During a presentation in New York today, Thomas Tippl, Activision Blizzard chief financial officer, raved about the strong business done by Blizzard games. He said the division has a full pipeline of content, which he presented in the slide pictured here.

While the lineup confirms continued World of Warcraft support and a Starcraft II launch in 2010 (with expansions to follow after), Diablo III was marked to be released in 2011 at the soonest.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

You just better have it done by November 11, as Blizzard will be requiring it for WoW players, not to mention future games, like StarCraft II and Diablo III. Better yet, it's easy, free and will net World of Warcraft players a virtual penguin to pal around with in-game. There's even a FAQ!!

Hit up the official site for a brief explanation of why Blizzard considers this switchover a good thing.

World of Warcraft Battle.net Conversion Coming [Blizzard]

The Witch Doctor, Blizzard tells us, dispatches opponents with "terrifying precision, assaulting his victim's mind and body with elixirs and powders that evoked fires, explosions, and poisonous spirits." They can also summon undead creatures to "rend the flesh from his enemy's body."

These dark shaman come from the interior of the Torajan jungles. Unknown, unseen by most, the tribes of witch doctors, we're told, come with fanciful names, like the Clan of the Seven Stones and the Tribe of the Five Hills. They hold regular honor battles to collect the materials needed for the human sacrifice that drives both their civilization and abilities.

The tribes also believe in gods who bestow their life force on the veiled reality in which we all live. It's pretty heady stuff.

All of this build up: this tapestry of back story, of cultural origins, of personal strife, combines to help paint a picture of a race with a rich and intriguing heritage, but once in the actual game, playing Diablo III as this warrior mystic, I found myself happily, almost mindlessly clicking away on the mouse like a third-party gold farmer harvesting in World of Warcraft.

All thoughts of back story, of honor battles, of a veiled reality powered by life force were gone, boiled down to the chattering of my mouse and the twitching of my fingers across the keyboard.

It left me wondering how much of Diablo III's attraction is about nostalgia and how much of it is about good game design. I'm not saying Diablo III is a bad game. It isn't. While I probably could wait for the game to come out, I certainly don't want to.

It's telling how quickly I lost myself in a game so very similar to the one I played eight years ago. Within minutes I was happily guiding my witch doctor through vaguely familiar scenery, hunting for enemies to attack.

While the witch doctor has plenty of direct attack spells at his disposal, like a skull-themed fire bomb, my favorite was the class' ability to summon zombie dogs. These undead canines roam around your character looking for creatures to attack.

I also enjoyed the horrify ability, which had my witch doctor put on a over-sized mask, causing nearby enemies to flee in terror. A useful skill when you start to become overwhelmed.

But the experience, albeit a very brief taste of the upcoming game, didn't really change from my memories of playing Diablo, Diablo II and its expansion. I was still roaming around, clicking a ton and using my keyboard a bit.

The mechanics of play and the graphic pay-off seemed at odds with the almost euphoric enjoyment I got out of playing the game. Why was that?

For me, I think it's because the game carefully, cleverly taps into my fond memories of the ghosts of Diablo's past. Playing Diablo III throws me back to those late nights of Diablo II when my son was a newborn and I played the game between bouts of feeding and diaper changing. It reminds me of my days of playing the original Diablo and Hellfire when I was fresh out of college, moving from state to state, filling my nights in towns where I was a stranger with endless role-play.

I suspect that my enjoyment of Diablo III is more about reminiscence than it is dutiful gaming. Which leaves me wondering? What will gamers new to the franchise think?

It's nearly a year later, and Diablo III game director Jay Wilson is now sporting a rather fetching bit of beardage, but the legendary shirt is nowhere to be seen. The outpouring of demand was readily evident, and third-party companies have made a tidy sum producing knock-offs of the design. Where's the real deal?

"The shirt wasn't produced through normal Blizzard channels," Jay explains. "It was something the team had made on their own." Therefore the shirts never underwent any sort of official approvals process, which explains why Blizzard didn't immediately put them up for sale. There's still hope though.

