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BlizzCon 2009 Internet streaming pre-orders begin


Blizzard's annual BlizzCon event sold out quickly but if you are not one of those heading to Anaheim, CA on August 21-22 you can still get some of the feeling of the event from the confort of your office chair or couch. This week pre-orders are being taken for the live Internet streaming video for BlizzCon 2009.

The video will come from the DirecTV coverage of BlizzCon which will have 16 hours of coverage of the event for its subscribers. While DirecTV owners will get that video in HD, those of us that don't have the satillete TV service will still be able to see the event via the$39.95 Internet streaming coverage. World of Warcraft players will even get the BlizzCon in-game Murloc Marine pet when they purchase the BlizzCon streaming services.

BlizzCon 2009 officially sold out


It's not exactly a shock but there are no more tickets that are being sold (officially anyway) by Blizzard for BlizzCon 2009. Just like two weeks ago with the first block of tickets, this second and final block sold out within 30 minutes of going on sale at 1 pm ET today.

We are sure that a few scalpers will put up highly inflated tickets for the event on eBay and we also know some Blizzard fan sites will have contests where you can win tickets. As for the rest of you, you can still watch the August 21-22 event from your homes via Internet streaming or pay-per-view on DirectTV.

Reminder: Final block of BlizzCon tickets go on sale today

We've reported on this a couple of times but here's a quick reminder for you. Today Blizzard will sell the second and final of block of tickets for people to attend their (sort of) annual BlizzCon event. The event itself is being held August 21-22 event in Anaheim, California. The $125 tickets go on sale at the BlizzCon site at 10 am PT today (that's 1 pm ET). Expect tickets for the event to sell out very quickly

If you fail to buy a ticket today . . . well, Blizzard might set up some contests to have people win some tickets in the weeks ahead. And if you can't come to BlizzCon at all you can still purchase a pay-per-view event via DirectTV or streaming Internet to watch the show from afar.

New Diablo III screenshots show off The Fallen Ones


It's been a little while since Blizzard has released new screenshots from Diablo III (not counting their April Fool's gag) so it was a welcome bit of news today when they revealed six new visuals from the highly anticipated action-RPG (we have added those shots to our own gallery). The reveal was all about introducing us to one of the game's branch of monsters known as The Fallen Ones.

The Fallen have appeared in previous games in the series and it looks like at least five of them will make an appearance in the new game. The pesky Imps, the magical Shaman and the bloated Lunatic are listed as are the hellish Hounds and the Overseer that puts groups of Imps in a frenzy. Two other types of Fallen are also rumored to exist.

Gallery: Diablo III

Reminder: BlizzCon 2009 tickets go on sale today

We've reported on this a couple of times but here's a quick reminder for you. Today Blizzard will sell the first of two blocks of tickets for people to attend their (sort of) annual BlizzCon event. The event itself is being held August 21-22 event in Anaheim, California. The $125 tickets go on sale at the BlizzCon site at 10 am PT today (that's 1 pm ET). Hopefully the web servers won't get overwhelmed like they did last year but expect tickets for the event to sell out quickly.

If you fail to buy a ticket today Blizzard will sell another block of tickets two weeks from today on May 30. And if you can't come to BlizzCon at all you can still purchase a pay-per-view event via DirectTV or streaming Internet to watch the show from afar.

Blizzard named top game developer in new survey


With all the talk about PC game development either changing or dying off, it's interesting that a new survey of game developers conducted by Develop magazine named a PC game-only studio as the number one most successful on the planet. We are talking, of course, about Blizzard Entertainment.

Part of the reason is the massive success of their MMO World of Warcraft which now has 11.5 million subscribers. The studio brought in $1.36 billion in revenue to its parent company Activision Blizzard in 2008 and the company now has about 2,700 employees. Blizzard has a ton of upcoming titles in the works, including Starcraft II (and plans for two stand alone expansion), Diablo III, an almost certain third World of Warcraft expansion pack and an all new (but still unrevealed) MMO title

BlizzCon 2009 tickets go on sale May 16

While many of us at Big Download are prepping for E3 next month, it's not supposed to be open to the public. That's not the case with BlizzCon, Blizzard's (sort of) annual gathering of fans to both celebrate their games and try out upcoming titles. Today Blizzard relaunched the BlizzCon web site with word that one block of tickets would go on sale May 16 (a second block will be made available on May 30).

Ticket prices for the August 21-22 event in Anaheim, California will be $125, which is higher compared to previous BlizzCons' $100 price tag. Even with the increase tickets are still expected to sell out quickly. However people who cannot attend can check out a pay-per-view event on DirecTV. Blizzard will also offer the DirecTV broadcast via the Internet as a pay-per-view streaming video for $39.95.

BlizzCon 2008 beta code sign ups begin


Folks who were able to atttend last year's BlizzCon got a code that they could use later on to participate in a future beta test for an unnamed Blizzard game. Well, if you have one of those rare codes you can now head over to a special web page over at the World of Warcraft web site and enter that code along with your email address.

Now does this mean you are signing up for a StarCraft 2 beta slot? Well, not nessessarily. The page does say, "Be advised that it may be quite some time before this beta test begins, and this sign-up may not be for the next beta test to become available." So it could also be for Diablo III or the next World of Warcraft expansion pack. It's a crap shoot but we are sure folks who have the code will be happy with what they get.

[Via Joystiq]

April Fool's Alert: New Diablo III class revealed - the Archivist


Blizzard always seems to get into the April Fool's Day spirit and the 2009 edition is proving to be no exception. The official web site for their long awaited action-RPG sequel Diablo III "reveals" an all new playable class for the game: The librarian . . . er, make that the Archivist.

The page goes into detail about the new class, complete with gameplay footage via Flash-based movies moving showing the libr . . . er, Archivist doing his thing against enemies with spells like Shush and the Quest Bolt. Screenshots show other abilities such as "Book Vision" and the character's Radial Dialogue Tree. It's not the best character in the world but I'm sure we could work with it if Blizzard decides to make this joke a reality.

Gallery: Diablo III

New Diablo III screenshots show off user interface


Several days ago, Blizzard released some new Starcraft II screenshots that showed off for the first time some of the game's user interface for the first time. Now Blizzard has done the same for their other (announced) major upcoming game Diablo III.

The new shots were put on display on the web page of Blizzard's Blizzcast web site. Two of the shots show off how the inventory and spells will be handled in the UI while a third shows the spell tree of the game. The Blizzcast is of course Blizzard's own internal podcast and you can download and listen to it now (or read the web page's transcript). It has more info on the Diablo III UI along with Q&A with members of the World of Warcraft and Starcraft II dev teams.

Gallery: Diablo III

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