Speaking to Eurogamer at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational last weekend, company design boss Rob Pardo muddied the issue of whether or not Diablo III will make it to consoles further by saying the move isn’t outside the realms of possibility.

“I think it’s theoretically possible. It would have some control changes that I think you’d have to make… But it’s probably, of our major franchises, the one that’s most console friendly, for sure,” he said.

Pardo added: “Out of StarCraft, Warcraft or WOW, Diablo would be the easiest game to translate. But it would still take a bit of work.”

Eurogamer’s also carrying an excellent Diablo III preview today, which is a must-read as far as we’re concerned. And we’re never wrong.

Fanboy madness. Blizzard’s announced that the World of Warcraft pet scratchcard in the Worldwide Invitational goodie bag last weekend is none other than Diablo II’s Archangel Tyrael.

Brilliantly, we couldn’t queue up for our bag because we had to rush for a flight. Curse you, Blizzard.

“There is still one unknown project,” he said. “We have another development team.”

The game is thought to be another MMO, and Blizzard has confirmed it’s not related to Diablo III or a WoW expansion. StarCraft? Likely.

Thanks, Shacknews.

“It’s really an issue of the games that we’re making,” he said. “I think a lot of companies and a lot of management teams sit down and look at the Wii as being popular, or that the Xbox 360 is doing well, and try to figure out what their product plans will be for that platform.

“We don’t care. Our attitude is, what game will we make? This is the game we want to make, so what is the appropriate platform for that game? And if the answer is PC only, then we’ve proven that we’re comfortable with that.”

Lots more through the link.

It was, in a word, awesome. The Diablo III reveal in Paris on Saturday was the stuff of dreams. Dream product, dream venue, dream organization. We got there and reported from it with ease. Why? Because everything we ever wanted from a press conference was included. For all the publishers and developers in the audience, everything you’re doing wrong when showing your games to the press for the first time is listed after the break. Please take note.

Things you should do when announcing a game at a conference

1 – Provide a proper, industrial strength internet connection. This is baffling to us. The vast majority of gamers get their information primarily from the internet. That’s a fact. And yet publishers still insist on not providing heavyweight wireless internet connections at events web journalists try desperately to report from live. Take the Sony PlayStation Day in London. No web connection at all. Why? The Worldwide Invitational provided a super-speed wireless connection to journalists, with limited log-ins meaning it wasn’t swamped. It meant reliable live reporting including photo uploads as the conference happened. Please take note the rest of you. EA’s recent London event had a great wireless connection and, again, you only got access by asking for a key. A good sign, but you can bet your bottom dollar none of the E3 or Leipzig conferences have it. Really helpful.

2 – Don’t have mini-Hitlers stopping people moving around. The Worldwide Invitational was a huge, huge affair, and yet the atmosphere with crowd control staff was blissfully relaxed. Journalists need to get up from their seats at presentations to take photos, film, and so on. This is a fact. There were no restrictions on movement at all. People were running around as they pleased and there was ample spacing between rows of seats. Please, please, please take note. We’re not there to smile and clap. We’re working, and we’re reporting on your products. Don’t stop us being able to do it properly by employing some brain-cripple in a suit to stop people trying to take fucking photographs that don’t include the back of someone’s head.

3 – Provide a proper, genuine ton of assets. Yep, we know development’s very hard, and we know deadlines are a nightmare, but just look at what we got on Diablo III. Dozens of shots, loads of art and a 20-minute gameplay movie, all released at the event itself. You want your game to headline every major site, right? That’s how you do it.

4 – Don’t give out any details to “partners” before the event. Blizzard has kept Diablo III under wraps for four years. That means it is possible. Until the game’s logo was shown in that presentation, no one outside the company knew for sure what it was. We’d spoken to properly senior sources in the UK and Europe in the week running up to the event that were “99 percent sure” it was Diablo III, but no one really knew. The atmosphere on the day was insane. There is nothing more demoralizing or hate-inducing than spending the money, taking the time and making the commitment to attend these events to get an MSN message 10 minutes before the conference starts saying, “It’s on IGN”. Have some faith in your fucking games, for God’s sake. And if you can’t have faith in them, shouldn’t you be asking yourself why?

