Crispy Gamer News

Blizzard Entertainment’s annual two-day lovefest - BlizzCon - begins on Friday, October 10, at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. The convention celebrates Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo game universes - and the fans that love these franchises. Attendees of the show (which is sold out) will be able to play the latest versions of Blizzard Entertainment’s games as well as speak with developers in special panels, participate in tournaments and contests, and meet with fellow gamers and friends.

Mediocre comedian Jay Mohr will host the live contests this year, and the show will close on Saturday evening with an epic concert featuring comedian Patton Oswalt, Blizzard’s own Warcraft-themed metal band Level 80 Elite Tauren Chieftain, and Video Games Live, who will be performing special orchestral arrangements of music from Blizzard games.

For those unable to attend, DIRECTV will be broadcasting the convention live as a pay-per-view event. Visit www.blizzard.com/blizzcon/dtv.

AMD has inked a deal Blizzard Entertainment to bundle Blizzard’s games across all ATI Radeon graphics products. As you may or may not know, AMD is the exclusive graphics sponsor for BlizzCon 2008 in Anaheim, Oct. 10-11, and its ATI Radeon HD 4800 series will be used in all PCs at BlizzCon. AMD does not go into what specific Blizzard properties it plans to bundle with its graphics products.

I could speculate about what products AMD could bundle with its graphics card offerings - Starcraft II, Diablo III, or World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King - but why bother? Oh wait, I just did.

Tickets are officially on sale today for Blizzard Entertainment’s annual gaming event, BlizzCon, for the price of $100 each. BlizzCon will take place October 10 and 11 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. As one would expect, the event will showcase all things related to Blizzard’s top properties including Warcraft, World of Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo.

Naturally anyone attending will be expecting to hear more about Diablo III, Starcraft II, the latest expansion to World of Warcraft - Wrath of the Lich King and some other surprises (hopefully). BlizzCon will also feature developer panels, contests, tournaments, and hands-on gameplay with upcoming Blizzard games.

For those unlucky enough (myself included) to make it to BlizzCon in the United States, you can also catch eight hours of highlights and special coverage via a special Pay Per View event via DirectTV (check your local Dish Network programming for more info on that). The pay per view package will also provide a code for an exclusive World of Warcraft in-game polar bear mount otherwise only available in goody bags at the convention. Current DIRECTV customers will be able to purchase the BlizzCon pay per view package for USD $39.95.

You can buy tickets now at www.blizzcon.com.

Retail research firm, NPD Group has released its list of the top selling PC games for the week ending July 26, 2008, revealing that Her Interactive’s Nancy Drew: The Phantom Of Venice took the top spot for the week. While the teen sleuth game taking the top spot is interesting, the rest of the list is a combination of hype driven sales, hold-outs and extensions of ultra popular brands.

The Sims franchise continues to rake in cash for EA with add-ons The Sims 2 Double Deluxe and The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff; meanwhile Blizzard enjoys much success with continued sales of the World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest compilation pack, The Burning Crusade expansion and the original game. Several games on the charts are due to a large amount of buzz for upcoming games: Blizzard’s Diablo III announcement has helped drive sales of the Diablo Battle Chest compilation pack and hype for Will Wright’s Spore is driving consumers to pick up the Spore Creature Creator.

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Get those wallets out kids, because tickets for Blizzard Entertainment’s third BlizzCon event will go on sale August 11. Blizzard also announced that this year’s event will enjoy live television coverage in an exclusive DIRECTV pay per view event.

The PPV event will give DirectTV subscribers eight hours of live HD coverage from the show floor on each day of the convention, including exclusive interviews, demos, and more. Beginning in August, DIRECTV will run a promotion offering the BlizzCon pay per view event free to new DIRECTV subscribers. Pricing for existing DIRECTV customers and programming details will be available in the coming weeks from Blizzard Entertainment and DIRECTV.

For further details about the PPV, ticket prices and specific event details, check out www.blizzcon.com.

Just a friendly reminder: Blizzard Entertainment’s two-day gaming event, the Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational will kick off Saturday, June 28. The Blizzard Worldwide Invitational is a fan focused event that celebrates Blizzard’s popular games and packs panels, competitions and game revelations all into the two day event.This year’s event will take place at Hall 5 of the Porte de Versailles Exposition Centre in Paris. After the competition, panels and other fun is over, the event will conclude with performances by a concert by Video Games Live and Blizzard’s own Warcraft-themed rock band, Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain.For those unable to attend, coverage of the event will be featured at eu.blizzard.com/wwi08.

Though disputed by some “gaming journalism theorists,” the phenomenon of “The Splash Screen That Made A Splash” has been around for quite some time now. The theory goes as follows: In the grand scheme of gaming-related newsy things, the only time that a splash screen truly can be news, is when that splash screen is posted by Blizzard Entertainment.

Behold, the splash screen.

To an untrained eye, a mere collection of bluish pixels in between a bunch of black pixels which form the background. To us, it’s the herald of a new Blizzard game, likely to be announced at the soon-to-be-held Blizzard World Wide Invitational.

A source whom I trust seems to think it’s Diablo 3. A sources who has been able to get the inside scoop on the unreleased contents of the long-awaited 2.4 World of Warcraft content patch.

On the other hand, the tiny runes that have popped up on the Splash image since yesterday seem to indicate that they might be coming from Arthas’ legendary sword, Frostmourne. So a Wrath of the Lich King reference, or a decoy to throw us off track? It remains to be seen.