Mr. (or Mrs.) Source says StarCraft 2's dev team is comprised of "a minuscule amount of people" compared to the current Diablo III team. Pretty clear which baby was gonna get its milk first all along, I'd figure. Blizzard hasn't said anything officially about the rumor. Sounds like a good rumor, doesn't really defy reasonable expectations. While it doesn't exactly fix a release date for you, it does let StarCraft players know not to hold their breath waiting.

Diablo 3 Release Date Before StarCraft 2 [Battleforums]

Hit the jump for comparison pictures and decide for yourself, and get a look at the full secret pic revealed!

The reason I am leaning Protoss mainly lies in the shape of the bit between the eyes, which in my opinion matches the Protoss much better than it does the Death Knight.

Then again, look at the frost emanating from the eyes. Seems to emulated the eyes of the Death Knight, and the glow even matches up.

Does this mean no Diablo III? Well, not exactly. It could very well mean that the splash page image has nothing to do with the new game being announced, lining up instead with the release date for Wrath of the Lich King or StarCraft 2. The more we see the less we seem to know. Fun, eh?

The secret images are indeed the Lost numbers, as I speculated yesterday. Now 8 joins the previously revealed 4, 15, 16, and 23, and 42.jpg is in there as well, though not commented out in the CSS file. Finally, the secret picture revealed: It's a purple penguin. Okay then. Great. I have no earthly clue. I'm just going to type Lost Vikings here because I like seeing it.

All of this, and a brand new snowflake rune for us to wonder over. Join us tomorrow when this whole damn thing actually makes some sort of sense.

Minumum Requirements
GFX: GeForce 7/8 Series or Radeon 1000/2000 with 256 MB RAM
CPU: Pentium 4
RAM: 1 GB
Internet: ADSL 1 Mbit

Recommended Requirements
GFX: GeForce 8000 or Radeon 2000 series with 512 MB RAM
CPU: Core 2 Duo or Athlon X2.
RAM: 2 GB
Internet: ADSL 3 Mbit

These were obtained by Spanish mag Micromania, after a visit to Blizzard's offices. As such, I'm just going to class them as "official estimates", confirm my PC can run the recommended specs, then get on with my "waiting for Starcraft 2" candlelight vigil.

StarCraft 2 Minimum Requirements [Micromania, via Voodoo Extreme]

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!

Over at the Starcraft II website they've just announced a new Terran unit for the game, the Tauren Marine.

The obscure planet of Azeroth was found to harbor a dizzying selection of humans, mutants, and aliens in a state of perpetual superstition and conflict. The most physically imposing of these warrior races were the so-called 'tauren,' an anthropomorphic bovine genotype with super-human stamina, overpowered racial combat abilities, and bizarrely well-developed horticultural skills.

While most tauren were satisfied with their agrarian culture and primitive existence, the Confederacy was able to lure away large numbers of young bulls for a life of adventure and violence along the galactic rim. Other tauren referred to these adventurers as 'mad cows,' and they were ostracized from the rest of their kine.

Finally we have the announcement you've all been waiting for, World of Warcraft finally makes it to consoles - the Atari 2600! World of Warcraft: The Molten Core features all of the excitement of a full MC raid on your Atari 2600. Boasting 10 bosses with 6 unique boss models and the ability to move in any of 8 directions, perhaps the greatest achievement of the game is the fact that it has sound! Completely ridiculous, really. Who the hell would be fooled by this?

From: Ben
To: Tips@Kotaku.com

Subject: WOW COMES TO CONSOLES

Credit me as Ben, please.

World of Warcraft: The Molten Core [Blizzard -Thanks Ben and Everyone Else!]

As far as Starcraft 2 clips go, the Zerg are OK, I guess, but they're so alien. And insect-like. Eeeewwww. It's much nicer watching nine minutes of gameplay footage featuring the Terran faction instead, complete with soothing, educational voice-over work.

I think we're all doing the best work of our careers...It's been very, very rewarding to see this thing take shape. Just getting back to that Blizzard of yesteryear where it's not all about WoW - don't get me wrong, I love WOW! But we're so much more than that.

Here's their full announcement:

Blizzard is spear-heading its approach to Community Fansites and fans in 2008. It's going full-throttle with a internal Developer video podcast which will bring you interviews with Starcraft 2 and Wrath of the Lich King developers, fansite community interaction with developers, as well as fansite Q&A on video.

The first BlizzCast episode will air online through Blizzard's website the first week of January. Fans will be able to submit questions to the developers through the fansites, who will forward the feedback to community managers: Karune and Nethaera. Fans may win some juicy Swag at the end of each BlizzCast episode. Again, this ongoing video podcast series is produced by Blizzard.

This is an amazing effort that will bring the developers and the community closer. The best of it all is that each BlizzCast (video podcast) transcript will be fully localized to many supported languages reaching hundreds of thousands of Blizzard fans across the globe. This is basically a monthly BlizzCon presentation broadcasted directly to you via hot-download. The audience of BlizzCast Episode 1 and upcoming episodes will be monitored. These is an experimental in-house project. The more fan audience supporting these BlizzCast episodes, the better it will get, as more resources will be put to produce future episodes with full coverage of the development cycles of Starcraft 2, future World of Warcraft expansions and content patches, as well as the two unannounced games. Spread the word across forums online, and share the hype to encourage production of BlizzCast episodes for years to come. Tell all your friends online, at work or school to download episode one the first week of January.

