BlizzCon 2010 Opening Ceremony liveblog
BlizzCon 2010 is upon us and, as is customary, Blizzard will use its Opening Ceremony keynote to kick off the event – of course, WoW Insider already kicked things off last night at its annual meetup, but let's not stray too far from the purpose of this post.
Things get underway, right here, at 11AM PT (we've posted handy alternative time zones for you below). Check back then for all the latest from Blizzard: from the impending WoW expansion, Cataclysm, to future StarCraft 2 installments, to the much-anticipated Diablo 3. Maybe something about that long-in-development unnamed MMO? Well, that would be nice, wouldn't it?
08:00AM - Hawaii
11:00AM - Pacific
12:00PM - Mountain
01:00PM - Central
02:00PM - Eastern
07:00PM - London
08:00PM - Paris
10:00PM - Moscow
03:00AM - Tokyo (October 23)
11:55AM It's the same Cataclysm cinematic that we saw earlier this week. And that's it – everyone's getting up and going. What'dja think?
11:51AM "Where the WarCraft fans at?" We're being treated to a Cataclysm trailer.
11:48AM We snagged most of the slick trailer, we'll have it up on the site soon. Also just announced: PvP battle arenas, getting a video tour of that now. There's team-based action, and all sorts of other things you'd expect from a modern multiplayer component. This is Blizzard we're talking about after all.
11:46AM The new class is the Demon Hunter!
11:42AM "With all of that having been said, we've got some business to discuss. Diablo fans, where are you at?" The audience coos, accordingly. "For the last four years, we've been debuting the latest playable classes for Diablo 3. In mere seconds, we'll be showing you the fifth and final player class for Diablo 3."
11:41AM With that exercise wrapped up, Metzen says we're about to get onto Phase 2 of the operation. "The truest spirit of BlizzCon is you. This is about our collective geekiness." Called it! "I want to welcome you once again to BlizzCon! Thank you for being here."
11:39AM The audience is eating up the geek references – seems like a lot of work to convince everyone of what a geek is. This is a gaming convention about a PC game developer that makes RTS and MMO games. We half expect them to reveal: "GEEK IS: YOU!"
11:36AM GEEK IS: "Exploring the vast, unexplored lands of EverQuest with your friends." Wow. "Respect must be paid," he says.
11:35AM GEEK IS: Samurai Showdown 2, "the best fighting game ever made, get off of me Street Fighter." GEEK IS: Luke Skywalker in a flight suit. GEEK IS: Frank Miller's Batman. GEEK IS: The Matrix. GEEK IS: Spider-Man. This geek is getting tired ...
11:33AM Geek is Samurai Showdwon 2.
11:32AM Geek is Captain America.
11:32AM Geek is crushing your enemies. Shot of Conan.
11:32AM Geek is critting on a natural 20.
11:31AM Geek is growing up playing with toys.
11:30AM Metzen is going on about the power of words. Especially one: GEEK.
11:30AM Metzen is playing a game with the crowd, shouting out words to the crowd. "Horde" is one. "StarCraft" another. There's a final word, Metzen says teasing the crowd. "Are you ready for this word, BlizzCon? Are you with me BlizzCon?" The word?
11:25AM Diablo 3 update from Chris Metzen.
11:24AM Morhaime announces WoW: Cataclysm will be preordered as a digital download from Blizzard.
11:22AM Morhaime hyping the events and booths to see at BlizzCon: Jay Mohr, WoW author Christie Golden at the booth, Tenacious D!
11:20AM Starlslayer and Fruitdealer SC2 battle tonight.
11:18AM It's montage city, a video stream showing off various goings-on in the world of Blizzard over the last year.
11:18AM Video review of BlizzCon 2009. Cataclysm announcement, costume and dance contest. StarCraft 2 global launch.
11:16AM "To date, more than 91 million ranked StarCraft 2 matches have been played on the new Battle.net." And people were worried about LAN support? He's discussing the booming StarCraft 2 e-sports scene, name dropping Korea of course. "Let's take a look back at some of the highlights, starting with BlizzCon 2009."
"This hasn't been a good year for the Lich King. Thanks to you, Arthas has been slain 489,000 times," Morhaime said. That's all? Pfft. He said it's been a double rainbow year for Blizzard, referencing the now legendary YouTube video. "What does it mean?"
11:11AM Morhaime just detailed four custom StarCraft 2 gametypes, including "Blizzard DotA" and "Left2Die" – he said all of them will be coming to StarCraft via Battle.net for free. That's $0, folks.
11:05AM Mike Morheim, CEO of Blizzard, is getting introduced now.
11:03AM Gary Planter, Blizzard's lead artist is on stage and working the crowd. Tell people to behave, keep their seats, etc...
11:01AM Trailers running for Diablo, StarCraft, and Cataclysm running.
10:58AM They're about to start. Deckard Caine reminding us to turn off our cell phones.
10:56AM Tons of cos players this year, we think even more than last year.
10:54AM The stage looks very Cataclysm-like. Lots of orange lights with WoW music playing.
10:52AM Blizzard has setup tons of large screens showing the main stage. The room is too big for most people to see anything, so the big screens help a ton.
10:42AM Everyone is talking about a surprise announcement at the opening ceremony. No indication that we'll get any, but we can always hope!
10:31AM We met a lady who is 54 years old and has been playing WoW for six years. She didn't have any hard candy to give us, but she's still cool.
10:26AM The line in is moving, but very slowly. Every time it moves and stops, thousands of people go "Awww!"
10:02AM We're here at BlizzCon 2010! Opening ceremony will start in about an hour. Lots of people already waiting.
