Posted in: Movies | Tagged: blizzard, Blizzcon 2014, entertainment, film, Hearthstone, Starcraft, video games, world of warcraft

Blizzcon 2014 – The Opening Ceremony

Blizzcon is like no other convention I've been to, and this is my second. The first time I went was 2007, I had just started playing World of Warcraft and I covered it for a different website at the time. I was amazed how a single company could fill two halls at the Anaheim Convention Center. Seven years later, a few more expansions and Blizzard Entertainment is filling all the halls in the Anaheim Convention Center. This is the same location that hosts Wondercon and is the location that comes up whenever folks talk about moving Comic-Con. This isn't a small place.

The floor is set up in a few different sections. Hall D is the main panel and it's huge. This is where the opening ceremonies were held and where Metallica will be playing during the closing ceremonies… did I forget to mention that they close the con with a rock concert?

The rest of the convention center is filled with places where you can play the latest versions of their games including one that was just announced that day… and places to host the world tournaments for those games.

The opening ceremonies were a celebration of 20 years since Warcraft came out and 1o years since World of Warcraft debuted. But the very first thing mentioned was the recent gamergate situation and a call to show the positive side of gaming and gamers. To show the inclusiveness of Blizzards family of players.

They also announced there will be a new charity pack that will be debuting in December with 100% of the proceeds to go to the Red Cross to fight Ebola.

The announcements made started with Heroes of the Storm starting closed beta on January 13, 2015.

Then we heard that Hearthstone will be available in December on Android. There will also be a new expansion called Goblins vs Gnomes next month. The set will have 120 new cards including Explosive Sheep and Annoyatron.

Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void will be the final chapter in the trilogy and will be a stand-alone product. A good place to start playing Starcraft II. The crowd erupted with cheers when it was mentioned that the Lurker was back.

They then showed a cartoon introduction for Overwatch, the first new franchise from Blizzard in 17 years. It's a team based multiplayer shooter that we covered on the website yesterday.

They also mentioned the progress of the movie, but I'll cover that on its own.

Here are some photos from Blizzcon.

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