Blizzard Entertainment

Blizzard Trademarks Cataclysm

Kody — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 21:24:52 GMT

Blizzard Trademarks Cataclysm

This week gets more and more interesting every day. First it was the Faction-Change service announcement, then the latest PTR build sheding light on the Crusaders' Coliseum raid bosses, and now news of Blizzard Entertainment filing trademarks for "Cataclysm." World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, anyone?

We've already speculated a bit about a Maelstrom expansion, and it looks like Blizzard is readying their ammunition to head into BlizzCon with guns blazing. Companies usually only tip their hand on a game title when they're ready to announce it, so whatever Cataclysm is, we'll surely find out at BlizzCon. Sony Online Entertainment did this with their EQ and EQ2 expansions a few weeks before announcing them, and Blizzard will likely follow suit by sharing Cataclysm -- whatever it may be -- with the world in August.

So, again... how does World of Warcraft: Cataclysm sound? And would this be related to the Maelstrom? The Sargeras sound clip from yesterday suggests he's already gone from Azeroth (and was trying to get summoned back), so it likely won't involve him. Unless, of course, he's the cause of the cataclysmic events in this expansion. Another hint that this will be Maelstrom-related is this entry on WoWWiki:

Quote from: WoWWiki (Source)

The Great Sundering, also known as simply the Sundering or the Cataclysm,^{WRPG 185, 211} was a world event which reshaped Azeroth approximately 10,000 years ago at the end of the War of the Ancients. This event was triggered due to the Well of Eternity being destroyed.

Prior to the Sundering, there was only one continent on Azeroth, referred to as Kalimdor. In the catastrophic explosion, eighty percent of the land mass was destroyed,^{W3Man #?} leaving behind the major continents and scattered islands that are known today: Northrend, Kezan, the Eastern Kingdoms, and the remnant still referred to as Kalimdor.

The site of the Well of Eternity became a swirling vortex of power known as the Maelstrom.

At any rate, here are the three trademarks, which in some ways support this being World of Warcraft-related:

You're Favorite Music Ffrom Blizzard Games At MusiCON09 Coming July 18th!

DoranM — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:48:24 GMT

WorldofWarcraft.com has posted an update about the Blizzard Live Concert on July 18th! Video Games Live! has been putting on concerts of game music for years, and you may have had a chance to see them perform at BlizzCon in the past. The upcoming show in Houston has been expanded into an all-day celebration called Gamer MusiCON 09 that will feature a seperate concert for Blizzard games to kick off the afternoon! The festival also includes an interactive panel and Q&A session with Blizzard Entertainment music composers and an on-stage costume contest. For more information on Gamer MusiCON 09, or to purchase tickets, please visit the event website.

Here's the schedule for MusiCON09 and more information on the event:

Gamer MusiCON 09 with Video Games Live! & Blizzard Live!

The Houston Symphony, in partnership with Tommy Tallarico, Jack Wall and Blizzard Entertainment®, has expanded the visionary Video Games LiveTM concert to an all-day celebration of the cutting-edge video game music industry. The world premiere of Gamer MusiCON 09 includes two high-energy concerts featuring Symphony performances of the industry’s greatest video game hits with exclusive game footage and synchronized lighting. The first features the sights and sounds of Blizzard games World of Warcraft®, Diablo® and StarCraft® and never before performed music from World of Warcraft - Wrath of the Lich King. While the second brings back an all-new Video Games LiveTM with material from games like Chrono Trigger®, Halo 3: ODST ® and Mega Man. Throughout the day, a Game Crazy festival will offer playable game demos throughout all three levels of Jones Hall, plus a Guitar Hero® contest for the chance to appear on stage during Video Games LiveTM. The festival also includes an interactive panel and Q&A session with Blizzard Entertainment® game composers, and an on-stage costume contest for attendees dressed as their favorite video game character.