BlizzCast Episode 1

* Interview with Sam Didier (Art Director SCII): Concepting Art for the StarCraft and Warcraft Franchises
* Interview with Jeff Kaplan (Lead Designer WoW): Highlights of Sunwell Plateau and Patch 2.4

(At the end)Sweepstakes/Giveaway: Lots of SWAG :)

BlizzCast Episode 1 on First Week of January [blizzard]

That Starcraft sticker is not covering my precious Apple logo, but I'll tell you, if I were running a Dell...A pack of WoW cards and a cellphone charm/necklace adornment are also in the package. Look for the sweat-crumpled artifacts in a Kotaku contest near you!

Brian and I were at the Blizzard booth, playing dominating Starcraft II.

Webster's Dictionary Online defines "domination" as an "exercise of preponderant, governing, or controlling influence." Given today's performance at Starcraft 2, we'd argue that Webster's Dictionary is misleading, as the word "exercise" implies the expulsion of effort. Yet Brian and I transcended the construct of the videogame world today, not because of our efforts, but our lack of there of.

As the explosions sounded, the crowd beheld a spectacle of mass importance. In the midst of war, two disparate groups found unity. Brian (Terran) and I (Protoss) broke cultural and racial barriers as old as time itself.

At one point during the experience, Brian turned to me and said, "Mark, I may retire from writing after today. I have offered the Earth my only opus thanks to you."

Our faceless, evil German challengers—by some accounts—may have scored a lucky few extra hits here and there, but it was us, only one third of the Kotaku team, who Changed the World (of Starcraft)...or at least a little piece of Leipzig.

Unfortunately, our game came to an abrupt end, breaking the hearts of our newly enlightened followers. Because despite our controlling influence, certain handlers of Blizzard ended our session schooling ceremony five minutes early.

"We couldn't say that alpha was hitting alpha, so we needed another name," he said. They settled on Medusa. And that's your Starcraft 2 trivia of the day.

Wow. All Blizzard needs to do is mention they're working on a new StarCraft and the old StarCraft hops all they way up to number five on the most recent list of top ten best selling PC games.

Voodoo Extreme noticed that StarCraft: Battle Chest hit the list for May 20 through 26th. The best part? The game is only $19.

1) World Of Warcraft - Vivendi - $18
2) World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack - Vivendi - $39
3) Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars - Electronic Arts - $49
4) The Sims 2 Seasons Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts - $30
5) Starcraft: Battle Chest - Vivendi - $19
6) Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows Of Angmar - Midway - $49
7) The Sims 2 Deluxe - Electronic Arts - $40
8) The Sims 2 Celebration Stuff Expansion Pack - Electronic Arts - $16
9) Warcraft III Battle Chest - Vivendi - $39
10) Battlefield 2142 - Electronic Arts - $36

Maybe I'll go buy it up too, I need some practice and I can't imagine Blizzard is going to tinker too much with their formula. Brian Crecente

StarCraft Makes Retail Comeback [VE3D]

StarCraft2.com

Starcraft II First In-Game Video [GameBrink}

STARCRAFT 2 OFFICIAL ANNOUNCED [Blizzplanet]

The game was just officially unvieled tonight at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Seoul Korea. I've been peeking in on the live blogging they are doing over at IGN. No update on the website yet, but I've got my eye on it. So far they've show a cinematic vid and now gameplay footage. I'll be keeping you folks updated as more information becomes available! Michael Fahey

Don't forget that the Blizzard announcement is hitting early tomorrow morning. My money is still on it being Starcraft 2 and not another WoW expansion or Starcraft MMO.

My sources tell me that the announcement will take place around 1 a.m., which happens to be around the time (in Korea) that the Video Games Live performance will be going on. That makes sense, nothing like having a big orchestra handy when you want to drop some big news.

Make sure to check back here early tomorrow morning to see the big news.. and whether I was right or not. Brian Crecente

Looking at the WHOIS information, the Starcraft2.com domain has been around since 1999, a year after the original game first came out, so it has been floating around forever. It's an easy thing to take an existing URL and have it point somewhere else, so who really knows?

Blizzard, of course, and they'll be sure to let us in on it soon. A simple redirect, or is Starcraft2.com just a DNS assignment away from becoming a full-fledged game site? Michael Fahey

I've decided to try something new on Kotaku, writing a story that is pure supposition based on my conversations with industry insiders, sources and legitimate fact. In other words I'm going to create a rumor, but I'll be calling it a best guess.

This first time around I spent some time digging into the Blizzard news that's set to come out next week. What we know for certain is that Blizzard is announcing something at the end of their Worldwide Invitational in South Korea. That announcement will be made to a crowd of pro-gamers in South Korea. I'm being deliberately repetitive here to drive home a point. What do pro-gamers in South Korea care about? Yeah, StarCraft.

