Category Archives: Blizzcon 2008

All the exclusive, convention-only Murloc plushies in the world can’t recoup the cost of cramming 20,000 frothing fans into the Anaheim Convention Center, it seems. During the 2009 Austin GDC, Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce explained that – while certainly an excellent marketing opportunity – BlizzCon does quite a number on Blizzard’s wallet.

“BlizzCon is operated at a substantial loss for the company,” said Pearce. “It’s a huge marketing opportunity, so that’s the benefit we get out of that. But in terms of any kind of financial gain, it actually is a loss for us.”

As to how many arms and legs the company pays each year, Pearce wouldn’t say.

Fear not for BlizzCon, though. The jolly blue gaming giant loves its fans, and treats the massive gathering as “an operating expense.”

Thanks, GameSpot.

Paul Sams of Blizzard has told Geoff Keighley that the firm has not ruled out Diablo III for consoles.

Currently, Blizzard is in talks with first-parties now.

This according to Keighly’s latest tweet.

Diablo III on 360 and PS3? Color us excited at the possibility.

Nathan is at BlizzCon now. We’ll see if he can bend someone’s arm for more information.

Speaking to GI at BlizzCon, Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime said that merging with Activision will allow the firm to move to consoles when it likes, and said being first in the console space with an MMO isn’t a requirement to taking a significant share of the market.

“I think that, it comes down to games, so I’m not too worried about being first to make a claim or first to take a market share,” he said. “Actually Blizzard has rarely been the first to create a genre, unless you consider Diablo a new genre, nobody said that at the time, they all said it wasn’t new.”

“For us we’re looking for what is the next thing, what is the next step, what is the next evolution and I think that it’s not really dependant on platform.”

“That argument probably gets even more powerful with the partnership with Activision,” he added. “Activision will have a strong business on consoles so whenever Blizzard decides to go and enter the console market we have this huge infrastructure of people that is already successful in the console business, so I don’t think we’re losing anything.”

More through the link.

World of Warcraft production boss J Allen Brack apparently confirmed at BlizzCon session this weekend that paid character customisation is on the way to World of Warcraft. From this Warcry report:

When asked to expand upon a button found by sifting through the Lich King beta’s data files named “Paid Character Customization,” Brack initially hesitated to give any answer at all. Several questions later, he went back to the matter, saying that he could, in fact, confirm that World of Warcraft would eventually have some form of paid character customization, though they themselves hadn’t yet worked out any details.

There’s a full report of the panel through there.

On Gamespot. These are taken from Terran: Wings of Liberty, the first of the three StarCraft II parts, of which you can find an explanation here. Still no release date.

Speaking to IGN at BlizzCon, Blizzard boss Rob Pardo’s said the final number of players to be allowed in a Diablo III co-op party has yet to be decided, and that the team is “worried” that too many cooks may spoil the broth.

“We’re a little bit worried that if you go up to too many players that you’re not really going to be playing together anymore,” he said.

“We want to make sure it’s a great co-op experience where you really play with the people you’re with, so we’ve just got to experiment and figure out what the optimal number is.”

The game was shown playable with up to four players at BlizzCon, although Pardo said the dev team is currently targeting an upper limit of eight.

There’s a full interview through there.

According to this Joystiq report, Diablo III boss Jay Wilson said at BlizzCon this weekend that you’re going to be paying for some elements of the new version of Battle.Net, releasing alongside StarCraft II.

“We are looking to monetize Battle.Net so that we get to keep making these games and updating features,” he said during a panel. “We kind of have to.”

No date’s been put on the update’s release as yet.

More through the link.

Here and here. They’re direct-feed montages of gameplay showing off various units from all factions. Looks lovely. Thanks, VGB.

Kotaku’s posted a chat with StarCraft II producer Chris Sigaty, outlining the thinking behind releasing the game in three parts and adding some detail as to what to expect in each. From the piece:

Each new single player campaign will come with upgrades and changes to the multiplayer. The main difference here is that instead of giving you a tacked-on extension of the single-player experience as you often find in an RTS expansion, each title comes with a fully realized campaign.

Chris explained that each of the three installments would play a bit differently as well, with different meta-game types in each. The initial campaign would feature Terran Jim Raynor, with a meta game that involves upgrading technologies. The second focuses on the Zerg, with a meta-element involving diplomacy. I mentioned Star Control, and Chris said that that sort of gameplay element had been discussed.

More through the link.

On Eurogamer.pt. It’s Protoss versus Zerg and it looks amazing. The game was confirmed for a trilogy release in California yesterday. Go watch it: it’s very cool.

According to this Hellforge story, Blizzard yesterday mentioned that WarCraft IV will use the same trilogy release system as StarCraft II in a panel at BlizzCon yesterday.

Blizzard announced at the expo last night that StarCraft II would be release in three parts, each product focusing on a separate single-player campaign.

