blizzcon posts

Blizzard will have two retail games released in 2010; StarCraft II and the upcoming World of WarCraft Cataclysm. But it looks likely like Blizzard might not release any games at all in 2011. Without stating a date for Diablo III at BlizzCon 2010 this weekend, it looks like that game won't make it out the door next year. Now IGN reports that the same can be said of the next StarCraft II release.

IGN.com reports that the Zerg-centric StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm won't likely be released until after 2011, according to comments at BlizzCon from Blizzard's Chris Sigaty. He's quoted as saying, "We will be very hard pressed to bring it out next year. I don't have a date, but it's more ambitious." In the meantime you can check out some concept artwork for Heart of the Swarm over at IGN.

At last year's BlizzCon (held in August 2009) the release of StarCraft II was just under a year away. At BlizzCon 2010 this weekend the release date of Blizzard's next full game, the action-RPG Diablo III, is less clear. VG247.com quotes the game's director Jay Wilson as saying that Diablo III is "way over half-way done."

However he added that the game is still not yet feature complete and Wilson stated, "We're not really close until you're playing it." So it sounds like the game is not likely to be released in 2011. Also G4TV.com confirmed that there will be a beta test for the game at some point but that Diablo III won't have any official mod support.

Even though StarCraft II players may have to wait a while before the next game in the trilogy, Heart of the Swarm, is released, Blizzard plans to update the sci-fi RTS game with lots of new features and content in the coming months. We've already reported that Blizzard will release four pretty unique custom maps in the coming months. VG247.com reports that at a press release at BlizzCon, Blizzard reps said that "waves and waves of new features" are in the works.

In addition to the four unique custom maps, Blizzard hinted that even more are in the works. Also there are plans to put a replay system for matches, chat channels and new multiplayer leagues. Speaking of the custom maps, the one that's the most complicated is the Blizzard DOTA map. That's while it won't be released for a while. Blizzard might even add new content to the Blizzard DOTA map after its released.

BlizzCon 2010 was the place that Blizzard decided to reveal two big features for its long awaited action-RPG sequel Diablo III. The Diablo III panel on Friday gave out more info on both the Demon Hunter player class as well as the reveal of the game's PvP arena battles.

Blizzard's own recap of the panel reveals that the Demon Hunter was first designed to be a more woodland-like character called the Ranger but that the designs of the other characters in the game made the Ranger class to be not "as cool as the other classes." So the decision was made to make a ranged-based character that was darker and more mysterious. The Demon Hunter, in addition to using ranged weapons like the crossbow, can also use other gadgets, is highly acrobatic and can use shadow magic to dispatch demons.

As far as the PvP arena combat features are concerned, this is being put in just for the fun of it by Blizzard and not as a super-serious eSports feature. The game will be balanced for 3v3 combat and will let players use their characters that were made for the single player/co-op campaigns. There will still be matchmaking features that will attempt to find players of similar skills in the game. There's even more Diablo III info at the recap page.

Gallery: Diablo III PvP Arena Screenshots

With the second and final day of BlizzCon 2010 now in full swing at the Anaheim Convention Center, Blizzard sees the event as a huge marketing opportunity, even though the event actually loses money. Gamasutra reports that even with the ticket prices, fees for watching the event via internet streaming and DirectTV and money from booth vendors Blizzard will lose over $1 million for holding the event.

However that loss is OK with the company, according to Blizzard's COO Paul Sams who believes that the over 20,000 Blizzard fans who attend the event will go home and tell other Blizzard fans what they experienced. Sam says, "Some companies would argue we'd rather spend that money on TV advertising since that will have a greater reach than with the 20,000 attendees that come. I would argue that - for us - making sure those 20,000 people have the most incredible experience possible will do as much for us, if not more, as spending that amount on TV advertising."

You can add Blizzard VP Rob Pardo to the list of folks who don't care for Valve's attempt to trademark the use of the name DOTA for Valve's upcoming game DOTA 2. In a chat with Eurogamer at BlizzCon, Pardo stated, "Valve is usually so pro mod community. It's such a community company that it just seems like a really strange move to us... I really don't understand why [they would do it], to be honest."

