The same procedure as every year…

PARIS, France. May 12, 2008 — Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced plans for its third BlizzCon™ gaming convention, to be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on October 10 and 11. 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.

There is no other way to entitle the news which is to be read on Diablofans.com, formally known as Diablo3.com. We all know about the mysterious countdown which was to be seen on Diablo3.com and Blizzplanet.com and we all thought that a serious news about Diablo 3 would be revealed today. But we all have been wrong.

The only thing we get to know is that Blizzard claimed the domain Diablo3.com since a while and that they now switched it to Diablofans.com.
You already know about this procedure? Well, maybe because of that this already happened to Diabloiii.es two month ago. But the webmaster of this site did not make it very popular.
But nevertheless it is very interesting that Blizzard claims such a famous and big domain as Diablo3.com. Draw your own conclusions.

“The number of days until half the web links to Diablo3.com. But why???”
“The Church of the Triune will be shaken in 13 Days”
We don´t know what the author of this mystical countdown wants to tell us. It’s just sure that he attracted the interest of gaming sites all over the world, with this action.

Wednesday in two weeks we’ll know if this was just a successful promotion for attrackting many visitors and for collecting some backlinks or if it was really worth waiting for a great news to come out. It’s difficult to imagine that it will be an announcement of Diablo 3. Why should Blizzard let the cat out of the bag on a fansite?

No, we are not up to play an April fool’s joke on you, that’s something other websites might have already done and most of them are not really convincing. Among all the stupid Diablo related hoaxes today, like this here, there is a very inventive and funny one. Namely the “Diablo Loot Piñata” introduced by Blizzard.

The producer says:

“The Diablo Loot Piñata provides the same fun and excitement as traditional piñatas while also letting longtime Diablo players relive their epic battles with the Prime Evil.”

And for the ones who still believe that Diablo 3 was announced, the first trailer was released or any secret was revealed today: fake, fake, fake…..

Two weeks ago, Gayardos, the admin of the Spanish Diablo 3 blog - diabloiii.es, reported that he received a certified mail from a law firm by order of Blizzard in which he is told to give up this domain, to redirect it or to transfer it to Blizzard.
He seems to have no real chance to keep the domain, as he wrote in a longer blog post today.

It is not the first time that Blizzard claims a domain which includes parts of registered trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment and it won’t be the last time. But that they took action at this point in time, close to upcoming WWI 08, is very remarkably. It could be another hint for an announcement of Diablo 3 in the near future.

//edit

Blizzard is now the official owner of the domain diabloiii.es.

Yesterday evening Blizzard put new job offers online. Ok, that’s nothing special but this time they all start with :

“ The team behind Diablo I and II is looking for a skilled ….”

Why should be mentioned that the team behind Diablo 1 and Diablo 2 is looking for new staff members if the project they are working on, has nothing to do with Diablo? This seems to be one of the strongest hints so far that Diablo 3 is already under development.
Blizzard is looking for a Lead 3D Level Designer, a Senior 3D Level Designer, a 3D Level Designer and a Associate 3D Level Designer as well.

Some people are speculating that the first information about a Diablo sequel could be revealed at the upcoming WWI. One reason for that is that Blizzard will only permit entrance to WWI, for visitors above the age of 16.
But neither the WoW Addon, “Wrath of The Lich King” nor “Starcraft 2″ are containing material which would justify that sanction. Draw your own conclusions.

Tickets for the Worldwide Invitational 2008 will be available next week on Blizzard’s official WWI Website.

//edit

Tickets are on sale now.

June 29, 2000: The release date of Diablo 2. Right on the day, 8 years later, the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational 2008 takes place in Paris. Evil to him who evil thinks.

Needless to say that Blizzard wouldn’t betray anything about Diablo 3 in the run-up to WWI08.
For those who want to travel to Paris anyway, the overview of planned activities at Blizzard Worldwide Invitational 2008 could be interesting.
But Blizzard often surprises us all.

