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Blizzard's splash screen changes for June 26th
The saga of the icy splash screen continues, as the newest splash screen has just gone live on Blizzard's sites under the file name ice4.jpg. This time, the ice has cracked away even further, revealing more of the night sky, and what looks to be a face coalescing from the ice flecks and vapor in the middle of the picture. The identity of the face isn't clear, although Alex thinks it may be a Protoss Archon. We've also received this very intriguing picture from tipster Pact, which shows the face overlaid with a picture of Diablo from the Diablo 2 box. Of course, it's worth noting that it could simply be Arthas' eyes as well, peering out from his helmet. As expected, a new rune has appeared as well, bringing the tally to four. This rune, located to the lower right of the cracking ice, looks like nothing so much as a miniature solar system model -- perhaps related to this model seen during April Fool's? Diablofans.com has suggested it may be a top-down view of an Arcane Sanctum from Warcraft 3 and WoW (You can see one at the Scryer's base in Shadowmoon) as well. As also expected, a new piece of the strange purple monster has appeared as well. It appears to be the hindquarters of the beast. So far, I'm still sticking to my belief that it's some sort of purple penguin. This file was named 16.jpg, which, if we follow the alphabet conversion method we've been using for previous pieces, gives us the letter "P." "Powd" is the best I can get out of that. Does that mean this picture is that of a new mascot named "Powder the penguin"? As usual, you can see all of these graphics in our splash screen speculation gallery, which is constantly being updated with new speculation and analysis as the WWI draws nearer. %Gallery-25975% There's more analysis to come after the break.
Amidst speculation, Blizzard VP implies completely new game
Blizzard fans all over the internet have worked themselves up into a frenzy over a vague splash screen at the company's website -- a melting wall of ice adorned with rune or sigil-like markings. Everyone's speculating. Is it Diablo 3? Maybe it's just a promo for Wrath of the Lich King. After all, the ice motif seems to fit, right?Maybe not. During a Q&A session at GDC Paris 08, Blizzard VP Rob Pardo was asked to comment on "the new game." He replied saying, "So you want me to announce the game before the announcement?" That was a classic press conference or Q&A blunder; you're not supposed to accept the premise of an unwanted or hostile question!
Ron Pardo hints at a new game announcement at Paris GDC
As you may recall, Rob Pardo was the keynote speaker at this week's GDC in Paris, only days before the Worldwide Invitational in the same city. He delivered a speech laden with a lot of insight into his and Blizzard's inner workings and philosophy, but not much in the way of new information about WoTLK, as Natalie reported yesterday. However, Gamesindustry.biz is reporting that Pardo did let a rather major piece of information slip in the final Q&A session that wrapped up on the conference. It looks like there may be a new game announcement at the Invitational later this week after all. Someone asked Pardo to comment on the Diablo 3 rumors that have been whizzing around the net lately. "So you want me to announce the game before our announcement?" he said. "No offense, but I think there's like 300 people here, and I'll be ripped apart by 8000 people there [at the Invitational] if I pre-announce it - but it's going to be really exciting. I think everybody here will be really excited about the announcement." Luckily, among those 8000 people at the Worldwide Invitational will be three of our own, so you can expect WoW Insider will be on top of this announcement when it drops. In the meantime, be sure to check our in-depth analysis of the latest changes to Blizzard's splash screen, which is almost certainly a teaser for this announcement. [Thanks for the forward, Centipede!]
Don't expect World of Warcraft on the PS3 or Xbox 360 ever
Blizzard Entertainment's Rob Pardo is a bona fide Rockstar in the gaming industry. In his recent keynote speech at the Game Developer's Conference at the Paris GDC he continued to indirectly extinguish rumors that suggested World of Warcraft is coming to a Console, rumors that stretch back years. While not specifically talking about World of Warcraft, when Pardo was asked what kept MMOs from Consoles he responded: "Lack of hard drive space, and difficulty in certifying patches. Basically just that.... another problem is that they want a piece of the subscriptions (laughs)." That's a simplistic answer coming from the Executive VP of Design at Blizzard Entertainment, but there it is laid out in plain sight, a truth even if shared in a humorous fashion. Giving Microsoft or Sony residuals, most likely a big chunk is one thing keeping World of Warcraft off Consoles. Is that a bad thing? No, but Blizzard could be missing something here, and just maybe Rob Pardo is plain wrong about what's keeping MMOs away from Consoles. It's simple really...
World of Warcraft originally planned as free-to-play
Blizzard's own Rob Pardo recently dropped something of a bombshell about World of Warcraft at the Paris GDC event when he revealed in a keynote that the game was originally planned as a free-to-play experience. He also adds that, "We didn't want to charge a subscription, but as we researched market conditions, we realized that wouldn't support us." Pardo also discussed how Blizzard drove into the MMO genre in astonishingly tongue-in-cheek fashion: "Very naively, or else we might not have done it." The notion of a free-to-play World of Warcraft makes us wonder just how the game would have panned out had Blizzard stuck to their original plan. Might MMOs have become as big a business as they are nowadays? Who knows, but it's fun to think about the possibilities nonetheless.You can find the rest of Pardo's discussions within Gamasutra's website. He discussses everything under the sun in relation to Blizzard. Multiple franchises, the Activivision-Blizzard merger and making communties for games are just a few of the many topics covered.
EA Sports peripherals due in next year, bundled
EA Sports executive producer and VP David McCarthy has revealed that Moore's division plans to create and bundle peripherals with some of its sports games. "I think you'll see games using that Rock Band peripheral strategy from EA Sports, even within the next 12 months," McCarthy teased during his Paris GDC lecture, reports Gamasutra.According to additional comments McCarthy made to Next-Gen, it would seem that EA Sports is specifically focused on developing plastic shells peripherals for Wii. "One of the things we're doing is looking at just playing with the Wii remote in a different way, using a whole new peripheral that's out there, kind of thing. So, basically enabling control for the user in a much different way," McCarthy said, adding, "we are prototyping stuff that really does allow us to play with the Wii remote differently." McCarthy promised that something would be shown to the public in the next few months, maybe as soon as E3.Source - GamasutraSource - Next-Gen
Rob Pardo to speak at Paris GDC in June
At the Paris Game Developers Conference this year, we will have the pleasure of hearing from Blizzard's Senior Vice President of game design, Rob Pardo. He will be presenting a keynote Q&A entitled "In the Eye of the Blizzard", where he will discuss his inspirations, challenges and his future at Blizzard Entertainment with interviewer Jamil Moledina, the executive director of GDC Events.Rob is certainly no stranger to game conference keynotes, as he has recently shown at the San Francisco GDC, but it will be interesting to hear his newest keynote interview where he will address the important topic that most game developers have on their minds: how to win at the game of creating a money-making MMO.The Paris GDC will offer over 50 sessions this year, and will be held on June 23-24th at the Coeur Defense Convention Centre in Paris, France.
Rob Pardo to keynote at the Paris Game Developers Conference
Blizzard's Rob Pardo, Senior Vice President of Game Design, has been recruited to keynote the Paris GDC this summer, which will take place on June 23rd and 24th at the at the Coeur Défense Convention Centre in Paris. He'll participate in a Q&A session in which he will discuss his inspirations and challenges, as well as Blizzard's future plans. The official press release should appear soon on the Paris GDC site. The Paris GDC will be taking place a few days before Blizzard's World Wide Invitational in the same city. We're expecting a lot of choice WoTLK news to drop there, but certainly, Pardo may say something juicy ahead of time at the Paris GDC, and we'll be sure to find out if he does.
