According to Blizzi.com, Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 will be playable for the public at BlizzCon 2009, in Anaheim Convention Center - August 21-22th.
VG247: StarCraft II will require both an online verification check and a Battle.net account to play, Blizzard's confirmed to VG247.
VG247: "Well over" half of World of Warcraft, StarCraft and Warcraft III players buy add-ons for the games, Blizzard design boss Rob Pardo has told VG247.
VG247: Blizzard design boss Rob Pardo has said that should the company ever decide to enter the console space, he'd be looking at the same sort of leadership Blizzard games have achieved on PC.
VG247: Blizzard will release "trial versions" of StarCraft II, Blizzard's confirmed, although you'll have to wait until the game itself's shipped to be able to try before you buy.
VG247: Those of you holding out for a co-op element to StarCraft II can start drowning yourselves now: there isn't one.
VG247: LAN in future Blizzard games? Really not. Blizzard boss Rob Pardo's given a very solid indication that offline networking for the hoi polloi in the firm's games is no more.
Destructoid:
Blizzard Goes Crazy on Twitter!
Following the news from yesterday, about StarCraft II's lead character voice actress, IncGamers.com has delved further into this hot topic.
Gamingshogun.com writes: "Blizzard Entertainment has joined the Twitterverse by started three new (and official) Twitter accounts for their main IPs: World of Warcraft, Diablo, and StarCraft. This, just a couple weeks before their BlizzCon epic-event in Anaheim where it is expected that they will announced a new expansion to their MMORPG, World of Warcraft..."
Razer and Blizzard announced gaming hardware and merchandise products for Starcraft 2. There will be a Starcraft 2 mouse, keyboard and headset as well as a specila PC case, a backpack. The Zerg Messenger bag has already been pictured but is not final yet.
The voice actor for Kerrigan in StarCraft II might be Karen Strassman instead of the original Glynnis Talken Campbell.
There's still no confirmed release date for StarCraft II (we now know it'll be out in the first half of 2010), but the long-awaited sequel is already casting a large shadow. While EA Los Angeles is hard at work on rival RTS Command & Conquer 4, producer Jim Vessella is well aware of the competition from Blizzard.
In an interview with Strategy Informer, EA LA's producer Jim Vessella said that Blizzard's Starcraft II will be a great boom for the RTS genre and is excited to see how everyone reacts to it when it's released.
While Diablo III will not be released any time soon, it's comforting for anyone looking forward to the game to know that Blizzard has given its assurance that Starcraft II's delay will have no significant impact on the schedule of the company's other games, including Diablo III.
There have been many rumors about that Ozzy Osbourne will be performing at BlizzCon 2009, well now it is confirmed by DirectTV.
Blizzard Q2 2009 Conference Call Transcript
GrE writes, "Big surprise, another big name fall release has been delayed until 2010. Even though Starcraft 2 had never been given an official release date, there had been some hope that we would be playing it before Christmas. Sadly, Activision-Blizzard has assured us that we won't see the title until 2010. These are the top 10 reasons why the game was delayed..."
Activision Blizzard's second quarter results have put paid to pontifications by analysts such as Jess Lubert over at Brean Murray. Earlier this year Murray stated, "Even without Starcraft I think Activision should be able to get to their current guidance for the year. But without Starcraft getting an upside to that number might be challenging."