• Discussion panels with Blizzard developers: Members from the development teams of Blizzard games including World of Warcraft and StarCraft II will be sharing all their latest news in public presentations, as well as taking your questions.
• Artist and developer signings: Various artists and developers from your favorite Blizzard games will be on-hand to sign your game boxes, books, or exclusive Blizzard merchandise available in the goodie bag that you receive when entering the event!
• Hands-on play with the latest builds of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and StarCraft II: Be among the first to try out all the newest features of our upcoming World of Warcraft expansion and the long-awaited sequel to StarCraft at the Worldwide Invitational!
• A silent auction: Submit a hidden bid for the chance to win exclusive Blizzard-themed items for your personal collection.
• Song, Dance, Costume and Machinima contests: The Worldwide Invitational will offer you the chance to show your talent and enthusiasm by competing in a variety of contests. Dress up as your favorite character from any of the Blizzard game universes, bring that night elf dance to live perfection, or show your skills in creating machinima to the world. You’ll be able to find more details on the contests and instructions on how to sign up for them on this website in the future.
• Loot! In addition to the goody bag that every attendee will receive, there will also be a variety of souvenirs, including exclusive commemorative 2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational items, available in the Blizzard store and as contest prizes.
• Tournaments: The 2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational will feature exciting eSport invitational tournaments, drawing top Warcraft III, StarCraft and World of Warcraft Arena players from around the world. In addition to these professional gaming matches, community player tournaments will allow you show your skills for fun and glory – and some exclusive tournament prizes.
• Live musical performances and much, much more…

(Source: Blizzard.com)

To cut the long story short: Diablo 3 wasn’t announced in Blizzcast No.2. But this time the usual WoW and Starcraft 2 mush was sweetened with a pinch of Diablo. The creator of the original Diablo storyline and Blizzard’s Vice President of Creative Development Chris Metzen left a lot of space for speculations:

Chris Metzen:

“As far as handling continuity, and the broad story for the Diablo franchise, I guess that we’ll have to see how that takes shape.”

Further the conjectures about a possible Diablo 3, which is chronologically settled before Diablo 1, could be proven true.

Chris Metzen:

“…With the Sin War as well, while we didn’t want to get into ‘time-travel’ or ‘character reliving history in his head’ – it’s more of a straight look at
ancient events – I think I may be roasted for this, it happened about a thousand years before Diablo I, and really, the Sin War trilogy was meant to take a
snapshot of the Diablo world as it was and really show you the events and characters that set in motion everything that plays out in the present day.”

This kind of storyline could be very interesting and it leaves a lot of space for new innovations.

Due to the great success of our German section “Wish List”, we decided now to put it on the English site too.
The Wish List is subdivided into eleven categories representing the most important parts of the game.
It is there to figure out what YOU, the fans, expect from a Diablo sequel. How do you think it should look like, what should be featured and what is to be left out.

You have got suggestions how the story could go on?

Post it!
You have got ideas of certain monsters or characters ?
Post it!
You are creative and have a new fictitious ques tline in your mind?
Post it!
You like to meet a few of the old NPCs in Diablo 3 again?
Post it!
You expect a bunch of changes in the multiplayer part?
Post it!

To cut a long story short, put all your wishes and imaginations concerning Diablo 3 on that list.

It is time again for Blizzard’s World Wide Invitational which takes place in Paris this year. At the 28th and 29th of June 2008, fans of Blizzard games will gather for several activities at the Porte de Versailles Exposition Center. Q&A panels with the developers and hands-on opportunities with Blizzard games are also part of the fourth WWI as eSport tournaments in Warcraft III, Starcraft and WoW.
There are a few interesting things about the Diablo series if they are associated with the WWI.
Who takes a look at the official Blizzard website MUST recognize the big Diablo portrait at the top of the WWI artwork. At the new created WWI site, the Diablo II logo can be seen and at last, Diablo will be part of the next Blizzcast episode.

Those three facts can be interpreted as hints for an upcoming announcement at the World Wide Invitational.

Tickets for the World Wide Invitational costs 70€ (about 100$), each, and can be ordered at the official WWI site.

Link to Worldwide Invitational 2008 website

Link to official press release