Valve first filed a trademark for use of the name DOTA earlier this summer. In October, Valve announced that it would release DOTA 2, a stand alone graphical remake of the original Defense of the Ancients mod that was first made for Blizzard's RTS game Warcraft III. Pardo stated, "To us, that means that you're really taking it away from the Blizzard and Warcraft III community and that just doesn't seem the right thing to do." Valve has yet to comment on the DOTA trademark controversy. Blizzard, however, is still planning to release Blizzard DOTA, an upcoming custom map for StarCraft II. Pardo says that if Valve tries to contest the use of DOTA for the StarCrat II map he states, "Our contention is that it should continue to be available to Blizzard and to our community."

If you have been waiting patiently to see what Biizzard has in store for its next MMO game project, then you will have to wait even more patiently. Speaking at BlizzCon 2010 during the official streaming video-DirecTV coverage (and as reported by VG247.com), Blizzard VP Rob Pardo indicated that the new MMO won't be revealed until at least 2012.

Keep in mind that we are talking about the official reveal, not the actual launch date for the game. Blizzard has been hiring for a while to generate a team to make its World of Warcraft follow-up in the MMO space. Pardo said that the team is comprised of 50 members now and it is currently working on the prototype stage of the game. However that's all the info about the game that Pardo was willing to give out this year.

While Blizzard didn't talk much about its plans for the Heart of the Storm continuation of StarCraft II at BlizzCon 2010 today (next year, maybe?), today the developer announced plans to release four very unique custom maps for the sci-fi RTS game. The maps were one of the main subjects in the StarCraft II Custom Maps and Editor panel at the show today.

One of the maps, and one that's sure to be hugely popular among long time Blizzard fans, is Blizzard DOTA. This will be Blizzard's version of the Defense of the Ancients mod first made for WarCraft III and has since spawned a mini-game genre on its own. This map will feature 12 heroes from all over the Blizzard canon including Sarah Kerrigan, Sylvanas, Jim Raynor, and Muradin Bronzebeard in a 5 vs 5 team based map with a chess theme.

Other custom maps include Left 2 Die, which is based (sort of) on Valve's Left 4 Dead zombie shooter. Players take out infected structures during the day and build defenses to deal with the Zerg infestation at night. Starjeweled takes inspiration from PopCap's Bejeweled with puzzle solving becoming the key to training your troops and taking out enemies. Finally the most unusual map has to be Aiur Chef, which takes the premise of the classic cooking show Iron Chef to StarCraft II. Players must try to collect components on the map to make meals based on one main ingredient and sometimes there's fights to the death involved.

Blizzard has said all of these custom maps are still in the early stages of development and could change before they are released for free to StarCraft II owners. Blizzard will also release other more conventional free custom maps and ladder maps for the game in the coming months.

Earlier this year, Blizzard let people pre-order and then download StarCraft II via its Battle.net online service. However, the people who got the downloadable version only were not able to play the RTS game until several hours after the game started being sold in retail stores.

Now Blizzard has announced a similar pre-order and download program for its MMO expansion pack World of WarCraft Cataclysm. During the opening ceremonies at BlizzCon today it was revealed that downloadable pre-orders will begin soon and people who buy the expansion will be able to play when the servers go live at midnight December 7.

While it was expected that Blizzard would reveal the fifth and final character class for Diablo III during BlizzCon 2010 (its the Demon Hunter in case you didn't see our previous post), the opening ceremony had one more surprise for people who have been awaiting the release of the action-RPG sequel for the past 2 1/2 years.

That announcement was that Diablo III will have player-vs-player arena battles. Yes, you will be able to take the character classes of the Witch Doctor, the Monk, the Wizard, the Barbarian and the new Demon Hunter and battle each other in fact-paced arena-style battles. BlizzCon 2010 attendees will be able to try out this new mode during the two days of the convention.

Update: Blizzard has posted up a page on the Diablo III web site that has more info on the PvP arena battles along with some screenshots.