Gamer MusiCON 09 timeline:

2:00   Doors to Jones Hall open for lobby festival
3:00 – 4:30  Blizzard Live! concert
4:30 – 7:30  Lobby festival
7:30 – 10:00  Video Games Live! concert
10:00 – 11:00 Post concert autographs & merchandise sales

Event Highlights:

Game Crazy festival with playable game demos throughout all three levels of Jones Hall
Interactive panel and Q&A session with Blizzard Entertainment®game composers
On-stage costume contest
Merchandise Sales
Post concert autograph session
Guitar Hero contest in lobby - winner plays on-stage during concert

Stay tuned for more!

Diablofans.com BlizzCon Tickets Round #2 and New Game From Blizzard!!

DoranM — Sun, 31 May 2009 15:39:41 GMT

DiabloFans.com posted some news this morning about trying to purchase Blizzcon tickets yesterday - and a very cool flash game Blizzard made available to people waiting in the queue! The flash game is called Failoc-Alypse and let players mass slay failocs outside the Anaheim convention center! Pictures and details are also in the full story listed below!

Here's a look at the Diblofans BlizzCon Tickets Round 2 and Failoc-Alypse:

Well, what can I say. I hope all of you guys who were trying to purchase BlizzCon tickets this morning had better luck than we did. Our own staff members were trying to purchase additional tickets since we didn't have enough for everyone and wanted more to be able to attend the big event, but no such luck. From the very get-go today, things weren't looking to good.

[click to enlarge]

This is the screen I saw after being in the queue for a little over a minute. An odd error which read an "Undefined" position in the queue and "NaN minutes" left to wait. 15 seconds later, I was booted out of the queue and sent back to the Blizzard homepage. From there, I had to re-enter the queue. Even with the glitches, I made it down to #659 in the queue with only a few minutes left to go. Unfortunately, before my turn came up, tickets had completely sold out.

So again, I really hope you guys had much better luck than we did today. And hey, even if you didn't, there's still hope for three of you because we're currently holding a big Blizzcon 2009 Ticket Giveaway Contest. Be sure to read all about it and get your entries in before the June 8th deadline!

On a lighter note, while the ticket queue process was clearly more glitchy this time around, there was some fun to be had. Blizzard unveiled a retro-style flash game called FAILOC-ALPYSE which you could play while you waited in the ticket queue to help pass the time. It even kept you up to date about your position in the ticket queue in the bottom right corner while you continued to play.

[click to enlarge]

Naturally, I selected the Witch Doctor from Diablo 3 as my playable character of choice and killed Failocs galore in front of the ever-growing crowd outside of the Anaheim Convention Center for BlizzCon. Managed to make it up to level 42 before BlizzCon tickets were sold out. Launched a nuke and scored some majors points for doing many rad double-jumps too. I also enjoyed seeing some familiar faces popping up in the background as the game went on. Good times.

Of course, me being a web designer at heart, I always like to check into the details of a page. So when I checked out the background image that the game resided on top of, I got a good chuckle out of what the flash game had been hiding:

[click to enlarge]

Good ol' Blizzard.

Blizzcon Tickets On sale May 30th Reminder!

DoranM — Sat, 30 May 2009 07:25:14 GMT

Blizzcon Ticket Reminder

Blizzcon tickets will be up for grabs again tomorrow for users with Battle.net Accounts via the Blizzcon Ticket Page! For more details on the process involved in getting a ticket visit the Blizzcon Ticket FAQ and be ready when they go on sale for your chance at purchasing a ticket to this blockbuster event! If you're not able to purchase a ticket we are hosting a few events here at the Curse Network that will give you up to 12 chances to win your way there!

Here is a list of currently available contests from our network:

Curse.com - we're running an Author Blizzcon Ticket Contest!

WorldofRaids.com - Design a WoW License Plate Contest!

DiabloFans.com - Class Art, Lore, Skills Contests!

ArenaJunkies.com - Design an Arena Map Contest!

Good luck and I can't wait to see some of you there!

Blizzcon 2009 Tickets Going On Sale Tomorrow!

