In a surprising turn of events in the word of gaming, the considered near-death World of Warcaft gained 200,000 new subscribers towards the end of last year. According to the games 2013 earnings report, the 7.6 million subscribers of WoW in September spiked to 7.8 million in December.

This is a surprising comeback given the fact the game's latest expansion pack, "Mists of Pandaria" was released more than a year ago.

A few factors might be responsible for the sudden increase in popularity of the 9-year-old online game. The new features of Mists of Pandaria's patch 5.4 or the anticipation for its newest expansion "Warlords of Draenor", which still does not have a release date, may have contributed to players signing up for WoW.

But there is also one strong theory that could explain WoW's newfound appeal: The "World of Warcraft" movie. Buzz about the film adaptation started generating after a brief live-action trailer was shown during a 2013 Comic-Con. Then, rumors began circulating that filming was expected to commence last month.

The idea of a WoW movie materialized even further when Duncan Jones, the director reported to have taken on the project, tweeted last January 19, "Going to start shooting the movie tomorrow. Crikey! Better find my specs!"

Although Jones did not divulge the details of the shoot, the movie is scheduled for release on March 11, 2016. Actors Dominic Cooper, Paula Patton, Clancy Brown, Toby Kebbell, and Travis Fimmel have confirmed their participation in the game-based film.

Aside from an upcoming live-action World of Warcraft movie, a short film released by Machinima was released recently online. Dark Knight Love Story, created by Hugh Hancock, is based on the World of Warcraft universe. It made use of a motion-capture system that's similar to the technology used in James Cameron's "Avatar".