BlizzCon 2015 kicks off with its opening ceremony at 2 p.m. EST (11 a.m. PST) today, and Massively OP liveblogged the festivities down in the comments. Now that it’s over, we’ve updated the end of this post with the highlights.
The opening ceremony is being streamed for free, even if you don’t have a virtual ticket, and you can watch it yourself on the BlizzCon site or on Blizzard’s Twitch channel. Many of the other panels do require a virtual ticket, so stay tuned for additional liveblogs and news posts tonight and tomorrow as we cover those.
Highlights (timestamps are in EST):
2:05: Mike Morhaime on stage. Hoopla! Warcraft II 20th anniversary, dang! He thanks everyone for donating to Blizzard’s charitable causes. December proceeds for Brightpaw the Mana Kitty will go to the Make-A-Wish foundation.
2:09: Morhaime is running down all the games. Diablo III in China, Overwatch beta. “E-sports should be on every TV.”
2:11: StarCraft: Legacy of the Void trailer showing. LOTV is a standalone product.
2:14: StarCraft II mission packs with new content are on the way. Teaser video! The first one’s called Nova and will release spring 2016.
2:18: E-sports trailer. /drink
2:22: Movie talk! Duncan Jones, Warcraft movie director, is coming onstage, followed by a slew of lead actors.
2:24: Here comes the world-premiere of the Warcraft movie trailer! It lands June 10th, 2016.
2:27: Dustin Browder onstage to hype Heroes of the Storm. Announcing HOTS: Arena, a game mode with “not a lot of rules.” New trailer, plus Genn Greymane; Lunara, a dryad; and a new map with WoW’s Headless Horseman, Towers of Doom — all on the way. There’a also Cho’Gall, two-headed ogre, controlled by two co-op separate players.
2:37: Hearthstone game director Eric Dodds onstage. New Hearthstone adventure on the way: The League of Explorers, in the style of a 1950s adventure movie trailer featuring WoW’s Bronzebeard and crew. Also something about a Golden Monkey. It launches in Thursday, and it’s playable now.
2:47: Overwatch’s Jeff Kaplan is up. Three new heroes announced — Genji, Mei,D.Va — plus a new map, Hollywood. Trailer time! Everything’s playable today at the show.
2:56: Origins edition will have five special skins: Strike Commander Morrison, Overgrown Bastion, Blackwatch Reyes, Security Chief Farah, Slipstream Tracer. New video! Yes, it’s coming on PC, Xbox One, PS4. Spring 2016. Pre-purchase now.
https://amp.twimg.com/v/dcf616e7-dd29-4244-a72c-9cd48d6f076b
3:02: Here comes Chris Metzen. It’s WoW Legion time! “Are you guys ready to play Demon Hunters?” He’s showing the intro cinematic for Legion.
3:12: So that was the best WoW cinematic I’ve seen in like a decade. Dude, Sylvanas.
3:13: You can preorder Legion now and get Demon Hunter access.
That’s it everyone! We’ll be liveblogging the Legion panel here.