DoranM — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:16:53 GMT

This notice was just posted to WorldofWarcraft.com about Blizzcon tickets going on sale tomorrow! If you don't score some tommorow we WILL be running a contest in the near future for some tickets that we have available for a contest!

Here's the official Blizzcon Tickets Notice:

Just in case Saturday, May 16 isn’t circled on your calendar, here’s a quick reminder that BlizzCon tickets will be going on sale tomorrow. After our gnomish engineers here in Southern California get to work and finish making the final preparations late Saturday morning, they’ll activate the ticket-purchase process and BlizzCon tickets will officially go on sale. If you are unable to purchase tickets tomorrow, a second batch of tickets will go on sale May 30. And for those unable to attend the show, in-depth coverage of BlizzCon will also be offered by DIRECTV as a Pay Per View event, available both via satellite and Internet stream.

BlizzCon 2009 will take place August 21 and 22 at the Anaheim Convention Center, and tickets cost $125 each. For further information about the convention, check out the official BlizzCon site, and keep an eye on the ticket sales page tomorrow for the chance to get yours.

Up to five (5) tickets per billing address can be purchased using the drop-down menu below. To learn more about BlizzCon 2009, please refer to the BlizzCon 2009 FAQ.

Blizzard Tops Develop 100 - World's Most Bankable Game Studios

Kody — Thu, 14 May 2009 02:46:07 GMT

Blizzard Entertainment has managed to top the Develop 100 list of the World's Most Bankable Game Studios, beating out Nintendo, Capcom, Infinity Ward, Epic Games and many more cross-platform game studios -- proving above all else that quality game design wins, not the number of platforms you can publish your game on.

The list is based on several pieces of criteria, including sales data, critical success, and industry standing, according to the website. What's more interesting is the presence of a Free to Play game studio in the top 20 -- Nexon, at #19 -- further cementing the company as a real success story in an emerging market; monetization through non-subscription means.

The magazine is also available on issuu in interactive form, allowing you to see a few key facts about each company in the list, as well as a brief writeup. Did you know that 16 million quests are completed each day in World of Warcraft? Well now you do!

To check out the list, head over to the Develop 100 page.

Weekly Blizzard Community Updates - Forums Posts, News, and Dev Posts of Interest!

DoranM — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:27:20 GMT

Blizzard Community Manager Ancilorn has seen it fit to send us some recent EU & US forum posts that are worthy of a second take! Ancilorn has also included some of the latest important Developer posts and recent news topics for all things Blizzard!

Here's the update:

BlizzCon 2009 Exclusive Pet - 13/05/09

Want to do your part to protect Azeroth from interstellar invasion? Everyone who attends BlizzCon 2009 or purchases the BlizzCon Pay Per View event via DIRECTV will be joined by a new World of Warcraft in-game companion, Grunty the murloc marine. This tiny terror is fully armored and comes equipped with a gauss rifle, which he’ll occasionally fire into the air to make sure no invisible spacecraft are swooping in to attack.

BlizzCon 2009 takes place on August 21-22 in the Anaheim Convention Center. Tickets go on sale on Saturday, May 16, with a second allotment to be released on May 30. For further details, check out the recent press release.

Win A Trip To BlizzCon In Our Costume Contest! - 13/05/09

Warm up your sewing machines and start selecting the best fabrics you can; the Blizzard Costume Contest is coming soon! The best costume-maker will receive a grand prize package filled with great loot from our partners Panini, SteelSeries, and Upper Deck as well as an a trip for two to BlizzCon 2009! Check out our contest information page for details.

This contest will launch on May 20 so get your costumes ready!

New Wallpaper From Wildstorm! - 12/05/09

We have just added a new wallpaper to our Official World of Warcraft Wallpaper Gallery depicting scenes from the World of Warcraft comic series!

This wallpaper features artwork from Wildstorm's monthly comic series. If you like what you see, you can visit Wildstorm on the web for more information or to subscribe to the series directly.

