BlizzCon 2009 announced
by Adam Holisky 
Feb 17th 2009 at 12:10PM
This year's BlizzCon will feature:
- Hands-on play time with upcoming Blizzard Entertainment games
- Discussion panels with Blizzard Entertainment developers
- Competitive and casual tournaments for players to showcase their talents
- Community contests with great prizes
- Commemorative merchandise based on Blizzard Entertainment's game universes
- A silent auction
- More exciting activities and attractions to be announced
And to clarify a few things: there is no announcement about the mysterious unannounced MMO that Jeff Kaplan is now working on, and there is no announcement about the third expansion. At least no announcements yet.
Ticketing information is not available at this time. As soon as we have any information on ticket prices, availability, and methods of purchase, we'll let you know.
Filed under: News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
matt Feb 17th 2009 12:19PM
Meh
Kolo Feb 17th 2009 12:19PM
Gief WWI in London plox
Arlen Feb 17th 2009 12:24PM
I wonder if DirecTV will be covering the event again.
Slaytanic Feb 17th 2009 12:26PM
Clearly they didn't learn their lesson from last year.
1) Move the Convention to San Diego, where their Convention Hall is 3 times the size of Anaheim.
2) Actually allow someone who sells tickets FOR A LIVING (like Ticketmaster) to handle ticket sales, Blizzard's site simply can't handle it. And it won't. We're gonna see the same wretched grief from last time. 1 million requests for 30,000 tickets. Instant crash, guaranteed.
Wulfhere Feb 17th 2009 12:28PM
Not likely they'll move it out of Anaheim, since they're headquartered there: providing that kind of tourist boost to the city = clout when it comes to decisions on zoning and other economic issues that might affect them.
Necrotica Feb 17th 2009 12:35PM
Not to mention if they contract it out to Ticketmaster, I bet they lose 25% of the ticket sale as commission.
Jack Kelly Feb 17th 2009 12:43PM
Tickets would be $100.
Then Ticketmaster will charge $25 extra EACH for handling and then another $5 to e-mail them to you.
While agree with you that Blizzard needs to solve the "failoc" issue, I hate Ticketmaster with every fiber of my being.
I'm also not liking it to be in August. Flights will be costlier as well as hotel rooms. Peak vacation season FTL.
Elvrag Feb 17th 2009 10:53PM
No! I live less than a mile away from the Anaheim Convencion Center!
msingletary Feb 18th 2009 8:46AM
They're actually in Irvine, which is not Anaheim but still WAY closer than San Diego. The layout of the Anaheim Convention Center is way better than San Diego in my opinion and I really like the fact that they keep it in Anaheim.
I live about 10 minutes away from the Anaheim Convention Center and get a hotel next to it every year for BlizzCon. I wouldn't mind driving to San Diego for BlizzCon and doing the same thing (I did it for ComicCon) if there were some benefit to it, but I don't believe there is.
San Diego is great for non-centralized conventions like ComicCon because every vendor, exhibitor, etc... is doing their own thing. At BlizzCon these are either Blizzard or companies that make stuff based on Blizzard franchises and the layout of the Anaheim Convention Center keeps everything really easy to access. It's literally a straight line walk from one end of the Convention Center to the other. It's great.
Cheers, Blizzard. I look forward to wasting another day at work when the tickets go on sale. I spent (literally) all day last year buying tickets to go and plan to do the same thing this year if I have to. Hopefully things will return to the way they were in 2007 where I had tickets within minutes of them going on sale, instead of nearly 8 hours later like last year.
toddcore Feb 19th 2009 4:10PM
Clearly you don't work in the entertainment industry and therefore have to frequently work with (or around) Ticketmaster's incompetency. Even still, I would expect that by now most people who regularly attend any type of concert/convention/event would have learned that the Ticketmaster name guarantees at the very least you'll be ripped off to the tune of 25-40% and that's IF they hold their infrastructure together long enough to actually sell you a ticket.
Ticketmaster regularly makes last year's Blizzcon shenanigans look like a walk in the park, the only difference is people have learned to expect such poor service and outrageous fees from Ticketmaster whereas people expect nothing less than perfection from Blizzard, which speaks to their regular quality of service I think.
Sella Feb 17th 2009 12:29PM
Looking forward to it. I'm just hoping the online ticket purchasing actually works. Last year=FAIL.
Nathan Feb 17th 2009 12:29PM
Sweet. I hope I can make it again!
AlexW573 Feb 17th 2009 12:30PM
Source? Where has Blizzard said this?
Adam Holisky Feb 17th 2009 12:33PM
http://eu.blizzard.com/en/press/090217.html
Try refreshing the article and clicking on the source link.
We would not break this news without it being verified or from a unquestionable source (like Blizzard's website).
AlexW573 Feb 17th 2009 12:40PM
Thanks a lot, I just never believe something like this until I see it officially :) (and I couldn't find it on the American site)
moroni Feb 17th 2009 12:32PM
I cant believe this until I see it from blizzard.
There is no indication anywhere else other than inc gamers's website
Adam Holisky Feb 17th 2009 12:35PM
Click the source link. Do you honestly think we'd push false information like this?
Steve Feb 17th 2009 2:15PM
Blizzard has a video showing how the ticket purchasing will work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_wV6ax3FKI
moroni Feb 17th 2009 12:37PM
Ok. I was wrong.
I found the press release at yahoos biz site
http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/090217/20090217005199.html?.v=1
Wonder when they are going to announce it on one of their sites...
Adam Holisky Feb 17th 2009 12:40PM
Blizzard is notorious for not being able to coordinate press announcements between the EU and US. Our guess is we'll see the US announcement later today.
And either way, it's all just good information for those of us who want to know. =)