Currently the service mainly services Europe, South America, and a few bits of Asia, so those of us in the U.S. will have to make due with obsessively humming the theme song to WoW until allowances are made.

Blizzard Mobile Store [Official Site via WorldofWar.net]

Having spent considerable time with the Terran and Protoss at BlizzCon last year — and no access to the Zerg at Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational — I thought it might be fun to take out my old favorite class for a spin.

As you might expect, there was a wait, one that gave me ample opportunity to watch the Zerg in action. Most noticeable was the lovely look of the Creep, the purplish goo that the hivemind race builds upon. It has a constant visual pulse to it, not something that distracts when one actually gets one's hands on the keyboard and mouse.

That said, the Zerg were probably the hardest race to easily distinguish from their surroundings. Hopefully that's just due to inexperience and unfamiliarity with the new models, but the move to 3D and a higher resolution does make it a bit more difficult to pick out units.

We were limited to 15 minute gameplay sessions, so there wasn't exactly time for deep experimentation with the Zerg tech tree. We kept it pretty simple, building Zerglings and Roaches, fellow ground attacker, while tweaking them at the Evolution Chamber. Zerglings felt more like cannon fodder than ever before, as Protoss and Terrans laid waste to clusters of two dozen without too much effort.

Since we haven't been keeping up with the new Zerg units as much as we should, we were pleasantly surprised to get our hands on the Spine Crawlers. These replacements for the Sunken Colonies can be uprooted and relocated anywhere on the Creep, should you need to restructure your base defense. Very cool.

The Corruptor and Queen are two other early available units, requiring basic structures to build. Unfortunately, we didn't really get to take advantage of them that much, as the Corruptors are anti-aircraft units, and the AI hit us with mostly ground-based attacks.

What was kind of surprising was how far one had to progress to whip up a couple Hydralisks and make them useful. The unit had always felt a little overpowered in the original StarCraft, but Blizzard looks to be limiting their effectiveness by way of high cost, long tech progression and a more widely spread tech tree.

In fact, the entire tech tree feels that way, as upgrades for units are peppered throughout a wider range of structures and building upgrades. It's all going to take some time getting used to, as the Zerg felt much more straightforward in their previous incarnation.

After finally getting our mitts on the Zerg, we're more excited than ever about StarCraft II. We simply can't wait to annoy you via Battle.net with our crushing waves of Zerglings.

"No, there's no hard date," Pearce told us. So that's that. More pylons needed, maybe. Clearly, we should just leave Blizzard alone and let them do their thing, which currently is continually iterating the internal StarCraft II alpha, exposing it to larger and larger circles of players.

Those who have gotten their hands on the playable version of Blizzard's spacey real-time strategy game may think that the thing is ready for beta, but to the folks on the development side, despite near complete appearances, there's still plenty of work to be done. So what's Blizzard working on now for StarCraft II?

The current focus is on the game's single-player campaign, which is also in internal alpha, as balancing tweaks and design decision reach near final stages.

StarCraft II's story driven single player mode — of which we've seen only brief portions on the Terran side — will use a tried and true point and click adventure style interface. Blizzard showed this publicly at BlizzCon last year, giving us a look at a Battlecruiser set explorable by Terran hero Jim Raynor. While Colayco and Pearce wouldn't discuss how the Zerg and Protoss' single player modes might be presented, they did note that the Battlecruiser scenes they've demoed publicly aren't the only sets we'll see in the final product.

It doesn't sound like we've seen the final unit line up either, as Colayco said that the StarCraft II team is still swapping units in and out, still tweaking their attributes. The Thor, for example, has lost its cannon siege attack, with the giant Terran mech getting an anti-aircraft flak attack.

Yes, StarCraft II is still in internal testing, refining, reiterating — so don't ask about a quantitative release date just yet.

"What I don't understand is that people think [game development] is an exact science," Pearce said "It's an art form." While Blizzard's still plugging away, hoping to put extra polish on the title and maximize the elusive "fun factor" more people are playing. Hopefully, the rest of us will get to play it soon too.

The good news is that Blizzard plans to unveil the opening cinematic movie for World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King at the big show. They also will be hosting a Q&A session following the airing on Thursday. Blizzard also plans to have more hands on time with StarCraft II and Lich King as well as other Q&A sessions with members of the StarCraft II and Diablo III teams.

Make sure to check back here starting Wednesday for our in-depth and live coverage of the biggest and best public gaming show in Europe (personally, i think the world).

