Some pretty big news for everyone today as Blizzard announce BlizzCon 2008 which will be held at Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on 10 and 11 October. Why big news? In the press release they state that the convention has been extended to three halls instead of the usual two which could mean they require the extra space for more play areas. Could it mean Diablo III will be on show following an announcment at the WWI at the end of June? We cetainly hope so,

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced plans for its third BlizzCon™ gaming convention, to be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on 10 and 11 October. BlizzCon is a celebration of the global player communities surrounding Blizzard Entertainment®’s Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® franchises. In response to the demand to accommodate more attendees, this year’s event has expanded from two convention halls to three.

“Whenever we’ve been able to meet and interact with Blizzard gamers from around the world, it’s been a great experience for us,” stated Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re looking forward to seeing even more of our players at this year’s BlizzCon and delivering another entertaining and informative event for them.”

BlizzCon will offer a wide variety of activities to help all attendees get the most out of the two-day event. In addition to serving as a gathering place for the different Blizzard Entertainment gaming communities, attendees will be able to enjoy:

• Hands-on play time with upcoming Blizzard Entertainment releases
• Discussion panels with Blizzard Entertainment developers
• Competitive and casual tournaments for players to showcase their talents
• Areas and activities devoted to licensed products such as the World of Warcraft® Trading Card Game
• Costume, machinima, and character sound-alike contests with great prizes
• Commemorative merchandise based on the Blizzard Entertainment franchises
• A silent auction
• More exciting activities to be announced

Tickets for BlizzCon will go on sale in the next few weeks at a price of $100 USD per person. As the event draws closer, further details will be announced on the official BlizzCon website: www.blizzcon.com.
[more...]

The RPG Vault has posted a nice article by Blizzard North founder and Diablo creator Max Schaefer, in which he discusses what makes an RPG, an ARPG, and where Diablo fit into that metric.

I was fortunate enough to work on all the games in the Diablo series, a title that is today most commonly considered an action RPG. The arguments about how to classify it were strangely heated, with some people insisting that it was a full-fledged RPG, and others who refused to accept that it was an action RPG... or even that such a category was valid.

Our goal in making Diablo was to bring the rich world of RPGs to audiences that were less stat-obsessed and intense, and that craved more visceral entertainment. We wanted to de-nerdify RPGs. To us, what was great about the genre, what made the D&D sessions we all had when we were kids so fun, was the vivid image that you'd be in a dungeon, face to face with an evil animated skeleton king, armed with a kick-*** mace, ready for battle.

Thanks to Leord for the tip.
[more...]

Following in the wake of the new Diablo wiki comes an even newer wiki support forum. If you've got questions about the wiki, need technical assistance, want to find out how and where you can help, or just want to chat about all the wikitastic power now at your fingertips, this is the place to do it. It's also a place to find out what's being worked on for future wiki content, and I've made a post explaining just that, and pointing out things we'd like your help with. Dig in; you know you've been bursting to share all that D2 knowledge, and now's your chance!
[more...]

This week we dropped by Blizzard's offices to check out the WoW expansion, and while we were there we took a tour of their new HQ. We have two movies showing the office tour as well as a trip around the new Blizzard museum which has all sorts of Diablo goodies on show.

• View the office tour movie
• View the Blizzard museum tour movie

[more...]

As part of our continual site revamp we have upgraded the forums which has added a few new bells and whistles with additonal social-networking type features and other tweaks we hope everyone appreciates. If you're a regular forum user (we know some of you have been here for around a decade plus ;), then you'll spot the changes pretty quickly. Enjoy the new features folks.
[more...]

Another new interview with Activision Blizzard's CEO Bobby Kotick has appeared on Portfolio.com where he answers more questions on the Vivendi/Activision merger which was announced last December. Here's a primer...

In 1990, Bobby Kotick bought 25 percent of failing videogame maker Activision for $440,000, with financing from his mentor, casino king Steve Wynn. Since then, the company has been in nonstop-growth mode, through both internal expansion and acquisitions, and late last year, Kotick engineered his biggest deal yet—a nearly $19 billion merger with Vivendi’s game division. The prize for Activision: Blizzard Entertainment, maker of the online game World of Warcraft, which has about 10 million paying subscribers. Vivendi will own a majority stake in the merged company, to be renamed Activision Blizzard, and Kotick will run it.
[more...]

The Diablo 3 forums have been a hotbed of action this week and people are now scouring for evidence of the Diablo 3 announcement in this forum thread. You can of course add your own thoughts and evidence in the thread so feel free to do so.

Blizzard keep really tight-lipped about upcoming games so it's been rather fun watching the online investigations by rabid fans. Much of the evidence has been highlighted by Flux in the Diablo 3 wiki page so if you've not yet read that then please do check it out, it's a very interesting read. Blizzard have of course declined to comment on a timescale for a new game announcement but I have a feeling in my bones something is stirring.
[more...]