This August brought us to gamescom 2009 in Cologne, Germany. At gamescom, we hosted many events, including raids with members of the guilds “For the Horde” and “Ensidia”. In addition to these live raids, there were Q&A quizzes, levelling contests, and hands-on demos of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and Diablo III. To get a feel for the atmosphere at gamescom, check out our extensive coverage of the event, including our photo gallery and an exclusive interview with “For the Horde.”

During the opening ceremony of BlizzCon 2009, we revealed Diablo III's fourth playable class: the monk, a skilled holy warrior of unparalleled dexterity. Armed with speed, holy fervor, and the drive to achieve physical and spiritual perfection, the monk becomes a deadly apparition in the heat of battle, moving faster than the eye can follow to strike down enemies with a barrage of lightning-fast blows.

To find out more about Sanctuary's newest champion, check out the video introduction. You can also visit the new monk page to read an entry from the journal of Abd al-Hazir and watch videos of the monk in action.

The fourth BlizzCon has begun! The two-day celebration of Blizzard Entertainment games and the passionate communities of players surrounding them is now underway at the Anaheim Convention Center, and we're inviting everyone at home to follow along with the exciting events and announcements at www.blizzcon.com. We'll be updating the site throughout the convention with breaking news, updates from the developer panels, and photos from the show floor, contests, and other activities. We'll also be broadcasting streaming video of the tournaments taking place throughout BlizzCon, so be sure to check back often over the next couple of days.

If you're looking for up-to-the-minute coverage, you can also catch us on Twitter by following @Diablo, @Warcraft, and @StarCraft. For those watching on DIRECTV Pay Per View or via the Internet stream, don’t forget to tweet us suggestions for what you’d like to see covered using the #BlizzConDTV tag.

You want to be one of the first in Europe to get your hands on the brand new single player mode of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty or the first playable demo of Diablo III? Or maybe both? Then come and join us at the gamescom 2009 at the Blizzard Entertainment booth ( Hall 6, booth C20/B21) in Cologne, Germany!

Participate in our contests and quizzes such as knowledge Q&A’s or Death Knight levelling contests and you could win valuable prizes by Razer, SteelSeries or Panini. Watch the World of Warcraft raids on Friday and Saturday performed live on-stage by the top guilds Ensidia and For the Horde.

Additionally, our recruiters will be at the booth ready to answer your questions about recruitment and working at Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard Europe currently has numerous positions open in Quality Assurance, Localization, Customer Support and other departments in our offices in Velizy, France (near Paris) and Cork, Ireland. We’re looking for Italian, Polish, Russian, German, French, Spanish, and English language speakers. Bring your CV and talk to us about our employment opportunities.

We look forward to welcoming friends both old and new to our booth which is open to the public from Thursday 20 August until Sunday 23 August.

This Friday marks the beginning of BlizzCon 2009, and thousands of players will be making the trek to the Anaheim Convention Center to enjoy a weekend full of gaming, tournaments, panels, contests, and more. If you're interested in watching the sold-out show, don't forget that you still have a few days to order your "virtual ticket," available via Internet stream. This package comes with 18 hours of live coverage, including the closing concert with Ozzy Osbourne, as well as the exclusive BlizzCon 2009 in-game pet, Grunty the murloc marine.

StarCraft II's Jim Raynor, terran hero, outlaw, and leader of Raynor's Raiders, will be making a rare exclusive appearance at this year's BlizzCon. Standing 6,25 inches tall, dressed in his signature StarCraft II battle suit, and sporting an oversized Gauss rifle, Raynor is the debut piece in a new line of Blizzard Entertainment-inspired designer vinyl toys known as n00bz.

The Raynor figure can be found exclusively inside this year’s BlizzCon goody bag and won't be available anywhere else. When interviewed about the honor, the good captain had only this to say: "I don’t play nice with others." You can check out images of this year's Raynor figure, along with a preview of other n00bz that will be available for purchase at BlizzCon, on the goody bag page.

Members of our recruitment team will be at the Blizzard booth during gamescom 2009 to answer your questions about life as a Blizzard employee. Blizzard Europe currently has numerous open positions in quality assurance, localization, customer support and other departments in our offices in Vélizy, France (near Paris) and Cork, Ireland. We’re looking for Italian, Polish, Russian, German, French, Spanish and English speakers. You can find out about all our open positions in Europe here.

So come to Cologne from 20 to 23 August armed with your CV and a passion for forging great games! We look forward to seeing you there.

We’re pleased to announce that Blizzard Entertainment will be attending gamescom 2009 in Cologne, Germany next month. We look forward to welcoming old friends and new to our booth, which will feature hands-on gameplay with our upcoming games. Our booth is open to the public from Thursday 20 August until Sunday 23 August.