Blizzard eSports Channel - 11/05/09

The Blizzard eSports Channel by ESL TV is a new streaming video service, available to World of Warcraft subscribers. This channel will showcase live eSports events using Blizzard Entertainment games, in addition to airing scheduled and on-demand programming. Active World of Warcraft subscribers can find the Blizzard eSports Channel underneath Free Services within Account Management.

EU Forums:

Here are some of the most recent blue-posts made on the EU forums:

· 13/05 - Recent In-Game Fixes

· 3.1.2 PTR Patch Notes

· Win A Trip To BlizzCon!

· BlizzCon 2009 Exclusive Pet

· 06/05 - Realms and Migration

· 06/05 - BlizzCon Tickets On Sale May 16

· New Wallpaper From Wildstorm!

· Blizzard eSports Channel

· Lightning Overload buff hotfix

· Wintergrasp Quest Changes

· Stop the Nerf Madness

· Wintergrasp latency & Instance latency issues

· Ulduar HM loot info

US Forums:

· It's in the Details

· Races and their differences

· Weapons and Tools of the Trade

· Blizzard Shop Talk - BlizzCon 2009

· Arena Rating & Requirement Changes

Developer Posts:

· On arena brackets

· On the interaction in the forums

· On Feral DPS

· On balance direction

· On healing in Ulduar

· On Moonkin DPS

· On hunter DPS

· Balance Question

PopCap VP Leaves For Blizzard "Secret Project"

Kody — Tue, 12 May 2009 18:20:07 GMT

Update: According to WoWInsider, Canessa has been brought on as project director for the new Battle.net, which will first launch with StarCraft II, but will also support Diablo III and future Blizzard titles.

Greg Canessa -- VP of video game platforms at PopCap -- has left the company to take on a role at Blizzard Entertainment. What he'll be doing at Blizzard is unclear as of right now, though a "trusted source" told Joystiq that he's going to be working on their latest unannounced project, purportedly alongside VP of game design, Rob Pardo.

Whatever this new project is, it's in the very early stages of development, so it may be a while before we hear anything about it. Still, it's interesting to see Canessa, who was previously group manager of Xbox Live, join Blizzard after a short stint at PopCap -- makers of Bejeweled, Peggle, and many other popular casual games. Could his experience in both areas tie into his new role at Blizzard, and this new title that is rumored to be yet another brand new IP for the company?

Blizzcon 2009 Tickets Going On Sale Soon!

DoranM — Tue, 05 May 2009 21:41:56 GMT

Blizzard has sent us a recent announcement about ticket sales for Blizzcon 2009! This should be an amazing year to go to the event, lots of new titles on the horizon, and World of Warcraft bigger than ever! We'll have representatives there - hope to see you!

Here's the official Blizzcon Announcement:

Blizzcon Tickets

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)

Tickets to this year's BlizzCon gaming convention, being held on August 21 and 22 in Anaheim, California, will go on sale worldwide on Saturday, May 16 for $125 each, with a second block of tickets going on sale Saturday, May 30. For those unable to attend, DIRECTV will once again be televising BlizzCon in high definition as a Pay Per View event, featuring coverage from the show floor, exclusive interviews, demos, and more. In addition, for the first time, players around the world will be able to watch the DIRECTV BlizzCon event as a Pay Per View Internet stream. Check out the press release for further details, and head over to www.blizzcon.com on May 16 or May 30 to buy your tickets.

For the BlizzCon forums please visit here: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?forumId=9391140

DiabloFans.com: No WWI For Blizzard In 2009

DoranM — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:26:04 GMT

Diablofans.com has, sadly!, found out that there will be no WWI this year from Blizzard. There is, however, some silver-lining to this cloud as perhaps even MORE resources will be poured into BlizzCon 2009 and we'll still get our fill of whatever exciting stuff Blizzard has planned.

