Garrett uses his column this week to talk about the upcoming BlizzCon and what surprises it might hold.

Lines sum up BlizzCon the best, lines for everything from Morlochs to Jinx shirts. Next week, Blizzard is hosting its own private convention in Anaheim, CA for all things Blizzard. This is an interesting year for the company with allof the rumors that have been surrounding the event over the last few weeks. Starcraft 2 delays, WoW expansion rumors, and the ever looming Diablo 3 news all come into play when Blizzard takes the stage. Can the game company that can do no wrong ever possibly make a mistake? We'll look at Blizzard's three ring circus and how it impacts the industry, fans, and the games to come.

Read BlizzCon: Reading Between the Lines

Originally posted by Stradden

Garrett uses his column this week to talk about the upcoming BlizzCon and what surprises it might hold.

Lines sum up BlizzCon the best, lines for everything from Morlochs to Jinx shirts. Next week, Blizzard is hosting its own private convention in Anaheim, CA for all things Blizzard. This is an interesting year for the company with allof the rumors that have been surrounding the event over the last few weeks. Starcraft 2 delays, WoW expansion rumors, and the ever looming Diablo 3 news all come into play when Blizzard takes the stage. Can the game company that can do no wrong ever possibly make a mistake? We'll look at Blizzard's three ring circus and how it impacts the industry, fans, and the games to come.

Read BlizzCon: Reading Between the Lines

Morlochs?  I think we're getting H.G. Wells confused with Blizzard.  Although even that was spelled differently.  C'mon, Garrett -- if you're going to attempt a hip reference, try to get closer to target.  :)

The one thing I don't see mentioned here is the possible announcement of Blizzard's new mmo. We'll see what happens!

Originally posted by SaintViktor

The one thing I don't see mentioned here is the possible announcement of Blizzard's new mmo. We'll see what happens!

This.

There new MMO is supposed to be an entirely new IP.

So fucking excited, 9 days!!!

A little mistake: that's The Maelstrom, not Maelstorm.
A big mistake: that's not a gnome on the picture... she's a dragon in gnome disguise :P

Originally posted by mizrolist

A little mistake: that's The Maelstrom, not Maelstorm.
A big mistake: that's not a gnome on the picture... she's a dragon in gnome disguise :P

ahh you mean chromie of the bronze dragonflight! :)

What might happen in priority:

1. No real announcement, just a lot of fluff including a new D3 class  /hmmm...

2. A new wow expansion announcement  /gag

3. A new IP? which might be out by the time I retire  /zzzzzzzzzz

Crossing fingers that there will be a new IP announcment, that it will be fantasy PVE-based, that it will have slightly more realistic graphics, and a slighly more serious (not somber, necessarily) atmosphere.

My bad on the Maelstrom typo :) 

I do mention the Blizzard new MMO at the very bottom, my guess is...we won't hear a thing.

if we do I'll be very surprised.

We'll be posting news next Friday as fast as we possibly can.

be ready :) 

The main announcement now will be the next WOW expansion. With the Starcraft 2 delay, it will be there but not center stage. We may also get a "target" release quarter for Diablo 3. I fully expect the game in 2011 to be honest.

Blizzard said in an interview somewhere that they planned 1 major release a year. 2009 was supposed to be Starcraft 2 but that is now 2010. 2010 will also see the next WOW expansion.

I am thinking Diablo 3 in 2011 along with the 2nd part of Starcraft 2 and a WOW expansion; the 3rd and final part of Starcraft 2 in 2012 along with a new (final) WOW expansion.

We may see the new MMO in 2013 at the earliest.