We will be revealing more information on our activities during the show in the coming weeks. You can find out more about what gamescom has to offer, and how to get there, at http://www.gamescom-cologne.com/

Our recruiters will be at the booth ready to answer your questions about recruitment and working at Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard Europe currently has numerous open positions in quality assurance, localization, customer support and other departments in our offices in Velizy, France (near Paris) and Cork, Ireland. We’re looking for Italian, Polish, Russian, German, French, Spanish and English speakers. Bring your CV along and talk to us about our employment opportunities.

The first Blizzard Entertainment global creative writing contest has been judged and the winning entries chosen. After poring over nearly 17 million words, our judges have decided on one grand prize winner and seven runners-up. Take a moment to enjoy the ideas and creative stories of all the winning entries.

The grand prize winner will visit the company headquarters to meet and eat with the Blizzard Entertainment creative writing staff, and will receive a Frostmourne sword. The seven runners-up will be sent signed copies of the Diablo Archive, Warcraft Archive, StarCraft Archive, and Warcraft War of the Ancients Archive.

The second and final allotment of tickets for BlizzCon 2009 has now been sold out. We look forward to seeing all attendees in Anaheim, California! For those unable to attend in-person, online coverage of BlizzCon will also be offered via a DIRECTV Pay Per View event as an Internet video stream.

If you were unable to purchase BlizzCon tickets during the first round of ticket sales, we just wanted to remind you that our second batch of BlizzCon 2009 tickets will be going on sale Saturday, May 30. Ticket sales are again scheduled to begin on Saturday at 19:00 CEST, so be sure to visit the ticket sales page then for a chance to get yours.

BlizzCon 2009 will take place August 21 and 22 at the Anaheim Convention Center, and tickets cost $125 each. For those unable to attend the show, in-depth coverage of BlizzCon will also be available as a Pay Per View Internet stream. For more information about the convention and the Internet stream, check out the official BlizzCon site.

The Diablo 3 Bestiary now features not one, not two, but five new creatures from the realm of Sanctuary: the Fallen Ones.

The fallen ones are a unique breed of true demonic origin, one of the few that I've been able to conclusively verify through sources other than the ancient Vizjerei tomes in my possession. (How I came by said tomes will, of necessity, remain my secret.)

Check out the Fallen Ones now! We've also expanded the media galleries with new artwork and several new screenshots.

The initial allotment of tickets for BlizzCon 2009 has now been sold out. If you weren’t able to get tickets this time, you’ll have a second chance on Saturday, May 30, as another batch will go on sale then. Coverage of the gaming festival will also be offered by DIRECTV as a Pay Per View event, available both via satellite and Internet stream.

Just in case Saturday, May 16 isn’t circled on your calendar, here’s a quick reminder that BlizzCon tickets will be going on sale tomorrow. After our gnomish engineers in Southern California get to work and finish making the final preparations late Saturday morning, they’ll activate the ticket-purchase process and BlizzCon tickets will officially go on sale. If you are unable to purchase tickets tomorrow, a second batch of tickets will go on sale May 30. And for those unable to attend the show, in-depth coverage of BlizzCon will also be offered by DIRECTV as a Pay Per View event, available both via satellite and Internet stream.

BlizzCon 2009 will take place August 21 and 22 at the Anaheim Convention Center, and tickets cost $125 each. For further information about the convention, check out the official BlizzCon site, and keep an eye on the ticket sales page tomorrow for the chance to get yours.

The StarCraft II beta-test period is coming in the months ahead! If you’d like a chance to participate, now’s the time to let us know. Simply log in to your Battle.net account, and click “Beta Profile Settings” to go through the new beta opt-in process and upload a snapshot of your system specs. During this process, you’ll also have the opportunity to opt in to future betas for other Blizzard Entertainment games. Please note that even if you’ve opted in to our betas previously, you’ll need to complete this new process and upload your current system specs to have a chance to be invited.

For more information, see the FAQ -- or create a Battle.net account to opt in now. If you have an unused beta code from BlizzCon 2008 or WWI 2008, visit this site to enter your code.

Tickets to this year's BlizzCon gaming convention, being held on August 21 and 22 in Anaheim, California, will go on sale worldwide on Saturday, May 16 for $125 each, with a second block of tickets going on sale Saturday, May 30.

For those unable to attend, DIRECTV will once again be televising BlizzCon in high definition as a Pay Per View event, featuring coverage from the show floor, exclusive interviews, demos, and more. In addition, for the first time, players around the world will be able to watch the DIRECTV BlizzCon event as a Pay Per View Internet stream.

Check out the press release for further details, and head over to www.blizzard.com/blizzcon on May 16 or May 30 to buy your tickets. Please note that tickets should be purchased in US dollars either from the official BlizzCon US website or through the US Blizzard Store.

