Even with Disneyland literally across the street, the main stage at the Anaheim Convention Center was the happiest place on earth for thousands of Blizzard fans at 11 a.m. PST, as CEO Mike Morhaime kicked off the official opening ceremonies for this year's BlizzCon.
With 8,000 people crowding the main stage, Morhaime opened by talking about demand for this year's show. For the first BlizzCon in 2005, it took three weeks for the tickets to sell out. This year, with more than double the tickets of the previous show, this year's run of 15,000 tickets sold out in only 15 minutes. For the lucky fans, Morhaime explained, there was a lot to look forward to over the next two days with all three of Blizzard's main franchises on display: the recently-announced Diablo III, the upcoming StarCraft II, and the Wrath of the Lich King expansion pack for World of Warcraft.
To start, the crowd was shown a highlight video from this July's Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Paris. It might as well have been a BlizzCon preview video: lots of people in costume, big tournaments, game presentations, and performances by the Video Games Live orchestra and Blizzard's in-house band, Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain Level 80 Elite Tauren Deathknight. (Both will be performing again at Saturday night's closing ceremonies, as well as comedian Patton Oswalt.)
Morhaime then turned to Blizzard's upcoming games, with the first being the Lich King expansion, being released November 13th. %26quot;Northrend will be open, and Arthas will be waiting,%26quot; said Morhaime. For the release, thousands of stores will be having midnight openings, and Blizzard employees will be attending a select few of the events.
The biggest news of the keynote came when Morhaime turned his attention to Diablo III. Of the game's five classes, only two had been announced so far: the Barbarian and the Witch Doctor. But for BlizzCon, Morhaime revealed the game's third class, the Wizard, to an ovation from the crowd. (Although to be fair, there were probably very few classes that the crowd wouldn't have whooped it up for.) Additionally, an early multiplayer demo of Diablo III with all three classes is playable at the show.
There was surprising little news on the StarCraft II front. We'd wondered going into the show how far along the game might be. As Morhaime explained, the game hasn't quite reached beta, but all BlizzCon attendees were given a key code in their goodie bag inviting them to participate when the time comes.
Morhaime touched on a number of other subjects during his keynote, including the company's dedication to e-sports and the numerous tournaments taking place at BlizzCon, with $200,000 in prize money on the line. A Warcraft III Defense of the Ancients tourney would be taking place, as well as the world's first StarCraft II tourney, and a special invitational for some of the world's best StarCraft players. Additionally, there will be numerous panels offering inside looks into Blizzard's upcoming games, as well as the usual assortment of weirdness (the %26quot;/silly%26quot; contest promises to be both entertaining and painful to watch). We're only getting started here at BlizzCon, so check back regularly for all the latest happenings here at the show.
BlizzCon Tournament and Honor Items Changes
The brackets for the StarCraft, Warcraft III, and World of Warcraft Arena tournaments at BlizzCon are now live. These brackets show the starting matches and ...
www.inwowgold.com/guide/BlizzCon-Tournament-and-Honor-Items-
BlizzCon 2008: Bingo results
Bad news. We didn't hear about a WoW expansion, or anything solid about the next -gen MMO at the convention in Anaheim, so this year's BlizzCon bingo failed.
www.inwowgold.com/news/BlizzCon-2008-Bingo-results.html
Further Details for BlizzCon 2008
From Blizzard, we know that futher information on this week's BlizzCon. An official press release around the web announcing BlizzCon 2008 to happen this ...
www.inwowgold.com/news/Further-Details-for-BlizzCon-2008.html
Overview Of The DirectTV Package
According to the Blizzard, they have put up an overview of the DirectTV package that people can subscribe to if they want to watch BlizzCon at home: For ...
www.inwowgold.com/guide/Overview-Of-The-DirectTV-Package.html
'Warcraft' Players Go Offline for Convention
Blizzcon is part video-game carnival, part trade fair and part religious pilgrimage, organized by Blizzard Entertainment, which makes %26quot;World of Warcraft%26quot; ...
www.inwowgold.com/guide/Warcraft-Players-Go-Offline-for-Convention.
World of Warcraft Addiction Gone Too Far?
I prefer to be addicted cute World of Warcraft Cosplay like the ones from the recent Blizzcon 08. Previous: New Beta Build 9038. Next: BlizzCon 2008: Bingo ...
www.inwowgold.com/news/World-of-Warcraft-Addiction-Gone-Too-Far.
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