blizzard-worldwide-invitational posts

German site OnlineWelten spoke with Blizzard Senior VP Rob Pardo at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational last week. There was a lot of imprecise pondering about what it is that makes Blizzard so successful, but there was one specific tidbit that stood out in the interview.

OnlineWelten referenced some job adverts posted on Blizzard's company website -- adverts for jobs in a team working on a "Next-Gen MMO." Then came the question: is Diablo 3 the Next-Gen MMO? "No, it's obviously not, since it's not an MMO," said Pardo. "We have another development team ... there's still an uknown project."

So, just in case you were wondering, the Next-Gen MMO is still on. But we don't know a damned thing about it. We even once assumed that it was the project codenamed Hydra, but we recently discovered that Hydra was Diablo 3. So ... Galaxy of StarCraft? Sit tight.

[Via Shacknews]

It was an incredibly busy weekend for Blizzard Entertainment and PC games in general as the annual Blizzard Worldwide Invitational event in Paris, France had the official announcement of Diablo III as well as more info and hands-on time with World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and Starcraft II.

While Big Download wasn't there personally to check out all of the action, our sister sites Joystiq and WoWInsider were both there reporting on the event. Joystiq has collected all the info they gathered from the event and WoWInsider certainly has the most comphehesive info from WWI concerning World of Warcraft. Check them both out, why don't you?

Blizzard is not ignoring its upcoming sci-fi RTS game Starcraft II during its Worldwide Invitational event. The publisher has released new screenshots from the highly anticipated game, showing off more action from the sequel that was announced more than a year ago.

As we previously reported, it looks like we won't get a release for the game until sometime in 2009 at the earliest but we are still holding out hope that some kind of multiplayer beta release will be coming out before the end of this year. In the meantime, the new screenshots should keep you busy.

Our sister web site WoW Insider is at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational event in Paris, France and the event has turned into a treasure trove of info on their hit MMO World of Warcraft and their upcoming expansion pack Wrath of the Lich King. The site has reports from all of the World of Warcraft panels at the event.

In addition, Blizzard has released new screenshots from the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King expansion. While the second major commerical expansion to the MMO is officially set for release "when it's done", Blizzard's parent company Vivendi Games is expecting the expansion to be released sometime in the second half of 2008.

It's going to be a different kind of Saturday for Big Download and for gaming web sites in general as Blizzard gets ready to announce a new title while also hosting their Blizzard Worldwide Invitational tournament and convention in Paris. Will it be for Diablo III as most web sites are predicting or will Blizzard bring in something out of left field? Expect the first word to come out of the event around 6 am EST today. We'll do our best to bring you coverage . . .even if it means going to Waffle House to get some strong coffee.

We are now less than 48 hours from the reveal of Blizzard's next game project and this morning the developer's official web site has posted up yet another image teasing us about that announcement. This time the image shows more of the ice crystals opening up and what looks like two eyes are visible in the distance beyond the ice.

The official reveal is supposed to be Saturday morning which is the first day of the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational tournament in Paris. Last year, the company revealed Starcraft II and the Internet almost melted with the announcement. Will it happen yet again? Stay tuned . . .

There's tons of speculation about what Blizzard might or might not be announcing this weekend but one thing's for sure; their teaser images on their web site continue to, well, get cracking. The latest image shows what looks like ice or crystal cracking with a viewpoint as if we are in the bottomof a well and trying to get to the top . . . or something.

Look closely and you can see some kind of patterns in the ice crystals which some in the Blizzard fan community seem to believe are a reference to Diablo 3. We will, of course, wait until the teasers stop (presumably this weekend with the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational in Paris begin) but certainly a true sequel to their huge action-RPG is an easy game to predict at this stage.

Blizzard tends to post up teaser images on their web site a few days before a major announcement. Well, guess what? Blizzard's web site has posted a splash page that looks like a teaser image. The image is labeled "ice1" and . . . well, we don't really know what it is supposed to represent at this stage.

We believe that this teaser image is just the first of many this week as Blizzard builds up to their big announcement which will likely be revealed on Saturday, the first day of their Worldwide Invitational tournament which is being held this year in Paris, France. Last year the tournament revealed plans for Starcraft II. Is this new teaser a build up to the long awaited Diablo III? Stay tuned . . .