We hope you enjoyed our April Fools' Day events. If you missed them, check out this year's jokes:

• New World of Warcraft Feature: P1mp My Mount
• New StarCraft II Unit: Terra-tron
• Diablo III: The Archivist

The Blizzard Entertainment Joke Team will see you again next year. Just kidding - we're always around waiting to pounce.

Out of the darkened studies of Westmarch emerges the archivist, Diablo III's newest playable class. Proving once and for all that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword, the archivist fights not only to save Sanctuary’s future, but its past as well.

To find out more, visit the brand-new archivist information page to read the latest excerpt from the journal of Abd al-Hazir and see some of the archivist's powers in action.

We've also expanded the media galleries with one new piece of artwork and two new screenshots.

If you enjoy the Blizzard Entertainment universes and have the drive to pen fantasy fiction in them, here’s your chance to shine. Whether you conjure stories in your free time or write for a living, you’re encouraged to enter and have the chance to win a free trip to Blizzard Entertainment headquarters in Southern California. This contest is open to entrants from around the world, though all submissions must be in English. For more information, head to the contest page or read the official rules.

The Diablo 3 Bestiary now features a new creature from the realm of Sanctuary: the unburied.

Something is dreadfully wrong. Fear is in the air; I can feel it. I was but days out of Tristram when I saw a screaming ball of flame rip across the sky. Surely enough, soon after witnessing this harbinger of doom, I stumbled upon a badly mangled traveler. He was barely able to spit out the tale of the cursed monstrosity responsible for his broken body as his life drifted away. He called his killer "the unburied".

Check out the unburied entry now!

We've also expanded the media galleries with three new pieces of artwork and nine new screenshots.

What would you do if you could design the Blizzard Entertainment theme park of your dreams? Here's your chance to show us! Blizzard Entertainment is challenging you to design a theme park, complete with rides and attractions based on the universes of Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo. Submissions will be judged on design creativity, artistry, and imaginative use of the lore and spirit of Blizzard games.

Winning entries will receive prizes including StarCraft II beta keys, a chance to have their entry displayed at BlizzCon 2009, and more.

The contest closes on March 30, 2009 so don’t delay! Learn more about the fabulous prizes and the contest details at the official contest page or read the official rules.

We have added four new Diablo III wallpapers to the media page.

Straight from the fiery pit come the all new Diablo III T-shirts! Delivered straight from Sanctuary, these shirts will provide (some minimal) protection against the heat and the cold as you journey through the realm, defeating the denizens of darkness. Get yours while you can!

We have added four new pieces of artwork and five new screenshots.

We have added three new pieces of artwork and seven new screenshots.

In the sixth epic episode of BlizzCast, we spend a day with a developer and find out what life is like for World of Warcraft Lead Tools Programmer Monte Krol. Next, we take a look at StarCraft II unit design from concept to creation with Senior Art Director Samwise Didier and Lead Game Designer Dustin Browder. In our third segment, Bashiok spends some time with Anthony Rivero, senior artist for Diablo III, and discusses “bridging the gap” in the series’ character design. Bornakk wraps the episode up by answering some questions from the community.

Listen to the show now or check out the transcript to see all the featured artwork.

The Blizzard iTunes page has been updated to include the official World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Soundtrack. The iTunes edition of the soundtrack contains a total of 21 tracks, including three exclusives -- "Path of the Lifewarden," "Shadow Web Caverns," and "Obsidian Sanctum" -- different from the three exclusive tracks found on the Collector's Edition soundtrack CD. Individual tracks are available on iTunes for 0.99 € each, or you can buy the entire album at once for 9.99 €. Click here to check out the soundtrack on iTunes, or head to the Blizzard iTunes page for more information -- and while you're there, check out the other Blizzard musical offerings, including soundtracks to Diablo II, StarCraft, and World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.

The assets in our official Diablo III Fansite Kit are a potential bonanza for those who wish to build their own Diablo III related fansites. This downloadable package contains the following content, including some exclusive assets:

• Art assets including concept art, hi-res logos, and wallpapers
• Site design elements including borders, backgrounds, fonts, and stylesheets
• Exclusive content: Forum avatars / Messenger images
• Diablo III fact sheet and FAQ
• Sample Diablo III text content
• Site building tips

Download the Diablo III Fansite Kit now!

At the Diablo III Class Design panel, game director Jay Wilson went into more detail about the game's third playable class, the wizard. A wielder of the elements and a master manipulator of time, the wizard combats the hordes of the Burning Hells by hurling environment-shattering lightning bolts, channeling explosive arcane energies, and creating pockets of space outside the normal flow of time.

To find out more, check out the video introduction or visit the brand-new wizard information page to read the latest excerpt from the journal of Abd al-Hazir and see some of the wizard's powers in action.

We've also expanded the media galleries with four new pieces of artwork and thirteen new screenshots.