Recent rumours that Diablo 3 will be announced in the next issue of the US edition of PC Gamer have been debunked by the magazine."We're officially squelching the Diablo rumour," said the editor to Voodoo Extreme. "We've got two big announcements coming in our August issue, but neither is from Blizzard."The rumour originated when PC Gamer wrote that the August issue contained a "secret that [they're] just dying to blurt ... » Read More

Diablo3.com, previously a URL for a Diablo fan site, has been acquired by Blizzard. Let the speculation commence...The news has been broken by the fan site itself, which now says it's changed its domain name to Diablofans.com."Well, there's no point in beating around the bush any longer, so let's get right down to it. A few months ago we were contacted by Blizzard in regards to the Diablo3.com domain name."While they ... » Read More

Diabloii.net, one of the oldest and the biggest Diablo fansite out there, has naturally taken on the mantle for Diablo 3. Looking at all the fansites, it seems a new Diablo 3 buzz wave is on it's way, and according to Alexa, the Diablo community is reaching the size it had back in 2002! If there ever was a good time for Blizzard to announce Diablo 3, it's now.

Awaiting this announcement that hopefully will come on WWI 2008 in Paris, there has been a huge compilation of Diablo 3 facts on Diabloii.net's Diablo 3 information page. It contains the entire timeline and events, including Flagship-related, as well as known project statuses from sources of information reaching from today back to '00. They report:

"On the back of our shiny new DIII forum Flux has gathered together all the Diablo III info going back to 2000. It should keep you straight on which rumour surfaced when and who said what and how much nudge, nudge, wink, wink was involved. You'll find some pretty impressive fake DIII artwork too.

If there's anything missing feel free to add it, if you are a site member you can edit the page and you're welcome to do so. Click for the Diablo III info page."

So, is D3 at WWI in Paris a bet?
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Blizzard has just announced that they sold out all the tickets for the World Wide Invitational in Paris this year.

"All available tickets for the 2008 Blizzard Entertainment Worldwide Invitational are now sold out! Taking place over Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th of June at the Porte de Versailles Convention Centre in Paris, France, the 2008 Worldwide Invitational looks set to be another exciting Blizzard Entertainment gaming event. Be sure to check the 2008 Worldwide Invitational website often for ticketholder updates, the latest news on the tournaments, panels, and showcased content, and other news on what to expect at the event!"

Too bad if you missed the chance of buying a ticket, but the lucky who did will probably have a great time in Paris this upcoming summer.
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Blizzard's Worldwide Invitational is taking place June 28th and 29th this year, which happens to be on Diablo II's release date anniversary! Diablo II was released on June 29, 2000 and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion was released on ... June 29, 2001.

Multiple public job postings from the Diablo 1 and 2 teams and so on. Starcraft 2 was announced last year and blizzard has been working on another game for a very long time now. What do you think it is? Diablo 3 News Watch gathers the news of the past two years amounting to what everyone thinks may be a Diablo Announcement this year.
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Buddhist monks. Counter-Strike.

Not exactly two things you expect to have anything in common. But, while researching a story that has absolutely nothing to do with either, MTV Multiplayer discovered some monks in China that are big fans of Valve's shooter.

Honestly, MTV Multiplayer didn't believe Gearbox Software's Randy Pitchford when he told them.
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WoW IncGamers got a sniff from Blizzard that they are going to hold another World Wide Invitational (like a mini-BlizzCon for the gamers and the games industry) in late June this year. Considering that StarCraft II was release during the WWI 2007 in Korea, one wonders what this one in France will give. Is there some game French games like in particular, or is it just convenient to have it near the World of WarCraft centre? Make sure to check all news sites in June!
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BlizzCast Episode 2 was recorded and awaits official release in upcoming days. Blizzard Entertainment is localizing the transcript for a simultaneous release date.
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Relive the fun of one of the greatest Hack and Slash RPGs ever created. The Diablo II ladder will be reset on June 25, 2007, beginning a new ladder season and providing a fresh start for those participating on the ladder realms. All current ladder characters will be moved to the non-ladder realm, and the ladder realm will re-open as a blank slate where all-new heroes can make their mark. Try out a new character idea, adventure with your friends, and race to be the first on your realm to reach level 99. The realms will be offline for approximately four hours during the ladder reset. Once the specific schedule for the reset has been determined, we'll post that information in the Battle.net Status Forum.
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The craze over the new Blizzard announcement has caused such a stir, people are speculating as to what they are actually planning on revealing. This article talks about the different ideas that could make up this announcement. Is it really Starcraft 2? Could there be more than 1 announced title?
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Red 5, a young indie studio formed by key World of Warcraft dev team members, has raised $18.5 million in VC funding. Next-Gen spoke with CEO Mark Kern about the deal and Red 5's vision of the MMO.

When World of Warcraft team lead Kern, art director William Petras, Blizzard Korea founder Taewon Yun and other talented game developers gathered to found Red 5 in September 2005, interest was certainly piqued. After all, Red 5 is home to some of the guys that worked on blockbusters like World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Warcraft III and Diablo II. You familiar?

So now Red 5 appears to be the most recent indie to benefit from a good chunk of VC funding. Kern said that the money is not actually for title development, but to build Red 5's platform. "We're not really a PC company or a PlayStation or 360 company," he said. "We're really about building an MMO as a platform. Because you've got essentially what's a supercomputer on the backend, the question for us as game makers is what to do with that. We've barely scratched the surface."

He added that the investors, Benchmark Capital and Sierra Ventures, have relevant experience in the tech area. Benchmark has invested in companies including JAMDAT, Linden Lab (online game Second Life) and eBay, while Sierra invests across a wide range of sectors...
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