ANAHEIM—While 2008 marks only the third Blizzcon in history, it’s obvious that this is becoming a major gaming event. Blizzard CEO and cofounder Mike Morhaime noted in his opening remarks on Friday that it took Blizzard weeks to sell out of tickets for the first Blizzcon in 2005. The 15,000 tickets for this year’s show sold out in 15 minutes.
Blizzcon 2008 is arguably the biggest one yet, mainly because the company is busy refreshing three of its major franchises. First up is the second World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Then there is the real-time strategy game StarCraft II (more on Blizzard’s bombshell regarding this game below) as well as the action RPG Diablo III.
StarCraft II
This was the game of the show, if for no other reason than for the bombshell announcement that Blizzard is splitting StarCraft II into a trilogy of games. Judging by the comments that we got from Blizzard design boss Rob Pardo, it’s sounding like this trilogy could stretch out over a number of years. Read all the details for yourself in our news story.
Since announcing Diablo III at the Worldwide Invitational in Paris this past June, Blizzard hasn’t really talked much about the action RPG. So Morhaime used the opportunity of his opening remarks on the first day of Blizzcon to reveal the third of the five classes in the game: the Wizard. She’s a veritable whirlwind of magical destruction. And, oh yes, we got to play Diablo III for the very first time.
With Wrath set to launch next month, this is the last chance for Blizzard to show off the expansion. The development team, Blizzard’s largest, is busy in crunch mode to get things ready, and at this point it’s all about polishing and last second balance fixes.
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