"It's our intent eventually to make them. Whether we make them for public consumption I'm not sure - I don't see why not. I've got other fish to fry." I think we can all agree that working on getting the game finished is slightly more important than releasing a silly t-shirt. Slightly.

As for third-party bootlegs, Blizzard is aware, and will frown in a legal fashion at any company that seeks to make their own unauthorized versions.

In Australia and Germany, two markets where classification authorities (for varying reasons) run a tight ship, Blizzard will "have to change blood if [they're] going to sell there". We'd presume that means either tone it down or, like other games have done recently, change its colour.

For China, though...things aren't as easy. In fact, they're so hard the game may never be released there, Blizzard's Jay Wilson telling Wired "China's going to be hard for us. Because a lot of the restrictions there are really… we may not be able to do them. It may not be possible."

Why Designer of Gory Diablo III Lets His Daughter Play [Wired]

To give you folks a little background information, the BlizzCon press room is a place of joy and wonder. They line two walls with kiosks playing the games available on the show floor, so the press can play without having to be complete jerks, butting into the front of hundreds of patiently waiting fans. They also have excellent Italian dinners, which I stopped eating the moment a Diablo III kiosk went free, leaping over rows to furiously-typing journalists for my chance to play the Monk.

The Monk demo started out in the Sundered Pass, an area of shifting desert sands. An NPC sporting the signature yellow exclamation point quest marker tasked me with travelling out into the wastes to find something or some such. Honestly? I wasn't paying all that much attention to what she was saying. I wanted to get out into the sands and kick some ass, Street Fighter style.

Yes, the Monk has been designed with Street Fighter in mind. As lead designer Jay Wilson told me during our interview, there are a lot of fighting game fans on the Diablo III team, and they wanted a character that added a bit of that feel to the game. Have they succeeded?

It was hard to tell at first. The initial enemies you encounter are wasps, which pretty much go down in 1-2 hits, so the massive destructive power isn't nearly as evident. If I was lucky I'd pull off the full Exploding Palm, a combo move that leaves the enemy with a damage-dealing dot, making them explode in an extremely satisfying manner if it drains their heath completely.

As mentioned previously, many of the Monk's moves are combination moves - moves with multiple stages. The Exploding Palm, for instance, delivers a couple of weak hits before the third step, which applies the explosive damage effect.

As I progressed through the desert, strong enemies began to appear, including members of the demonic Fallen, who took more than a few mouse clicks to dispatch. The Monk's damage was fine against these larger creatures, but the differences between the Monk and the more powerful Barbarian became readily apparent the first time I took a heavy hit. The Monk isn't all that good at going toe-to-toe with enemies. The best tactic seemed to be to jump in, hit the enemy with a quick barrage of strikes, and then move before you get hit.

This became even more clear once I started running into large groups of enemies. Running in, feet and staff swinging wildly, did not work. I was quaffing healing potions like they were going out of style, and I actually managed to die. The key to large groups is the Monk's Seven-Sided Strike ability. A semi-ranged attack, the Seven-Sided Strike has you tearing through groups of enemies in a flashing display of holy power, leaving song dead, and some weakened. Combine it with the explosive effect of the Palm, and you've got a very effective way of taking out large groups without dying in the process.

The key to playing the Monk would seem to be in combining his combination powers to create your own play style. I didn't get to explore this much, with the limited skills at my disposal and the limited time I had to play, but one can easily see how a skilled player can turn the Monk into a devastating engine of destruction. It's a character class that will take a little work to master, but the results should be quite satisfying.

Diablo III's rune system, as we explained last year, is an ambitious feature in which every skill for every character can be modified using various runes, changing the way the skill affects enemies. One rune might simply add an additional attack to a skill, while others have more profound effects.