5 – Nail the big four – movie, shots, wallpaper, lore. This was highlighted to us this morning by someone who really does know about these things. As well as assets, the lore aspect of Diablo was covered in hilarious detail at the Worldwide Invitational, leaving few questions unanswered. So we had information on both future and past iterations in the series, art to make things pretty, screens to show what the game looks like and for those who can see it, a stupidly long piece of video showing loads of sections of the game, different classes, monsters, mechanics: everything. Take away any one of those elements and you have a roomful of journalists saying, “Got any artwork?” Not at a Blizzard event.

6 – Do a massive website update. Do not fuck about. When the curtain lifts, blitz your site with all the assets, a new design, wicked graphics, awesome music and leave everyone clicking for Jesus. Why on earth wouldn’t you? You’re not rubbish, are you?

For the fans. We bumped into IGN’s Jessica Chobot on the stairs of the Diablo III reveal in Paris this weekend, and she very kindly agreed to have her picture taken, just for you. We’ve put the full res version – all 4368×2912 of it – after the break. Wallpaper has a new home.

It was the event that kept on giving. Not content with making what has to go down as the most exciting live reveal in videogames history in Diablo III, the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Paris this weekend continued to show tons of information on StarCraft II, WoW: Wrath of the Lich King and people getting their faces painted so they look like murlocs. It had it all. Hit this for all our coverage both live from the first day of the show and afterwards, and see below for everything that happened overnight.

• Live blog of the Diablo III reveal, pictures included (VG247)
• Live blog of the Diablo III European press conference immediately after the reveal (VG247)
• Massive link round-up from day one (VG247)
• Blizzard not worried about losing WOW fans to Diablo III (Eurogamer)
• WoW’s global conquest continues: Russian version imminent (Massisvely)
• World of Warcraft’s J. Allen Brack interviewed (Massively)
• Blizzard Worldwide Invitational: The Blizzard Museum Show Diablo 3 Concept Art (Kotaku)
• Cosplay, Live Music And More: The Blizzard Worldwide Invitational In Pictures (MTV)
• Blizzard’s WWI 2008 costume and dance contest (Joystiq)
• All World of Warcraft classes dissected at WWI 2008 (Joystiq)
• WWI08: Diablo 3 design fundamentals (Joystiq)
• Blizzard Worldwide Invitational: Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain Level Up (Kotaku)
• New StarCraft II shots (Gamespot)

Joystiq had a chat with the game’s lead designer, Jay Wilson, and the very first question asked was, “Do you have any plans for Diablo on consoles?” And the answer? “We don’t have any plans.”

Fin.

By Gareth Chadwick

There’s no point breaking this into parts. Here’s everything we can find from yesterday’s epic Blizzard III reveal at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Paris, and all the stuff that happened afterwards on StarCraft II and Wrath of the Lich King. Going outside’s for losers, anyway. For all our news on Diablo III from the opening ceremony and following press conference, hit this.

• Blizzard Worldwide Invitational: Day One (Kotaku)
• Diablo III preview (1UP)
• StarCraft II impressions (IGN)
• News from the Starcraft II panel at the Blizzard Invitational (Joystiq)
• Diablo 2 now available at Blizzard Store (Blizzard Guru)
• Lead Designer: ‘Diablo III’ To Have Less “Carpal Tunnel,” More Action And Better Story (MTV)
• Diablo III First Look (Gamespot)
• 17 videos from the Diablo III reveal and Jessica Chobot piece (IGN)
• Diablo III: What You Really Need to Know (Joystiq)
• World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King shots (IGN)
• Interview: Blizzard’s Rob Pardo on Diablo III (IGN)
• Movies from Diablo III design panel, game reveal, Rob Pardo interview, day one wrap up (Gamespot)
• Blizzard Worldwide Invitational: Diablo III In-Depth (Kotaku)
• You’re Not Getting Starcraft for Christmas (Kotaku)
• Joystiq chats with Jay Wilson on Diablo 3 (Joystiq)

According to WoWInsider, nearly every class in World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is receiving a game-altering change or two.

Whether it’s Rogue area of effect attacks, Fury Warriors dual-wielding two-handers, better totems for Shaman, or a complete do-over for the Hunter’s pet system, Blizzard will not allow their expansion to fall to mundanity.

For full details, hit the link.

