Crispy Gamer News

John Keefer, our Editor in Chief and self-professed World of Warcraft addict, has this report from the floor of BlizzCon about StarCraft II:

“StarCraft 2 has been divided into 3 games, dubbed the StarCraft 2 Trilogy:

StarCraft II: Terrans: Wings of Liberty
StarCraft II: Zerg: Heart of the Swarm
StarCraft II: Protoss: Legacy of the Void

Each will provide an in-depth story driven campaign, focusing on the prime character for each race: Jim Raynor for the Terrans, Kerrigan for the Zerg and Zeratul for the Protoss.”

Look for full coverage of StarCraft II, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, and Diablo III from BlizzCon in the days ahead right here at Crispy Gamer.

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.

Blizzard Entertainment and NetEase.com today announced an agreement to license Blizzard Entertainment’s StarCraft II, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, and Battle.net to Shanghai EaseNet Network Technology Limited, an affiliate of NetEase.com, Inc. Blizzard Entertainment and NetEase have also established a joint venture, which will provide support for Battle.net in China.

Blizzard says that the term of the license will be three years, with a mutual one-year renewal period, beginning with the commercial release of StarCraft II in the China. Shanghai EaseNet will pay a revenue-based royalty over the license period, while NetEase will pay a milestone-based license fee and fund and guarantee certain additional payments and operating expenses in connection with the joint venture.

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.

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.

For those looking to play Starcraft II this year some very sad news this morning: It won’t be ready, despite rumors saying it would be released in December of this year. Blizzard executive vice president Rob Pardo put the rumor to bed over the weekend at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational.Pardo said that the game was about a third of the way through the campaign’s development and are currently working on story structure and cinematics.

Blizzard hopes to have something “to show” people that will be impressive.. by year’s end. Which would lead us to believe it will not be released this year. Pardo did reveal that the game will be a simultaneous release on Mac and PC - no great shock there.

Source games.internode.on.net by way of Blue’s News

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.