"We can't really do any runes for a skill until we've locked a skill down, and we're notorious for redoing things. When we do finally decide to lock a skill down, that's the point where we say, "Okay, now we can develop the runes for this." So we design out the runes for it, and we do those last."

SO the system, itself involving a massive amount of brainstorming and design work, is dependent on having skills set in stone. With four characters revealed and a fifth and final one still waiting in the wings, it feels as if a fully-realized Diablo III is a long way off, no matter how polished the demos were at the show.

Jay continued, giving us a status on each character. "The wizard and the barbarian both have runes - the wizard has the most, and the barbarian has some. The witch doctor has a few as well, ."

After running into confusion with internal testers over why some powers had runes and others didn't, the team decided to turn the feature off until they could deliver a more complete version of the rune system.

"It was a big disappointment that we couldn't show the runes off in their entirety, but hopefully the next time we do a big unveiling of the game they'll be there."

Rows of computers and lines - that about sums it up. There are some statues as well, some of which we've seen before, and a lot of blackness. Just tons and tons of blackness. There's a nice long wall for people to write there names, which was nice until it became illegible, and a space for people to decorate their blank nOObz Space Marines, which is a fine thing. There are always plenty of places to spend your money, which is perfect for those of you allergic to not being poor, like me.

And no, I wasn't stalking the Queen of the Blades statue.

Day one of BlizzCon actually started with day 0, when we got a peek inside this year's swag bag, revealing its full Space Marine, hand sanitizer glory. Between that and our look at the special merchandise Blizzard is selling at the convention, we were pretty much swagged out in time for the opening ceremonies.

The opening ceremonies were chuck full of news, from the new Monk class for Diablo III to the biggest news of the convention - World of Warcraft: Cataclysm - the new expansion for the popular massively-multiplayer game that introduces two new races, a revamp of the existing world, and tons of new features that are sure to keep the game exciting for at least a couple of months after the expansion's release sometime next year.

We took a closer look at the Monk, the Street Fighter character of Diablo III, with low survivability but quick and devastating attacks leaving enemies reeling from the feeling. We also looks at the integration planned for Battle.Net and StarCraft 2 in words and pictures, discovering that Blizzard plans to allow map creators to sell premium content in the StarCraft marketplace.

And let's not forget our massive gallery of custom-painted nOObz Space Marine toys!

The day soon came to an end, but there's still plenty more to tell you folks about, so stay tuned throughout today and well into Monday for more from BlizzCon 2009!

According to Diablo III's Jay Wilson, The Monk was inspired by pen-and-paper roleplaying games. They liked the idea of a fast and fragile melee character. He's a contrast to the Barbarian...the slow, tanking character. Another inspiration came from fighting games...as I mentioned in the liveblog of the Blizzcon 09 opening ceremonies, the Monk looks like a cross between Dhalsim and Zangief from Street Fighter.

The Monk uses fighting-game like combos and holy magic, favoring speed over toughness. The class will have complementary skills...skills that work together better than they work apart. He will be a tougher character to master, for advanced players.

Leonard Boyarsky explained that they wanted an Eastern European feel with an Asian influence. They are the holy warriors of the game, religious warriors raised in spiritual seclusion from childhood to be living embodiments of their gods. The theological motivation gives them a nice contrast with the Witch Doctor. They are part of a highly structured society, answering to their church.

The Monks are known throughout the world, respected and feared...holy killing machines.

Wyatt Cheng, produder for the game, said that one of the team's goals was to create a fighting game combo system that fits with Diablo III. They want to add depth to the melee moves. They referenced Diablo II's Assassin and World of Warcraft's Rogue.

They went over some Monk skills, like the Way of the Hundred Fists. The power features three clicks of the same power that transitions from a single attack to a massive AOE. Then there's Crippling Wave, which first slows the enemy, then reduces damage to the Monk. Each skill seems to have different stages. In Exploding Palm, the first and second hits do damage, the 3rd adds a damage-over-time effect, and, if the enemy dies by this DOT, it explodes.