By Nathan Grayson

IGN has got put up a Diablo III FAQ which should answer all the basic questions about the game.

Much of the content is stuff that can be right here on the site, but there’s still some good stuff in there.

Knock yourselves out.

By Mike Bowden

Well, that certainly was a news mega-bombshell wasn’t it? As you can see the site is completely overloaded with Diablo news, so for the lightweights out there who simply can’t handle it, we thought we’d make your life easier and put them all in one place.

So we have done. After the break.

By Mike Bowden

• Live blogging the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Paris!
• Confirmed: Diablo III announced at Blizzard Invitational
• Diablo III live demo details
• “Diablo III is first and foremost a co-operative game,” says lead designer
• Blizzard.com reveals offical Diablo III image and logo
• First official Diablo III screenshots released
• Live blogging the Diablo III European press conference
• Diablo III: “Too early to set date,” says VP
• Diablo III confirmed for Mac
• Diablo III storyline and approx game length revealed
• Diablo III got its inspiration from WoW and Zelda, says Wilson
• Diablo III gameplay video released
• Diablo III FAQ

The first gameplay footage from Diablo III has been released and you can see it over at Blizzard.com/diablo3.

We’re live blogging the whole press conference and keeping our ears to the ground for all the info as and when it happens so stay tuned.

By Mike Bowden

The games in question are Zelda and of course, World of Warcraft.

We’re live blogging the whole press conference so stay tuned.

By Mike Bowden

We’re live blogging the whole press conference so stay tuned.

By Mike Bowden

When asked if the game would be appearing Wilson said said: “Absolutely.”

Great news.

We’re live blogging the whole press conference so stay tuned.

By Mike Bowden

“Brand new 3D engine that we developed in-house.” he said.

The engine is yet to be named.

We’re live blogging the whole press conference so stay tuned.

By Mike Bowden

““It’s far too early in development for us to put a release date for it,” says Frank. It’s been in development for four years,” he said.

We’re live blogging the whole press conference so stay tuned.

By Mike Bowden

We’re now in the European press conference for Diablo III at the Blizzard Invitational in Paris. It’s about to start. After the break.

• It’s over. Thanks for reading!
• “I don’t think we’ve broken a hundred on screen at a time, but we’ve flirted with it,” says Jay of monsters.
• The core ideals for the game have stayed consistent over the dev period. Jay says the style and look of the game is the thing that’s changed the most.
• They’re talking about voice comms. Want to improve on it.
• Blah de blah. Sounds like it’s running out of steam a bit. Five minutes, says Mr PR.
• “We’re in hardcore production,” says Jay. They’re working mainly on content at the moment.
• “Diabllo is not that is very mod-friendly game because of the random nature,” says Jay. Mods haven’t been a big focus. It’s difficult with this title, he says.
• They’re talking a lot about co-op. “We really see the single-player and co-operative play as the same thing,” says Jay.
• “The biggest thing we have to help us protect against piracy” is the community, says Frank. People want to be a part of Battle.Net.
• Seasonal stuff – a la WoW – is a “cool idea”.
• They’re going to “discuss” a beta, but nothing confirmed yet.
• “It’s always our goal to run on a broad range of systems,” says Jay. They won’t confirm system specs.
• They use Zelda and WoW as inspiration for boss design. Jay says the bosses are going to be much more complex than Diablo II.
• You can pick character gender, but you can’t customise. They want you to kill monsters as soon as possible.
• They don’t have the boss frequency yet. Jay says the boss in the stage demo wasn’t a boss at all, just a creature.
• The characters in the game will have their own plotlines and stories.
• “Our goal is to sim-ship in as many languages as possible”: Frank. He says it’ll be very hard to do, though.
• “We haven’t made a decision about our financial model,” says Jay. All regions are different.
• 
• The game has real physics, but it’s not a “pure, physics reactionary system.”
• The blue teaser image was supposed to be the face of Diablo. Jay “doesn’t know” what the purple penguin was.
• A lot of different locations. Dur.
• It’s going to mix random and static maps. They’ve been experimenting with random exits, entrances, monster placement, items, and so on.
• We definitely want to add web functionality, says Frank.
• Around 50 people working on the game.
• Story for the game starts 20 years after the events of Lord of Destruction.
• Targeting a length “similar” to Diablo II.
• They’re going to improve trading, apparently, but are still working on how it’s going to happen.
• They won’t talk about the skill tree format. Sounds like it’s not nailed down.
• We’ve got so many monsters to reveal, says Frank.
• “We’re very interested in the consoles but we don’t have any plans at this time to become a console developer”: Frank.
• They’ve just confirmed Diablo III for Mac. “Absolutely,” said Jay when asked if it was happening.
• “The Diablo III team is definitely thinking about e-sports and whether or not it makes sense for the game”: Frank.
• Frank just said they’re planning PvP features but they’re not saying anything about it right now.
• “We have a new version of Battle.Net that will appear in the coming months,” says Jay. Frank says the new features for Battle.Net will be seen in conjunction with StarCraft II’s release.
• When it’s done. “It’s far too early in development for us to put a release date for it,” says Frank. It’s been in development for four years.
• “Brand new 3D engine that we developed in-house.” Jay says they don’t have a name for the engine.
• Frank Pearce and Jay Wilson answering questions for the next hour.
• Starting now.
• Hall’s filling up. This should be good. Press only.