I spent much of last week up to my eyeballs in analysts, developers and fellow game journalists and was able to get a good sense of what most people are thinking on this issue.

First, I, and almost all of the insiders I spoke with, are convinced that the announcement will be about StarCraft not World of Warcraft or some other (Diablo) franchise.

Second, no one thinks this is going to be an MMO announcement. Why not? Because World of Warcraft is doing so well. Not only does Blizzard not need the added expense of operating another MMO right now, there's a good chance at least a small portion of their WoW players would migrate from one to the other and Warcraft still has plenty of life in it, so the timing just doesn't make sense.

What the general consensus is, is that Blizzard will indeed be announcing StarCraft 2. The timing would be excellent, the recent release of a number of high-profile real-time strategy games appears to be reinvigorating the genre, but none of them have blown people away. (Well, at least they haven't blown me away.) Also, I can't think of a more receptive audience than Korean pro-gamers. And, of course, Blizzard has been very clear that they haven't given up on the game. So it's coming eventually, we know that.

While this isn't totally me talking out of my sitting side, keep in mind this is a WHOLE LOTTA conjecture. I have lots of sources telling me this is probably what the announcement will be, but I don't feel nearly confident enough to post this even as a rumor. So consider it guess work and come back at the end of the week to congratulate or mock me.

I've decided to try something new on Kotaku, writing a story that is pure supposition based on my conversations with industry insiders, sources and legitimate fact. In other words I'm going to create a rumor, but I'll be calling it a best guess.

This first time around I spent some time digging into the Blizzard news that's set to come out next week. What we know for certain is that Blizzard is announcing something at the end of their Worldwide Invitational in South Korea. That announcement will be made to a crowd of pro-gamers in South Korea. I'm being deliberately repetitive here to drive home a point. What do pro-gamers in South Korea care about? Yeah, StarCraft.

I spent much of last week up to my eyeballs in analysts, developers and fellow game journalists and was able to get a good sense of what most people are thinking on this issue.

First, I, and almost all of the insiders I spoke with, are convinced that the announcement will be about StarCraft not World of Warcraft or some other (Diablo) franchise.

Second, no one thinks this is going to be an MMO announcement. Why not? Because World of Warcraft is doing so well. Not only does Blizzard not need the added expense of operating another MMO right now, there's a good chance at least a small portion of their WoW players would migrate from one to the other and Warcraft still has plenty of life in it, so the timing just doesn't make sense.

What the general consensus is, is that Blizzard will indeed be announcing StarCraft 2. The timing would be excellent, the recent release of a number of high-profile real-time strategy games appears to be reinvigorating the genre, but none of them have blown people away. (Well, at least they haven't blown me away.) Also, I can't think of a more receptive audience than Korean pro-gamers. And, of course, Blizzard has been very clear that they haven't given up on the game. So it's coming eventually, we know that.

While this isn't totally me talking out of my sitting side, keep in mind this is a WHOLE LOTTA conjecture. I have lots of sources telling me this is probably what the announcement will be, but I don't feel nearly confident enough to post this even as a rumor. So consider it guess work and come back at the end of the week to congratulate or mock me. Brian Crecente

It took a good day of calls and emails, but Blizzard just got back to us about the rumor floating around that Starcraft 2 will be announced next month during their World Wide Invitation in Seoul, South Korea.

According to a Korean website, StarCraft 2 is being developed in 3D with a new race and lots of changes for existing units. The site went on to say that additional details would be revealed during Blizzard's WWI on May 19th in Seoul.

When reached for comment today this was Blizzard's official response:

We do intend to announce a new product at the Worldwide Invitational next month in Korea, and we appreciate the enthusiasm and interest in getting an advance look at what that will be, but players will have to wait until May 19th to find out more. Also, we have a very strong connection with the characters and settings of StarCraft, and we do plan to revisit that universe at some point in the future, but we don't have anything new to announce in that regard at present.

So that's a yes on a StarCraft 2, eventually, and a yes to a product announcement next month. The only question now is are they one in the same. Brian Crecente

An article from a Korean site called Fighter Forum is claiming that a StarCraft 2 release might be around the corner at the end of 2007. The article is also full of meaty gossip morsels that include a new race being added to the game, and a super-sized whopper of a rumor that claims Blizzard will shut down the original StarCraft servers to make ensure that the sequel will come out on top.

I hope it is a fake. I can't take all the lies about needing to work late and the nightmares he has about making crystals. Kim Phu

A Korean Site Claims to Have the Scoop on a New Race and the Future of the Original Starcraft [IGN]

Yes, I'm being a smart-ass, but to take an off-handed remark that the Blizzard Veep of business development made at some launch party for World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade and turn it into anything but that is absurd.

Specifically this is what Itzik Ben Bassat, Vice President Business Development and International for Blizzard Entertainment, told a gathering of WoWers at an HMV:

"I'm a StarCraft player myself and I hope it's not a decade, and we launched StarCraft in 1998, before I'm standing here again, celebrating the next game in the series."

Yep, there you have it, a biz development guy hopes there's a new Starcraft within the next ten years. Now go celebrate. Brian Crecente

Blizzard hints at new StarCraft by 2008 [Pro-G]