Here's the WWI News from Diablofans.com:

As first reported here by one of our own users, there is not going to be a World Wide Invitational 2009. However, it seems that we will still have the privilege of a nice, big BlizzCon 2009, as per the following quote from http://davidluong.net/, a website owned by a Diablo III cinematic developer:

Quote:

"BlizzCon 2009 has also been announced, bigger, and better than the previous, this round it will take up the entire Anaheim Convention center! August 21-22, save the dates! Tickets will be on sale soon, buy them fast, they go record breakingly quick. There will be no Worldwide Invitational this year, as it will be combined with Blizzcon, so there will be even bigger tournaments and competitions this year."

A special thanks goes out to minsc&boo for chancing upon this jewel and posting it on our forums!

So, how does everyone feel about this? Will anyone miss the WWI? Or will the grandeur of a bigger, better BlizzCon make up for it? What is everyone hoping will happen at this year's BlizzCon?

Diablofans.com: Blizzard Theme Park Contest Winners Announced !

DoranM — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:45:54 GMT

The staff at Diablofans.com have picked up the following post announcing the winners of the Blizzard Theme Park Contest! The designs are amazing; Kudos to the people who spent the time making these amazing designs!

Here's the original Blizzard Theme Park Contest Announcement from Diablofans.com:

The winners of Blizzard's first Theme Park Contest have just been announced for each of the categories. Christina Marie DeLong was the lucky grand-prize winner, but considering what she came up with, I'm not so sure one should call it luck since she clearly put a lot of time into coming up with "Blizzard World". Take a look:

(click to enlarge)

Nice, eh? Really like the coloring on it, and come on... you just can't go wrong with a "Demonic Petting Zoo" complete with "special feeds" so the children can give food to the tamed demons. Makes me wish the park was real. And speaking of demons, the other individual game category winners were announced as well, so naturally I gotta share with you the Diablo-themed winner:

(click to enlarge)

I was admittedly hoping for an entire theme park dedicated solely to Diablo, but at least this one covers the Sanctuary quite nicely. I particularly enjoyed the descriptions such as the ride which drops you "into the depths of Hell faster than gravity itself" and how Adria the Witch sells a variety of things including "bath supplies" in her gift shop.

All in all, it was a great light-hearted contest and I hope Blizzard decides to make it an annual tradition. Be sure to check out the other winning entries such as the Starcraft and Warcraft themed ones along with all of the Honorable Mentions. Some really good stuff in the mix!

So what was your favorite part out of all the theme park entries? Did any of your entries make the cut? If you didn't enter this time, will you in the future if Blizzard holds another theme park contest?

Blizzard Announces Global Writing Contest!

DoranM — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 03:47:08 GMT

Blizzard has announced a global writing contest! The contest is open to all fans of the Blizzard Universe and all it's amazing titles like: Diablo, Starcraft, and World of Warcraft. The contest will be judged by the actual content and lore masters at Blizzard! To enter you must submit a 3000-10,000 word story in English about the Blizzard universe by April 12th. The first place winner will receive the Frostmourne Sword, and a trip to Blizzard HQ!

For an advantage in the contest make sure and visit our Blizzard fansites: Diablofans.com, Sc2Lead.com, and WorldofRaids.com!

Here's a picture of the contest sword and the original story about the Blizzard Writing Contest:

Blizzard Entertainment is proud to present its first global writing contest. If you enjoy the Blizzard Entertainment universes and have the drive to pen fantasy fiction in them, here’s your chance to shine.

Whether you conjure stories in your free time or write for a living, you’re encouraged to participate. This contest is open to entrants from around the world, and will be judged by Blizzard Entertainment’s own writers and masters of lore.

To enter, submit a 3,000 to 10,000 word story written in English and set in the Warcraft, StarCraft, or Diablo universe by April 12 and earn your chance to visit the Blizzard Entertainment headquarters and meet the writers and staff behind the lore seen in the games and books.

See below for additional prizing details, or check out the official rules for more information.

Award Categories:

Grand Prize

Trip to Blizzard Entertainment headquarters in Southern California to meet and eat with the Blizzard writing staff, and a Frostmourne sword

Runner Up

Seven runners-up will receive prize packages consisting of signed copies of the Diablo Archive, Warcraft Archive, StarCraft Archive, and the Warcraft War of the Ancients Archive.