In case you’ve been in a coma, Blizzard has just announced Diablo III and we’ve been at the Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational live blogging it.

We’re now in the official press conference so keep on whacking F5 like your life depends on it.

By Mike Bowden

We’ve been live blogging all day and will continue to keep you updated throughout the event.

By Mike Bowden

“”Diablo III is first and foremost a co-operative game,” he said.

We’re coming to you live from the Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational at the Porte de Versailles Exposition Centre in Paris where Diablo III has just been announced, by the way.

By Mike Bowden

There are new character’s wielding axes fighting snakes. Then we see some dungeon fighting: everything looking amazing.

Skeletons have ranged attacked and we see them getting battered by Barbarians with ground attacks. The amount of enemy zombies in the game is amazing.

All your equipment is custom designed and will adapt to each class’ unique look and we are promised more quests than ever before.

Stay tuned for more Diablo III info.

By Mike Bowden

As expected Blizzard has just announced Diablo III at its Worldwide Invitational at the Porte de Versailles Expo Centre in Paris.

Thousands of ardent fans turned out this morning to see the game’s unveiling at the event, the first Invitational to be held in Europe.

The event’s ongoing, and we’ll be bringing you more details soon.

We’re coming to you live from the Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational at the Porte de Versailles Exposition Centre in Paris. We’re expecting sparks today, with a Diablo III announcement heavily tipped. Provided our connection holds up, we’ll be updating live after the break with words and images from now until the end of the event’s opening conference at 1pm CET.

The newest posts are at the top.