A universal game design wouldn’t just stop with action games or titles where you’re directly in control of the protagonist. It could extend out to strategy, space combat, anything really. What else is Starcraft but an action game where you hover high above the battlefield? The concept has been experimented with before in games, but with the kind of refinement we’re talking about it’d be possible to mix completely unrelated players in one game. Take Left 4 Dead. One player controls all of the zombies, the others are all playing characters trapped in the fray. One is engaged in a strategic battle, the other is having a frantic shoot-out. A player who isn’t a huge fan of playing Halo may nevertheless buy a game where they get to control the battlefield while skilled players opt for FPS mode and try to take them out while they control armies overhead. Beyond the always promising broad economic perks of such a game, there’s the co-mingling of different players and preferences in one Universal Design. It’s not a game within the game, it’s a game that has every means of interaction possible in it.

It's an interesting thought, though the old 'jack of all trades, master of none' warning seems like it would come into play pretty easily. Co-mingling, though, is certainly intriguing. It's an interesting piece on choice and game design choices.

Universal Game Design [PopMatters via GameSetWatch]

While you might think developer panels are dry stuff, the descriptions indicate otherwise. One Diablo III panel, for example, hints strongly that we'll get a look at new classes beyond the Barbarian and Witch Doctor.

The Diablo III Game Design session promises "new and exciting features the upcoming sequel", which we find attractive because new and exciting things are what we live for, and one StarCraft II panel is listed as hosting a developer led live demo. A similar session last year spelled out a host of new features and unit details.

On the World of Warcraft side, BlizzCon will give players a peek into "current and future plans" for WoW PvP in one panel, a "unique opportunity to glimpse future dungeons currently in development" in another.

Here's the full list, so you can pick and choose which sessions you'd like to attend, you lucky ticket holder, you.

- Diablo III Class Design
- Diablo III Game Design
- Diablo III – Lore and Art
- StarCraft II Gameplay
- StarCraft Lore
- StarCraft II Art
- World of Warcraft Class Design
- World of Warcraft PvP
- World of Warcraft Art
- World of Warcraft Dungeons & Raids
- World of Warcraft UI and Mods
- Blizzard Cinematics
- Blizzard Sound and Music

Panels [BlizzCon 2008]

Last night they released a final batch of tickets around 11:00 PM Eastern, and I once again had the tickets in my cart before the website timed out, coming back minutes later to let me know the items in my shopping cart were now sold out, causing me to wake the neighbors with the very loud shouting of a word that rhymes with duck.

To say the ticket launch was handled badly is an understatement. While I can understand how a game with so many millions of players is going to stress a system when only 14,000 or so tickets go on sale, but this was completely ridiculous. Thousands of people spent Monday refreshing the website, hoping that their sale would go through, putting tickets into your shopping cart didn't reserve tickets for you for even a minute, customer service reps at the Blizzard phone support line were telling fans on Tuesday that tickets were being released in batches, which didn't seem to be the case...it was just a total mess.

Meanwhile the forums are filled with players threatening to leave the game (they won't), trolls making fun of the people complaining, and the odd person gloating that they actually received one of the coveted tickets. Don't even get me started about the assholes on eBay.

The whole situation stinks, and while I am still planning on attending, most of the people I was going to catch up with while I was there won't be. Perhaps next year Blizzard could hold some sort of lottery, giving random players a chance to purchase tickets, rather than expose their inability to properly handle a flood of website traffic.

NetEase has been a leader in the Chinese game market, and we look forward to working with them to deliver high-quality entertainment to Chinese gamers. This partnership is a sign of our continued commitment to our players in China and to the local industry.

The license will be on a three-year term and have a mutual one-year renewal period. Full details in the release after the jump.

Blizzard Entertainment(R) and NetEase to Introduce StarCraft(R) II and Battle.net(R) Platform into Mainland China

SHANGHAI, China, Aug 12, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. and NetEase.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTES) today announced an agreement to license Blizzard Entertainment(R)'s StarCraft(R) II, Warcraft(R) III: Reign of Chaos(TM), Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne(TM), and Battle.net(R) platform, which provides online multiplayer services for these games, to Shanghai EaseNet Network Technology Limited, an affiliated company of NetEase.com, Inc. Blizzard Entertainment and NetEase have also established a joint venture, which will provide support for the operation of the licensed games and Battle.net platform in China.

