The relatively annual celebration of all things Blizzard returns this year as the company announces BlizzCon 2008. Perhaps to help avoid the August event crush that occurred last year, which saw BlizzCon, SOE Fan Faire, and Quake Con all taking place over the same weekend, Blizzard has moved the convention back to October, which is when the 2005 original took place. The show will run from the 10th to the 11th at the Anaheim Convention center in California, where fans will be able to get hands-on time with upcoming releases, attend panels, play in tournaments, collect as-of-yet-unannounced spacial, limited edition merchandise, and see hideously inappropriate women dressed up as elves, both Blood and Night varieties. Joy!

Tickets will go on sale within the coming weeks for $100 a pop. Maybe this year I'll actually make it out there. I needs me some free murloc-themed goodness.

A press event earlier these week has resulted in a veritable flood of new information regarding the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. Most of the news floating about is regarding the Death Knight hero class, fleshing out the details of the eagerly awaited addition, as well as some information on the raids players will encounter in the frozen lands of Northrend.

Every player with a character over level 55 will be able to create one Death Knight per realm. The new character will start at level 55 with a full compliment of abilities at their disposal, the reasoning here being that anyone who has leveled that far will be able to get the hang of the new abilities quickly. Anyone who has ever played with a recently eBayed character can tell you this is a complete falsehood, but it'll be amusing to watch at least.

Speaking of amusing, Death Knights will also gain the ability to raise fallen enemies and comrades as ghouls to continue the fight. If you raise an ally in this fashion they will get a choice of whether or not to take control of their violated corpse. Good times!

Activision Announces Record Billion-Dollar Growth In "Breakthrough" Fiscal 08

Activision saw a record $2.90 billion in revenue for the fiscal year ending March 2008, the publisher announced today - $602.5 million was in the fourth quarter alone, as compared to $312.5 million during the same period last year.

Strong worldwide sales for Call of Duty 4, Guitar Hero III and Spider-Man 3 drove the considerable growth, supported by Transformers: The Game and Shrek The Third. NPD data also shows that GHIII was the year's best-selling game in the U.S. and Europe in dollars during the year, while CoD4 was the number two worldwide best-seller in Europe, and the number one highest-earning PC title worldwide. Both franchises have surpassed a billion dollars in sales since launch.

It was the most profitable fourth quarter ever for Activision, even though the publisher did not release any new titles during that period. With its overall growth outpacing the rest of the market by more than four times, the company is now the number one console and handheld software publisher in dollars, according to NPD Group data.

Listen To StarCraft 2 Producer, Look At StarCraft 2

Mockery, the owner of long-lived Diablo fan site Diablo3.com, said today that he sold the domain name to Blizzard and plans to hand it over completely in a few months.

Mockery goes to great lengths in his post to say that Blizzard is not confirming that Diablo 3 is in the works or coming soon:

Secondly, while Blizzard is indeed acquiring the diablo3.com domain name, they told me that this shouldn't be considered an announcement for the Diablo 3 game we've been waiting for all these years. They acquire new domains all the time. While this is true, I personally can't help but think that this is a confirmation of sorts that they're working on the next Diablo game. Sure, they can claim it's because they want to protect their intellectual properties 'n what have you, but I can't imagine they would all of a sudden be so interested in the diablo3.com domain if they weren't working on a new Diablo 3 game behind the scenes.

Full letter on the jump.

Diablo Fans, Formerly Diablo3

Some Leaked, Sneaked Lich King Screens

Uwe Boll Wanted To Do A WoW Movie, Blizzard Said No, Thanks

I got in contact with Paul Sams of Blizzard, and he said, 'We will not sell the movie rights, not to you...especially not to you. Because it's such a big online game success, maybe a bad movie would destroy that ongoing income, what the company has with it."

Tokyopop Publishing More Warcraft, StarCraft Manga

"We're pleased to continue working with TOKYOPOP to bring our game universes to an entirely new audience," said Paul Sams, chief operating officer of Blizzard Entertainment. "Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy proved to be a top-quality adaptation of Warcraft to the manga format, and we look forward to matching that quality with the upcoming StarCraft and Warcraft books."

This Deluxe WoW Figure Will Totally Kick Your Ass

The World of Warcraft MacBook Pro

Has WoW Peaked?

I wish I could see the numbers, but my guess is that it probably already has peaked - but it's still a great business.