The powers can be combined....so stage one of one power can be switched to stage two of the next and stage three of the next. The different combinations should make for many unique strategies.

Julian Love, also from the development team, talked about the Monk's special effects. The goal is to combine martial arts action with holy colors - gold and silver - with a bit of runic knowledge to help highlight the Monk's appreciation of art and form.

With those goals in mind, they showed us the Monk's Seven Sided Strike. It's like Chain Lightning from Diablo II, only YOU are the lightning. They took some basic movements, added in bright and flashy, holy golden colors, tweaked up the explosions - "Explosions make everything better." Amen, brother.

Then they added in some 2D fighter artwork style, and then used runes to frame the area in which the action takes place. The end result?

We'll be getting some hands-on time with the Monk later this weekend. Stay tuned!

The page dedicated to the game's character classes showed the Barbarian, Witchdoctor, Wizard and Monk, though the final, still unconfirmed class, didn't show any additional information when it was clicked on.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that the Monk appears to be coming to the latest iteration of Diablo. The Monk was a playable class in the Hellfire expansion for the original title along with the Barbarian, Bard, Rogue, Sorcerer and Warrior.

I suspect we'll be getting some sort of official confirmation on this in the coming hour or so with Blizzcon just moments from going live.

[Thanks Jason]

I see several things here I want desperately, like the vinyl nOObs StarCraft firgures, and the plush murlocs, and the Diablo Fresh Meat t-shirt. Unfortunately I don't have enough room in my suitcase for the swag I already got, so it's either spend nothing, or ship it all home ahead of me. Hmmmmmm.

Well, I will be there representing Kotaku, but judging by my height and girth I am worth any two of them on the human meat aftermarket. Last year I shattered the very world, so what trouble could I possibly get into this year? With news expected on all fronts, from a potential World of Warcraft expansion to new details on StarCraft II and Diablo III, would you even notice me getting into trouble?

Probably not. You'd be too busy watching Ozzy Osbourne.

I understand. Either way, expect reports from BlizzCon to kick off late this evening, with the annual swag-bag breakdown, and we'll see where things go from there.

Last year DIRECTV broadcast BlizzCon 2008 as a pay per view event, giving those who purchased the programming a code for the show-exclusive polar bear mount. This was great for DIRECTV owners, but not so nice for those fans that couldn't get the service in their area. That worry disappears this year, with a web stream available for purchase at the same price as the pay per view - $39.95 - which also includes the limited edition Grunty pet for World of Warcraft, which will likely make it the least rare convention-exclusive promotional World of Warcraft item ever.

Along with the pet, viewers will also get more than 16 hours of streaming video coverage of the event, with interviews, commentary, and the closing ceremonies, featuring a live performance by the Prince of Darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne.

Head over to the event page to purchase your streaming entertainment, or just stick around Kotaku, where I'll be on the scene at BlizzCon from Thursday night on through to the bitter end.

The Gamescom (and Blizzcon) demo of Diablo III featured at Blizzard's booth features the three announced classes: Wizard, Barbarian and Witchdoctor, with male and female options for both. I opted for the Barbarian, what I assumed would be the easiest, most familiar introduction to Diablo III. That assumption was correct. Blizzard doesn't seem to have mucked with the successful formula of click, kill and loot in the newest Diablo.

Our short journey started in the desert.

The demo begins in the Sundered Pass, a dusty zone that smacks of Lut Gholein's desert lands in Diablo II. Of course, the deserts in Diablo III look far better than those featured in the previous game, with visible winds carrying clouds of sand across the plains, dust storms kicking up around us. The land is similarly populated with tiny desert creatures, snakes and insects that get trampled underfoot.

Our main quest in this desert land is to head to Alcarnus, as given to us by the lady Asheara, to see just what the hell is going on in that town. Since Diablo's back in town, things in Alcarnus aren't going too well. You know, demons and stuff.