"NetEase has been a leader in the Chinese game market, and we look forward to working with them to deliver high-quality entertainment to Chinese gamers," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "This partnership is a sign of our continued commitment to our players in China and to the local industry."

William Ding, CEO of NetEase, stated, "We're excited to be partnering with Blizzard Entertainment to bring StarCraft II and Battle.net to China. We hope to combine Blizzard Entertainment's expertise in developing world-class games with NetEase's strength in online-game operation in China to bring the best gaming experiences to our players."

The term of the license will be three years, with a mutual one-year renewal period, commencing from the commercial release of StarCraft II in the PRC. Under the agreements, Shanghai EaseNet will pay a revenue-based royalty over the license period, while NetEase will pay a milestone-based license fee and fund and guarantee certain additional payments and operating expenses in connection with the joint venture.

That's the bad news. The good news is that Blizzard has "a small reserve of tickets left" which will be going up for grabs tonight, August 12 at 8:00 PM PDT. Even with the larger crowd accommodation and the $100 ticket prices, expect whatever's left to sell out at lightning speed.

And expect even more grumbling and griping in the official Blizzard forums when they do.

I'd urge everyone to keep trying, but that's not what I really want. I need everyone to stop trying for about 15 minutes so I can get a pair of tickets, and then continue your regularly scheduled Blizzard store onslaught.

Order Your BlizzCon 2008 Tickets Here [Blizzard Store]

“Your ‘WoW’ score would be just one factor that will go into your Blizzard Level. And rather than call it a ’score,’ we just wanted it to be like you’re leveling up on Blizzard games… You’ll have this Blizzard identity, and you’ll be able to see things like ‘Oh, this guy was great at Diablo III, but he never played Starcraft and he was mediocre in WoW. That sort of thing.”

It's an interesting system from a community standpoint, but simply brilliant from a sales point-of-view. We already know the gamer score thing helps move crappy 360 games. A WoW gamer who isn't a big RTS fan might have skipped out on StarCraft II, but if it were tied into an overall Blizzard level system? Fantastic.

Blizzard Plans To Track Gamer Achievements Across ‘WoW,’ ‘Starcraft’ And ‘Diablo’ [MTV Multiplayer]

“Meeting and interacting with our players at BlizzCon is always a great experience for us,” stated Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re also pleased to be working with DIRECTV this year to bring the show, for the first time, to those players who are unable to attend.”

Yes, Blizzard and DirecTV are joining forces to broadcast highlights of the show via pay per view. Don't have DirecTV? New subscribers in August will get the BlizzCon pay per view for free with their order. I cannot think of a more ridiculous reason to change your cable television provider.

BlizzCon™ 2008 Tickets on Sale August 11
Unprecedented event coverage also available exclusively on DIRECTV

IRVINE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that tickets for its third BlizzCon™ gaming convention will go on sale August 11 and that live coverage of the event will be available as an exclusive DIRECTV pay per view event. BlizzCon is a celebration of the global player communities surrounding Blizzard Entertainment®’s Warcraft®, Diablo®, and StarCraft® game universes. The event will take place at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on October 10 and 11.

“Meeting and interacting with our players at BlizzCon is always a great experience for us,” stated Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re also pleased to be working with DIRECTV this year to bring the show, for the first time, to those players who are unable to attend.”

In addition to serving as a gathering place for the different Blizzard Entertainment gaming communities, BlizzCon will offer an array of activities, including discussion panels, hands-on playtime with upcoming games, tournaments, contests, and more. Tickets to the convention will be priced at $100 USD each, and will be available for purchase directly from the official BlizzCon website at www.blizzcon.com.

The pay per view event will deliver a minimum of eight hours of live HD coverage from the show floor on each day of the convention, including exclusive interviews, demos, and more. Beginning in August, DIRECTV will run a promotion offering the BlizzCon pay per view event free to new DIRECTV subscribers. Pricing for existing DIRECTV customers and programming details will be available in the coming weeks from Blizzard Entertainment and DIRECTV.

“BlizzCon is one of the most highly anticipated gaming conventions of the year, and we are excited to partner with Blizzard Entertainment to deliver coverage of the show to gamers nationwide,” said Steven Roberts, senior vice president, new media and business development, DIRECTV. “With our BlizzCon pay per view package, members of Blizzard’s gaming communities who are not attending the event can now experience it in crystal-clear HD.”

As the event draws closer, further details will be announced at www.blizzcon.com.