We’re chalking this up as rumour: Frank Pearce told us at GC that all Blizzard teams were currently working on projects and nothing was decided on WarCraft IV development.

Thanks, hiuspaa!

Speaking to IGN at BlizzCon 08, World of Warcraft production director J Allen Brack’s said the WoW team has been humbled by the success of the game, and that the initial benchmark for success was 1 million subscribers.

“Our big thoughts about what the game would eventually be internally was, ‘Well, one day we might have one million subscribers,’” he said. “And that would be just really successful; [the] pinnacle of success with one million subscribers. Now we’ve got more than ten times that.

It’s really forced the company to change, the team to change… it’s really humbling.”

Blizzard is on the verge of releasing Wrath of the Lich King, the MMO’s second major expansion.

More through the link.

On Gamespot. Some of these were posted last night with the announcement of the Wizard class, but you can never have too much Diablo III.

Check them out.

Shacknews has posted up what looks to be the entire talent tree for Diablo III’s Wizard, the game’s third confirmed class.

Two words: magic missile. As it stands so far, we’ll be playing a Wizard when the game finally releases. No question. Unless Blizzard pulls something a little “darker” out of the hat in the meantime. So awesome. We haven’t been this pumped about a game since growing out of shorts.

Hit the link.

Update: There’s an explanation of how this is going to actually work here.

Blizzard’s announced that StarCraft II is, in fact, a trilogy, and will be split into three stand-alone products.

The news comes out of BlizzCon 08, which opened last night just as we were descending into our post-TGS coma.

The first game in the series will be Terran: Wings of Liberty, followed by Zerg: Heart of Swarm and Protoss: Legend of the Void.

Details on pricing and dates are unknown.

Each game will feature 26-30 single-player missions and multiplayer upgrades over the previous disc.

We’ll have more on this as we go through the morning’s new list.

Speaking in “an interview” at BlizzCon, Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime has said Diablo III will be evaluated as to whether or not it can work on console as development goes ahead.

“Every game we have the discussion about which platforms make the most sense,” he said, as relayed by Shacknews. “As Diablo III takes shape, I think we’ll do an evaluation.”

“I think there is a pretty good argument to be made that that type of game might work very well on consoles,” he added. “There might be some technical limitations though that we might need to get past.”

More soon, hopefully.

Here. The just-announced Diablo II Wizard class is nicely strung out on its official Blizzard page, with a bio, screens and concept art and six direct-feed movies.

This is who you’re dealing with:

Owing to my lack of tolerance for those who would use magic towards their own nefarious ends, many have assumed that I am averse to the practice of the magical arts on a philosophical level. Nothing could be farther from the truth. My quarrel is with those sorcerers who dismiss the ancient traditions and teachings – teachings that have been honed over millennia in order to preserve respect for authority and the rule of law.

Recently the youth of Caldeum have fallen prey to the overblown stories of just such a delinquent wizard. That is correct: I used the uncouth term wizard, not sorcerer. It seems that even the title of a civilized magic wielder is too restrictive for this young upstart. Through my contacts at the Yshari Sanctum of the mage clans, I am one of the few who actually know the truth behind the rumors now sweeping our streets regarding this hellion who flaunts her magic irresponsibly.

We’re so excited we feel a little sick. Go. Now.

Shacknews has posted two videos of the newly announced Diablo III Wizard class in action. Check them out right now.

The Wizard, just revealed at BlizzCon 08, joins the previously announced Witch Doctor and Barbarian classes.

Apparently, Mike Morhaime’s speech has already ended, but we’re waiting for more news. Keep it locked.

By Mike Bowden

According to this Shacknews story, all attendees of BlizzCon 08, kicking off right now in California, are going to be granted access to the StarCraft II beta.

Company boss Mike Morhaime made the announcement in the event’s opening ceremony.

The exec stopped short of saying when the beta was going to start, unfortunately, or when the game itself would ship.

More through the link.

Update 2: Blizzard just posted seven images and six Wizard movies!

Update: First direct-feed video of the Wizard clas just got posted.

BlizzCon 08 is kicking off in California as we type, and the first bit of news out of the gate is the Wizard class for Diablo III.

Not only that, the first hands-on impressions are now up. Joystiq’s got a massive piece, with a playtest of the new class, and Shacknews has got a general play from the show floor. Snip from Joystiq:

Tristram is overrun with the undead, and there are plenty of horror-movie moments. You spot a struggling villager in the dark background, and he gets pulled underground by something unseen. Then blood spurts out of the hole and his dismembered arm flies out. Pretty darn cool. The zombies are very low level and easy to take down with our female Wizard, who has a very nice ranged magic missile sort of attack (spell names forthcoming from us when we aren’t hurried), and she has a close-range lightning attack that can save your butt when you’re in the thick of it.

Top of our list. Get to it.