That's what stood between us and Alcarnus—a hellish hot spot we actually never made it too. Instead, we ran into a few side quests. One sent us after the bounty of a man named Husam. The price on his head was high, so we took his head. It really only took one good whack from the maces we were dual-wielding. After some backtalk from Husam, we bludgeoned him until his head popped off.

We started off with some good equipment, two maces, an axe, a shield, plus full armor. We also had an Adventurer's Backpack, which brought our Barbarian's inventory to a cool 28 slots. The inventory screen should look familiar to Diablo fans, but the newest version is far more streamlined. When hovering over unequipped items in your inventory, you'll see a pop up window with that item's vital statistics and the item you currently have equipped in that slot.

That made it a lot easier to see if the leather pants we picked up at one point were better than the "lucky" leather pants we started out with. They were. A right click equipped them, draining our character's luck, but upping her armor.

We were also equipped with two Barbarian skills, Ground Stomp and Battle Cry. The former was hot-keyed to the "2" and, when enabled, stunned everything around the Barbarian. Helpful, when Fallen are surrounding you and Fallen Shamen are tossing fireballs your way. The Battle Cry, on the "1" key, increased our armor class temporarily. If we were playing a multiplayer game, that Battle Cry effect would have been passed on to our party members. But we were doing this quest solo.

The Barbarian's other skill, Cleaver, was mapped to the right mouse button. Click on it, and our lady brute did a two handed attack on two enemies at once, as long as they were side-by-side. Again, handy when surrounded by Fallen and Sand Wasps. Those Sand Wasps really suck, by the way, ejecting a quartet of mini-Wasps at our hero. Nasty.

We ran into a few other nasty things in the desert, the most annoying of which was the Desert Dervish, a spinning tornado of a beast with a strong knock-back attack.

The demo offered a few side quests on our way to Alcarnus. We ran into a "Crazed Miner," who offered us the quest, "A Miner's Gold." All we had to do was defend the miner while he raised a treasure chest via a pulley system. When he started, swarms of Fallen came after him. If we were successful in defending the miner from the swarm, we'd get half the gold. It really wasn't a challenge for the Barbarian, as Ground Stomp made that defense quest a simple task.

After that, we were quickly bested by a massive Fallen attack, as Shamans and other beasts piled upon us. It seemed like the demo ramped up the difficulty quickly when the "Thanks for playing" popped up. We could still play—and revive the dead Barbarian—but a Blizzard rep kicked us off.

From graphics to gameplay to interface adjustments, Blizzard seems to have delivered with Diablo III. The game looks fantastic, dripping with atmospheric detail and gorgeous visual effects. But honestly, it's the user interface changes that are most exciting. Blizzard has made the process of looting and equipping much more efficient, letting the player focus on the action.

We'll have more hands on impressions of Diablo III from Gamescom—and soon from Blizzcon—in the coming days.

You'll be happy to know that we've seen World of Warcraft, StarCraft II and Diablo III all on the yet-to-be open show floor. While I can't confirm that Diablo III will be playable, it certainly looks like it will. The game has a sizable booth, but it was also closed off—likely because of the graphic, demonic nature of the Diablo universe—which lends a bit more credence to the idea that the game will be playable.

"Our goal with BlizzCon is to deliver an unforgettable weekend of entertainment, and we can't think of a better way to close out this year's show than having Ozzy rock the house," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "Many of us at Blizzard are lifelong fans of Ozzy's music, and we're thrilled that he'll be performing for all of our BlizzCon attendees as well as those joining us via DIRECTV and the live Internet stream."

The performance will kick off on Aug. 22, the last of the two day convention about all things Blizzard, but most things World of Warcraft.

Tickets to the event sold out in minutes, but if you're hard pressed to catch some live coverage of the event and see Ozzy's performance, it will be streamed both on DIRECTV and online for a price.

Of course, you could also just hang out hear and read all of Fahey's wonderful coverage. Where else will you read about entire backdrops being crushed by a reporter?