I must say I am disappointed that Blizzard has stayed on the conservative side in terms of design with their updates to Diablo and Starcraft. Diablo will be interesting since World of Warcraft has a lot of Diablo-like qualities. I have no doubt, however, that they will be incredibly fun, addictive and polished games. Blizzard is the top of the class when it comes to game development - nobody does it better.

Man, why's everyone so down Diablo III? There's that rainbow petition and now this? Blizzard cannot win, like never ever ever. Hit the jump for Cheng's post in full:

Diablo III announced. Nice. It looks pretty amazing, especially the gameplay video. Loved the destructible environments.

I must say I am disappointed that Blizzard has stayed on the conservative side in terms of design with their updates to Diablo and Starcraft. Diablo will be interesting since World of Warcraft has a lot of Diablo-like qualities. I have no doubt, however, that they will be incredibly fun, addictive and polished games. Blizzard is the top of the class when it comes to game development - nobody does it better.

In fact, World of Warcraft is currently banned from any computer I own due to its highly addictive qualities. Its easily one of my favorite RPGs.

I know they are working on another Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game. I hope its World of Starcraft.

UPDATE:
Dear Blizzard,
Please forgive me.

XOXO,
Ash

When the ship runs out of ocean [ash :: the blog via Big Download]

So the first day of Blizzard’s Worldwide Invitational is over: Diablo III is official and fans stream out into the streets of Paris to rejoice. Of course the Opening Ceremony wasn’t the end of the event; merely the beginning.

The ceremony itself took place on the main stage which was jam-packed with over 3,500 people and many more standing. Attended by press from all around the world as well as several special guests such as the VPs of Global Finance and Human Resources (yep, we were all humbled too). Hosted by pop star China and stand up comedian and film star Anthony Kavangh, the event saw Blizzard co-founder Mike Morhaime take to the stage and congratulate the gamers of Europe as well as reminding all those present that this is the first time an invitational has been held outside of Korea. He took us on a trip back in time to last year’s event in Seoul – a movie which includes a classic sound bite in the making from a teenaged Korean fan: “It’s fun because Blizzard made it.” Morhaime also commented on the Activision-Blizzard merger, provoking laughter when he said they’d ‘leveled up’.

The ceremony concluded in a musical fashion, in keeping with last year’s Korean pop idols. A troupe of Fire Dancers who performed to composer Russell Brower’s latest composition from the soundtrack of Diablo III. With the conclusion of the ceremony, the attendees scattered with the journos heading to a press event with leader designer Jay Wilson and VP/co-founder Frank Pearce.

Because of the top-secret-but-everyone-knows-about-it announcement about Diablo III, the panels weren’t announced until after the ceremony had concluded and suddenly the convention floor was flooded with plans detailing the numerous talks, several of which focus on, yes you guessed it, Diablo. There were also some dev panels focusing on the present and future classes of World of Warcraft and several StarCraft panels.

Interspersed between was the chance to watch ace European guild Nihilum raiding in Sunwell Plateau trying to down Kil’Jaeden or watching a huge selection of pro-gamers battling it out for top spot. Esports is a big part of any invitational so they are running nearly none stop over the two day event and each team of professional gamers was paraded on the main stage as part of the Opening Ceremony.

Split across two floors, there are also numerous booths such as the Blizzard Museum and the famous Darkmoon Faire, complete with life-sized scantily-clad Night Elf, a mail box, meeting stone and a turtle mount. The event sponsors – who include Intel and amBX – also had their own booths but it was the Starcraft II and Wrath of the Lich King areas which seemed to attract attention, with an even longer line than the one for the food vendors, although not quite as long as the one at the main entrance. Unfortunately the Wrath computers were suffering technical hitches meaning they kept freezing, very handy if you’re trying to explore Howling Fjord but what’s an event without a technical hitch or three? Check back tomorrow for hands on preview of both games.

Other fun activities were available such as an Armourer and the chance to get made up as a World of Warcraft character and have a photo taken against a suitably Azerothian background. But for many the biggest photo opportunity was the life-sized Frozen Throne, complete with Arthas’s creepy crown. Very in keeping, despite the lack of Wrath-related announcements.

Check back tomorrow when we’ll be bringing you more coverage from the WWI, including coverage of the epic closing ceremony and WoW and StarCraft Q and A.

If last year’s BlizzCon is anything to go by, it won’t be too long before the goodies (and the bag itself) given to attendees at this year’s WWI start appearing in auction sites. Sad but true, some people will just put the swag straight on eBay in order to make a quick buck or two. But how much should all this swag set this back and is it worth the £55/€70 ticket or the even bigger sum you might end up paying via an auction site?