Just my thoughts.

they better release something new :) i cant wait

You can say whatever you think about Blizzard's "power" to not release a product, but anyone who played beta for original wow knows full well Vivendi pushed World of Warcraft  out due to retail obligations. I'm not saying Activision will do the same at any point, but, when i worked at ATVI we did have some stuff get pushed out well before QA was ready to sign off. It's a business, and it has to be run as such. It boils down to simple math really, kinda like almost any game out there when you think about it =P

For those who don't know the details on how this particular part the industry works, a game company or publisher has to purchase shelf space from retailers, in order to guarantee their product will get "face time" so to speak (meaning X number of their boxes face front out, as opposed to spine out) not to mention other stuff like displays and whatnot. Now, if a product does NOT release on time, guess that happens to that money? Buh bye, the retailer doesnt give it back, and they just put something else on those shelves. Period, end of story. So, add to that mix a game with how many was it? 500k, one million presales? (i forget, i know it was a record) and wow, thats huge money lost on the shelf space thing. I know, presales dont go on shelves, but stores stock shelves based on a number of presales.

Edit : Garrett. don't get me wrong, as still a great article =) kinda makes me wish i were going. I had the opportunity but passed since travelling to so cal for me sucks (migraine condition)

Bah, who am i kidding, i'd just get into an argument with the devs about class balance (or the gaping hole of lack thereof) =P

Originally posted by templarga

The main announcement now will be the next WOW expansion. With the Starcraft 2 delay, it will be there but not center stage. We may also get a "target" release quarter for Diablo 3. I fully expect the game in 2011 to be honest.

Blizzard said in an interview somewhere that they planned 1 major release a year. 2009 was supposed to be Starcraft 2 but that is now 2010. 2010 will also see the next WOW expansion.

I am thinking Diablo 3 in 2011 along with the 2nd part of Starcraft 2 and a WOW expansion; the 3rd and final part of Starcraft 2 in 2012 along with a new (final) WOW expansion.

We may see the new MMO in 2013 at the earliest.

Just my thoughts.

They also said last week (or maybe the week before ?) that they could ship two "games" in 2010...it's a possibility...so...your guess, Starcraft 2 and WoW expansion or S2 + D3 ? :P

jp can you link that statement?

My guess is...if that is true, then it will be SC2 and D3.

Although a WoW expansion in Dec. 2010 would not surprise me either.

Based on the state of what they've shown so far, If diablo 3 comes out late 2010 i'll be beyond shocked. Blizz is really good about releasing stuff to generate hype. They've barely even shown us anything for D3 yet. People who work there on other projects dont even know much about it yet.

MY gut feeling would be SC2 and WOW Expansion #3. I highly doubt it would be Diablo 3.....it just seems too far away. Of course, we will know more at Blizzcon.

It is hard for me to imagine that they could ship 2 completely new game and an expansion in the same year. At least later on SC2 and D3 expansions would build on the already established game so it wouldn't be as difficult.

I swear if they charge us to use Bnet.... that just isn't right to charge extra so that we can play online.  More so since there is no LAN in SC2

I'll be a little bit surprised, not to mention extremely pissed off if we get charged anything for battlenet. When you consider that you had to merge your wow account with battlenet for certain features. Will people who did that unwittingly have set themselves up for another fee to keep playing wow? That would be a bad move, and one i highly doubt Blizzard would make.

They've made Billions....yes thats with a B - from world of warcraft now. That money easily covers the development of a better battlenet to accomodate diablo 3 and starcraft 2. The old battlenet software is just that: "old" - not to mention it was basically a chat server with some peer to peer matching software tossed in. It worked really well, but it wasnt very complex, so it was time for an overhaul.

If they charge for Bnet, those with WoW accounts linked to a Bnet account will most likely be unaffected, if anything we'll be given Bnet access for having a WoW account, and those who wish to access Bnet just for SC2 and eventually D3 will be charged a lower rate.

Personally, I'd be surprised to NOT see anything mentioned about their new mmo. I'd also be willing to wager that it will come out sooner than many would think.

Originally posted by garrett

The real questions on this expansion are: Will there be another ten levels added? Will there be a new Hero class? When will the expansion come out? This is the information I'd like to hear as a player. If a new ten levels are added, perhaps I may not rush to run raids every night anymore. Why put in hours and hours when the gear will all be worthless in a year?

 

People said the same thing when the level cap was raised from 60 to 70, and from 70 to 80.  The gear becomes worthless even without a level cap raise eventually though, as better and better sets are released.