Blizzard: New Pictures Posted From Blizzcon 2008!

DoranM — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 16:47:21 GMT

WorldofWarcraft.com has posted a media update for the Blizzcon 2008 event. Several new photos have been posted in the Partner Booth, Gaming Stations, and Outside sections of the photo album.

Here's the original post:

Additional photos from BlizzCon have been sorted into our BlizzCon Gaming Stations, Outside, and Partner Booth Gallery. You can view other galleries by selecting the dropdown menu at the top right of the galleries page.

Here's a few sample images:

Blizzard Theme Park Design Contest!

DoranM — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 01:36:51 GMT

Diablofans.com has recently posted some new news from Blizzard and a Theme Park Contest they are running! If an idea like this ever came to be a real theme park...whew! Could you imagine? Checkout the post:

Now here's something completely different! Blizzard has just announced a new Theme Park Contest. They want you to design your own ideas of how a Blizzard theme park would look. In addition to some great prizes including a Wacom Cintiq and Starcraft 2 beta keys, some of the best entries will be put on display at BlizzCon 2009!

"Step right up, and take a ride on Onyxia's Revenge -- a wild, whelp-filled roller coaster through the depths of the nefarious dragon's lair! Head to Koprulu Food Court and grab yourself a Zerger Burger -- then don your Horadric Poncho, and prepare to get soaked in a rain of fire on Diablo's River of Flame!

What thrills would you seek in the Blizzard Entertainment theme park of your dreams? This is your chance to show us.

We're challenging you to design and illustrate your own Blizzard Entertainment Theme Park, including roller coasters, water rides, shows, shopping areas, food courts, game areas, patrons, and whatever fantastic attractions you desire.

Submit your original park design by March 30, 2009, and we'll choose our favorites based on the creativity of the design, artistic technique (including the medium and style), and how your park reflects the lore and spirit of Blizzard Entertainment's games.

You can submit illustrations that look like theme-park maps, compose your park to look like a screenshot from a game, or create whatever kind of park you wish -- the only limit is your imagination. Winning entries will be featured on Blizzard Entertainment websites around the world as well as at BlizzCon 2009, being held in Anaheim, California on August 21 and 22. The park designer who most creatively incorporates the StarCraft, Warcraft, and Diablo universes will receive a Wacom Cintiq 12WX Digitizing Tablet, a pair of StarCraft II beta keys, and more. See below for more prize details, or check out the official rules for more information."

So what do you think? This is a pretty random contest for them and I definitely can't wait to see the results, but it raises some questions. Is this their way of hinting that we'll maybe see Blizzard's own version of Disneyland some day? After all, BlizzCon is held in Anaheim right near Disneyland. Coincidence? Or perhaps this is for something more along the lines of a new game like RollerCoaster Tycoon? Oh how the mind loves to wonder about such things...

Click here to visit the official Blizzard Theme Park Contest page.

Click here to read the official rules.

The Music of Blizzard: Echoes of War Album Now Available

DoranM — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:45:00 GMT

This in from WorldofWarcraft.com about The Eminence Symphony Orchestra and their recent release of the Echoes of War album. With Echoes of War you'll be able to listen to your favorite Blizzard tunes at any time! The Echoes of War album is all of the music from Blizzard Entertainment’s franchises, including pieces from the unreleased StarCraft II and Diablo III games. Check out the original post and head over to the official Echoes of War website to hear samples:

The Eminence Symphony Orchestra has just released Echoes of War: The Music of Blizzard Entertainment, a comprehensive arrangement album of music from Blizzard Entertainment’s franchises, including pieces from the unreleased StarCraft II and Diablo III.

The album comes on two CDs, and is available in both a standard edition and a special Legendary Edition packed with bonus materials. Visit the official Echoes of War website to hear samples, learn more, and order your copy today.