Fortunately, as Blizzard have a shop selling many of these exclusive goodies, we can tell you.

Blizzard’s concept of a shop, however, is not something you’d recognise instantly; with one per floor they only stand out thanks to the humongous sign and the enormous, never diminishing queue. Rather than go in an browse, attendees can drool over items for sale which are handily displayed in several glass cabinets, they then fill in an order form, wait in the queue for what must seem like for ever, hand over fistfuls of Monopoly money (sorry, Euros) and depart with their goodies.

A glance at this form reveals very little by way of exclusive goodies, much of the goody bag can be purchased if you so inclined and, aside from a few event-specific items like posters and T shirts, many of the items – like the Trading Card Game – can be purchased from anywhere.

Take the huge mouse mat depicting the official event artwork, that’s on sale for €20, the notebook is €13 for an Alliance or Horde version, rather than the actual exclusive Diablo version found in the bag. The signed Miniature is the only other proper exclusive as the game doesn’t launch until later this year; how much you’d pay depends on how much you like Orcs. The bag itself isn’t on sale and it’s one item which is genuinely worth buying, a sturdy satchel emblazoned with the WWI logo which would probably set you back around €45 if it were to be sold. The TCG starter pack retails in the WWI shop for €15 but the really important item – the one which sends the price skyrocketing – is the Beta key and in-game pet.

A staple of such events the beta key is actively sought by many fans dying to get an early look at the next big game and expansion. Except Blizzard haven’t even announced when and what owners of the card will be able to play. The pet on the other hand is equally as mysterious. Believed to be a penguin by some, the unnamed pet won’t go live until later next week with the introduction of patch 2.4.2 and the lack of confirmation will either enhance the worth or send it plummeting.

While the WWI is not about the freebies given to attendees, it’s clear from the interest in items as well as the number of people on the official forums obsessing over getting their hands on one that the goody bag is on a par with the announcements which come out of the event. Whether it is worth shelling out a small fortune for these ‘exclusive goodies’ remains to be seen.

Speaking about the game's development, he explained that they were "about a third of the way through" the campaign, and were concentrating on story structure and cinematics at this point - commenting that by the end of the year, Blizzard should have something very impressive to show off.

That said, Mac gamers can expect a simultaneous release of this title, too — whenever it arrives.

StarCraft II — Not Happening in 2008 [Internode Games Network]

As is expected with Blizzard events, company employees were handing out the much-prized (and instantly eBayable) Goody Bags. The swish mini backpack emblazoned with the WWI logo includes a host of loot, including an in-game pet (which we’ve not yet been able to redeem in Booty Bay), the Beta key, a programme, a figure from the Upper Deck miniature game, a notebook and a mousemat sporting the event’s banner featuring Arthas as well as characters from Diablo and Starcraft II.

We’ll let you know what the pet is as soon as Landro Longshot makes nice and starts talking about the WWI.

What else has changed? The increased details around the eye area seem to rule out the Death Knight...the shape of the nose piece is wrong and there are no etched runes there. In fact, the whole thing feels more biological than anything, despite the straight line to the right where the cheek would be. Leaning towards Protoss now more than ever, though I wouldn't put it past Blizzard making a new Diablo image that coincided with the traits of the other two, just to throw us off.

We'll know for sure in a few hours! Until then we can only ponder the secrets the new winking smiley-face rune holds within. It's almost over folks!

While the rest of Kotaku are puzzling over that ever changing Blizzard splash screen and the recently revealed purple penguin, I’m sitting in a hotel overlooking the Eiffel Tower and stroking my press pass into this weekend’s Worldwide Invitational. Upon arriving this afternoon, a perky Blizzard employee thrust the nice folder you see above into my hands along with said press pass.

While I’d love to report the folder contains the secrets of the universe, all it happened to hold was shuttle information to the event and – of all things – a walking guide to Paris and a map.

Okay ….

However the event itinerary has been released on the official WWI site; it all kicks off tomorrow morning with the opening ceremony and there’s a press conference right after. Hmmm what could that mean? Whether it’s Diablo 3, a release date for Wrath of the Lich King and Starcraft II, a new IP or all of the above, we’ll be bringing you the news as it happens.

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.

And where did those Vikings get off to? I cannot seem to find them anywhere?

