Every year in October, a gathering of nerds happens down in the southern part of Los Angeles County. A gathering for one specific game developer: Blizzard Entertainment. This year–for the first time since 2006–Blizzard will not host their famous weekend-long convention. What will their fanboys do instead of making their yearly hajj? Maybe, they’ll step outside of their own house to get a breather instead of that smoggy LA air.
Why does it help that BlizzCon isn’t happening? Well, gamers won’t have to deal with having to pay for a hotel and airplane to LA and back to wherever they live. That’ll save about $500 for the average American that might fly out to the event. It’s not a lot, but it’ll help you pay for games and expansion packs that are coming out this year.
In December, World of Warcraft’s 4.3 patch came online leading to the final climax of the Cataclysm era for the MMO. As the hardcore WoW fans are already burnt out (as they’ve uncovered and beaten every bit of content left in the game), there isn’t much left to do until either November and December when “Mists of Pandaria” finally gets a release. You’ll have another few months of content, which will keep you occupied until a probable announcement of what Project Titan is.
A couple of weeks ago, the Korean Game Ratings Board gave Diablo III an official rating. Giving the game an equivalent of a Mature rating, the title is technically ready for release in Korea minus the game’s auction house. Obviously, Blizzard wants to get that extra money so they are going to change it so it will be approved by the KGRB. According to the board’s rating though, it was only for the PC version. Blizzard is probably working on the console version so they can release the game on all platforms at the same time internationally.
Released about eighteen months ago, Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty was a success before it’s retail release, as the game was in a public multiplayer beta for at least four months. While the game is consistently played internationally and is a main game for the e-sports scene; Starcraft II is due to release two different expansion packs, according to word from Blizzard. Sometime during 2012, fans expect the next expansion, “Heart of the Swarm,” to release internationally. While Blizzard has not set a timeline for release, information has been confirmed about removal and additions of certain units for multiplayer. You’ll never see a Mothership rush again after the expansion.
Though BlizzCon is not happening this year, it was announced yesterday morning that the 2012 Battle.net World Championship will still happen. As there has not been a venue or date specified for the tournament according to the post on Battle.net, more details will be set for the tournament that usually takes place during BlizzCon itself. Once again, WouldYouKindly will keep you up to date on all the things you need to know about Blizzard from time to time.
As Johhny Cullen of VG247 says, “people shouldn’t panic over the loss of the most enthusiastic fan event in gaming’s calendar”. You are going to have plenty of other games to play as well, because Blizzard isn’t the only game developer in the world. We have a new Halo and Call of Duty coming out to fill your time in between titles. Oh… also I think there is a thing called indie gaming. You should probably support indies, since they are creating almost all the innovation for the industry.
