Can you believe another BlizzCon is already upon us? Yes, in just a few moments, Blizzard will kick off their annual festival with an opening ceremony that's sure to include plenty of surprises. A release date for "Diablo 3"? "World of WarCraft" coming to consoles? "Lost Vikings" getting its own MMO? Who knows what Blizzard will have in store! Well, we all will very shortly, and this liveblog will keep track of all the exciting comings and goings. So here we go!
10:55AM PST
Festivities about to start. Folks have filed into the theater and are awaiting the awesomeness that's about to unfold.
10:58
Haha, Deckard Caine just asked people to silence their cell phones. Looks like we're about to start.
11:00
Lights are going down. Here we go! Starts with a Blizzard montage, showing off StarCraft, Diablo and World of WarCraft.
11:02
WarCraft artist takes the stage. Going over his expected audience reactions, from the golf clap to the "Wooaaahah."
11:05
Mike Morhaime takes the stage. More pandering to the audience. Cheers on demand!
11:06
Milestones: 12 million WoW users, 10 years since Diablo 2 launched, 20 years since Blizzard started this February.
11:11
Discussing samples of creations using the StarCraft 2 map editor created by blizzard employees: Star Jeweled, the Iron Chef, Left 2 Die, and "Blizzard DOTA."
All to be released for free in the coming months. Playable at the show.
11:12
Next charity pet will be the Moonkin Hatchling. This is a Moonkin.
11:13
Blizzard is also auctioning off official server hardware for WoW.
11:15
Moving on to StarCraft 2. More than 91M ranked StarCraft 2 matches have been played. Top selling PC game of 2010, fastest selling strategy game of all time.
11:16
Montages of announcements from 2010. Release date for Cataclysm, Diablo 3's monk class, StarCraft 2 launch, etc... We know all this stuff!
11:19
Mike returns to the stage. More than $200K will be given out in prize money over the course of Blizzcon. Panels and the costume contest is back. And Tenacious D.
11:23
Cataclysm is playable on the show floor. Get your goblin on! Users will be able to pre-order and download the expansion directly through Battle.net. Pre-orders will pre-load so you can play the moment the expansion launches.
11:25
Chris Metzen on stage to give an update on Diablo 3! "Horde. Diablo. Alliance. StarCraft." Uh, what? "Passion. Power. Identity." "Geek." "This is our word." Showing a slideshow of being a geek. Uh yeah, that was anti-climactic. Conan. Captain America. Thundercats. Dragonlance. Everquest with your friends.
11:36
"None of us would be here without Everquest."
11:38
Still talking about geeky things. I'll spare you the list. Once it gets newsworthy, you'll know.
11:41
Ok, he's finally wrapping up. Talking about how BlizzCon is about our collective geekyness. "Now we have business to discuss..."
NEW DIABLO CLASS. FIFTH AND LAST
Showing a trailer for the new class. It's...the...amazon? Warrior girl wearing armor. Sorry no, not the amazon. She's gaining power from the dead. Necromancer is back maybe? She's using dual crossbows. "I stand alone..."
THE DEMON HUNTER
Basically a ranged/magic user. Fire powers plus crossbows. She'll be playable on the floor.
There will be PvP arena battles in Diablo 3. Supports 3 vs. 3 pvp team battles. PvP battles will be on the show floor.
11:49
Moving on to World of WarCraft...showing this cinematic trailer:
And that's it for the opening ceremony presentation. Pretty, um, minimal in terms of news. Hopefully something will come out of the Diablo panel, which is up next.