• And that’s that. Thanks for reading!
• They’re still going.
• Still fire dancing.
• Fire dancing on stage.
• They’re wrapping up now. A guy called Russell’s coming out. We’re shaking like fuck.
• 
• 
• It’s over. Amazing. The two guys are back on stage. We’ll do more photos now.
• 
• Massive boss battle with huge lizard thing
• .
• Wall of zombies. Now dead zombies. Cheering.
• The witch doctor has pets. Showing horrify skill.
• 
• “Diablo III is first and foremost a co-operative game”.
• Going out into the wilderness with the witch doctor.
• Huge djinn thing. Massive maces.
• Showing skeletons with ranged attack. The barbarian’s stunning the skeletons with a ground attack.
• Spin attacks. More quests and stories than in previous games.
• Barbarian jumping over bridge. “So many zombies in the world.” He’s thrown loads of them into a wall.
• All gear is custom designed for each class’s unique look.
• Showing combat in dungeon. Looks amazing.
• They’re demoing the game. Showing character with new axes. Running across bridge, fighting snakes.
• Lead designer’s come out on stage.
• Diablo III
• Burning candle.
• Playing movie.
• Playing Diablo music.
• They’re talking about show tournaments. Come on…
• They’re showing a movie of last year’s Invitational. They’re about to announce the new game.
• On Acti Bliz: “If I do my job right, you shouldn’t notice any difference… Our focus will remain the same. To continue making great games.”
• WoW at 10 million “and counting”.
• He said that four years ago people said WoW wasn’t possible and thanks everyone for proving them wrong.
• He’s talking about online communities. “You are part of one of the fastest online gaming communities on the planet.”
• He’s thanking everyone. First year outside Korea.
• Mike CEO man on stage. Roof lifts off.
• Apparently some video’s fucked up of pro play action. Booing. Now cheering.
• And they’re gone. No more pro players.
• They’re off. The Asian WoW players are on. Much cheering. Blizzard fans for the absolute win.
• More WoW players, this time from Europe. The last lot were from the US. The crowd goes wild.
• All the WoW players on stage now. If the crowd doesn’t stop clapping soon hands are going to fall off.
• 
• Players from all over the world. Each getting a massive round of applause.
• They’re bringing the WarCraft III pro players out now.
• They’re going off now. The crowd’s stopped cheering for the first time in about two minutes.
• Korean guys, Ukrainian chap, German chap. They’re all taking a bow.
• StarCraft pro gamers on stage. Big, big reception for them.
• 
• Mike boss man announced. Frank Pierce announced. More devs being cheered.
• He just declared the Invitational open.This crowd’s mental.
• Enjoy it all, he says. Have fun! Mad cheering.
• Two million WoW players in Europe, he says.
• He’s welcoming everyone to the Invitational, and thanking people for making the show possible in Europe.
• Blizzard MD coming out. Fred something. Mental shouting.
• The lady’s microphone’s borked. But she’s rescued it. True pro. They’re talking about stuff that’s going to be playable at the show over the weekend.
• Two guys on stage. Crowd’s going mental.
• Lich King art. Drums, Cheering. Screaming!
• Diablo art, StarCraft art…
• Movie of WoW stuff. Epic music.
• Starting.
• The developers just came in to a big cheer. They’re sitting in the front row. They’re pumped too.
• It’s about the start.
• We’ve got 15 minutes to go, says the lady.
• We’re fucking pumped. The announcer’s just said there’s 30 minutes to go. We’re sitting in the front row for journos, behind the Blizzard staff. There are thousands of people here. Properly insane.

We’re sitting in the third row at the main presentation hall of the Porte de Versailles Exposition Centre, waiting for the show to start. At 11.45pm CET (45 mins) we’ll be bringing you all the action as it happens. There are a mother-trucking shitload of people both in hall 5 and downstairs getting ready to watch the presentation on the smaller screens.

Hit the link for images and keep watching. We’ll launch the live blog in about 25 minutes.

Both the main stage and tournament stage will be filmed, and both hi-res and low-res options are offered.

As we said earlier, we’ll be there covering it as it happens, so for all the stories from the morning conference and the afternoon press conference, read them here. Also, remember there’s always a lag on video broadcast in this way: you may well see that game announcement here before you see the video.

We hope.

Tomorrow’s a big day. If what happens is what we think is going to happen, Blizzard will announce Diablo III tomorrow morning in Paris. There’s been a lot of talk today that the confirmed game reveal will be a StarCraft MMO, but the truth is that no one outside Blizzard knows, we’re assured. The confirmation won’t come until the announcement’s made.

So. We’re going to get up at 3am tomorrow morning, fly to France and, God willing, we’ll live blog the conference. That’s 11.45am CET, so it’s 10.45am UK time. By hook or by crook we’ll have all the news from the event, so keep a close eye on VG247 tomorrow morning. It could be the game you’ve been dreaming of for the past 10 years.

From here:

We’re pleased to announce that tickets for the 2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational will be available next week on the Worldwide Invitational website.

This year’s Worldwide Invitational will be held here in Europe, at the Porte de Versailles Exposition Centre in Paris, France, on the 28th and 29th of June. Both days of the event will feature a variety of activities including hands-on play with the latest versions of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and StarCraft II! You’ll also have the chance to meet Blizzard executives and developers in discussion panels and signing sessions, participate in community tournaments, dance, costume and machinima contests, watch top eSports competitors from around the world play in exciting invitational tournaments and much more! Tickets are priced at 70 € / £55 for the two-day event and can be purchased by credit or debit card.

Please note that you must be 16 years or above to attend the Worldwide Invitational, unless accompanied by a consenting parent, guardian or responsible adult of 18 years or above.

Get buying. And don’t forget to dress up like an elvish wizard, or whatever it is people do at these things.