th, 2011 at 5:33 pmQuote
@Twong
I definitley agree.
@Mordil
So would I
The closest I have heard so far is a guy called Total Biscuit, who is reading the short stories from the official WoW website on his youtube channel. His reading of ‘Lord of his pack’ is rather good.
January 25th, 2011 at 6:59 am:)
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Really cool list. You’re missing the dwarf short story from the website, though.
May 1st, 2011 at 4:55 amQuote
@Stormkiller
He isn’t going to do anymore of those :(
May 1st, 2011 at 8:46 pmQuote
im a lvl 100 human night elf with duel weild owls for pet… and my dps is like 6
December 26th, 2011 at 10:14 amQuote