Then there is the question of the latest rune, which I cannot seem to place. It looks like a solar system, doesn't it? I've been pouring over Blizzard stuffs but cannot for the life of me place it. I checked out various Diablo-fan forums to see if anyone had a clue before the sheer number of people fooling themselves into seeing things that weren't there made me too frustrated to continue. When you want something so badly you start deluding yourself you just need to take a step back and relax a little before people start looking at you funny.

Finally, here is the secret picture as it stands now, with four images in place. It's quite obvious to me now that we're dealing with an eggplant with tiny feet, a tail, and a mohawk.

Two more days and we'll know for sure, and then I can finally get some sleep. Damn you Blizzard. Damn you to hell.

They've also uploaded another portion of the puzzle-piece picture, this time numbered 23. With 'W' being the 23rd letter of the alphabet, the popular theory that the picture numbers would end up spelling out Diablo 3 is also shot, unless they've got Barbara Walters announcing it. “Ladies and gentlemen, I present you with Diobwo 3!”

Here's what the hidden picture is looking like so far: If it's Barbara Walters in a purple fur hoodie the Diablo theorists are still on track to win this one!

Update: We got word from Blizzard, who say, unsurprisingly "There is no official release date for StarCraft II. The game will ship when it’s done." Good thing we didn't start holding our breath!

Rumor: Retail chains showing December 3 release date for Starcraft II [Joystiq]

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]

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.

BlizzCon™ 2008 Announced Blizzard Entertainment® Gaming Convention Returns to Anaheim Convention Center October 10-11

IRVINE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—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.

NYC Comic Con geek-gasm [Boing Boing TV]

"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."

TOKYOPOP and Blizzard Entertainment® Announce Three-Year Publishing Plan

Twenty-Two All-New Warcraft® and StarCraft® Manga Volumes Slated for Release through 2010

New York Comic-Con, New York (April 17, 2008)―On the heels of the critically acclaimed international hit manga series Warcraft®: The Sunwell Trilogy, TOKYOPOP, the leader of the global manga revolution, and Blizzard Entertainment®, creator of some of the world's most popular game series, are proud to announce their three-year publishing plan. Over the next 36 months, the companies intend to release twenty-two all-new never-before-told adventures set in the richly detailed Warcraft and StarCraft® universes.

According to TOKYOPOP Editor-in-Chief Rob Tokar, "After several fantastic years of working with Blizzard Entertainment on Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy, it is both a pleasure and an honor to extend our relationship in such a grand fashion. The entire TOKYOPOP team is incredibly excited to help expand the Warcraft and StarCraft universes through manga. Blizzard has been a terrific partner and, by incorporating original characters from Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy into their incredible massively multiplayer online role-playing game, World of Warcraft®, they have again shown that their game universe is a vast, rich, immersive phenomenon that transcends any one medium."

"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."

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of Blizzard Entertainment's bestselling StarCraft real-time strategy game, this August TOKYOPOP will publish the first volume of the new manga series, StarCraft: Frontline, a collection of four stories set in the dark and gritty StarCraft universe. StarCraft: Frontline includes "Thundergod," by renowned writer Richard A. Knaak (Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy) and Naohiro Washio, and focuses on the new Thor heavy combat walker unit that will be appearing in Blizzard Entertainment's upcoming sequel, StarCraft II. Other artists and writers featured in this collection include Simon Furman (Transformers), Paul Benjamin (Pantheon High), Joshua Elder (Mail Order Ninja), and Ramanda Kamarga (Psy-Comm).

August also hails the debut of the first volume of the all-new manga series Warcraft: Legends. Some of the world's best manga creators join together to bring the world of Warcraft to life as never before! Warcraft vets Richard A. Knaak and Jae-Hwan Kim (Warcraft: The Sunwell Trilogy) team up again for "Fallen," which is the first of a three-part tale. Other global talent for Warcraft: Legends includes Dan Jolley (Warriors; JSA Liberty Files), Carlos Oliveros and Mi-Young No (Threads of Time).

StarCraft: Frontline and Warcraft: Legends are the first two of more than twenty releases set in the StarCraft and Warcraft universes that TOKYOPOP and Blizzard Entertainment will collaborate on and publish over the course of three years. Stay tuned for more details about other books in this historic publishing program.

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!]

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]

There's going to be competitive gaming, hands-on time with Wrath of the Lich King and StarCraft II, but we hope the real draw is the announcement of Diablo III or World of The Lost Vikings.

2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational Tickets On Sale 20th March! [Blizzard]

Thanks, NunianVonFuch!

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.