WoW Player Still Suing IGE For Gold Farming

"The real significance of this case is, 'What are the rights of the [virtual world] community members when they go online?'"

Frostmourne For $379 Seems Cheap Now

Those of you who railed against the $379 price tag for the Epic Weapons official replica of the cursed World of Warcraft sword Frostmourne might want to reconsider after seeing what folks paid for a chance at the first 100 numbered weapons. 1,012 users paid the non-refundable $429 entry fee for the Frostmourne auction - that's $434,148 - with the top 100 bidders in order receiving swords 1-100. The top bidder? $20,700 - over 54 times the price of the sword. Suddenly the prospect of gathering up $379 doesn't feel so daunting anymore. Sure, it won't be the official #1 Frostmourne, but I'd trade a giant foam hand and my imagination for $20,700 any day of the week. I'll save my money for when they get around to their Simple Dagger replica.

Frostmourne Auction [Epic Weapons via Blizzplanet]

No one does April Fool's Day quite like Blizzard, and this year is no exception. Today they've unleashed not one, but three separate April Fool's Day jokes on the completely suspecting (for the most part, see below) masses.

By far the best is the announcement of the new Hero Class for the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, the Bard. Utilizing their magical axes, which they hold upside down, the Bard class unleashes their powers in the form of a Guitar Hero riff, with the amount of riffs hit determining how badly they rock their opponent's world. We're pretty much in total agreement here at Kotaku Tower - we'd play the hell out of this class if it were real. Hit the jump for more Blizzard tomfoolery!

StarCraft Turns Ten Years Old Today

If we still did This Day In Gaming, we'd remind you that today was the day StarCraft was born. On March 31, 1998, Blizzard shipped the epic orcs in space real-time strategy classic, selling 1.5 million copies in its first year, ultimately reaching 9.5 million copies sold. I still remember internally debating which box style to buy—I went with the Protoss—and the thrill of competing in ranked Ladder matches. While the game took a toll on my academic performance, it has provided me and countless others with hundreds of hours of solid gameplay.

Blizzard has a brief retrospective of the game's first decade, reminding us that StarCraft II is indeed reality and not just a fanboy fantasy. For those too young to remember the heady, early days of Battle.net, quickly read up. Got any good StarCraft stories to share? Hit the comments.

StarCraft's 10-Year Anniversary: A Retrospective [Blizzard]

Blizzard Versus Glider: The Motions

Last year, Blizzard decided to go after Glider (the botting program that lets you skip past the grind and get to the good stuff); Michael Donnelly, the guy behind Glider (who has apparently made nearly $2.8 million off of it) is fighting back, and now both sides have filed motions arguing their case. The summary judgment briefs and analysis have been making the rounds the past week or so: Blizzard claims that Glider infringes on the EULA of WoW by copying portions of code and is pissing of WoW players (as well as gobbling up resources), while Glider is saying that grinding to level 70 is boooooring and they're just helping players get to the fun bits. Both sides are seeking to be declared victorious without having to go through a protracted legal battle. We'll see what happens and who comes out on top.

Terra Nova has mirrors of the summary judgment motions, as well as a quick little wrap-up; Rock, Paper, Shotgun gets to the nitty gritty and also has a poll (question: 'Should Blizzard crush Glider?' options: 'Aye! Bots = cheating,' 'Nay! Grinding = misery,' 'Ayenay! Blizzard should provide a levelling service themselves' - thus far, 'Aye!' is winning), and PlayNoEvil has some analysis up from a security standpoint.

Blizzard v WoW Glider: Interesting, no? [Terra Nova]; Democracy Inaction: Blizzard vs Bots [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]; World of Warcraft Warden vs. Glider - Which is the Lesser Evil? Who owns my computer? {PlayNoEvil]

World of Warcraft Raiding Latin America For Epic Loot In 2008

Blizzard is obviously not content with a paltry 10 million World of Warcraft subscribers. The WoW pusherman is expanding its operations to Latin America, giving Spanish-speaking North and South American gamers a fully tailored localization, including new voice overs and a dedicated customer service crew this year. In preparation, Blizzard is staffing up, with customer service, quality assurance, community relations, and web team positions open to those who speak the español.

World of Warcraft is currently available in English, French, German, Korean, European Spanish, and Simplified and Traditional Chinese. I've got gold on a Klingon translation by the end of the decade, sadly.

Blizzard Entertainment to Release World of Warcraft in Latin America [Blizzard]