The Anaheim Convention Center is readying for a gathering of elves, trolls, orcs and other creepies.
No, Halloween hasn’t come early.
Instead, thousands of wildly enthusiastic fans of Blizzard Entertainment Inc.’s massively popular online video games—many costumed as their favorite fantastical characters—are set to descend on Orange County for the company’s fifth annual fan convention.
BlizzCon 2010 is expected to draw nearly 30,000 fans of the company’s fantasy and science fiction-themed online game series, “Warcraft,” “StarCraft” and “Diablo.”
Irvine-based Blizzard, the county’s biggest software maker with $1.3 billion in yearly sales, puts on the event as a way to give back to its followers, according to Chief Operating Officer Paul Sams.
“This is a big show,” he said. “We are going to have more programs for the fans, more press and more people attending than ever before. Everyone is pretty darn excited about it.”
The two-day convention, which kicks off Friday, features play time with new Blizzard games, discussion panels with Blizzard game developers and artists, tournaments, a silent auction and the opportunity to stock up on exclusive Blizzard collectibles.
Other favorites are character contests where fans will be scored on their ability to look, sound and dance like their favorite monsters and heroes from the games.
Celebrity Host
Comedian and actor Jay Mohr is set to return to BlizzCon this year to serve as master of ceremonies for the live costume contest and other events.
Attendees also get hands-on playtime with soon-to-be-released Blizzard games, including “Diablo III” and “World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.”
Blizzard’s workers get a lot out of interacting with the biggest users of their products.
“We are able to hear directly from players—what they think and what they feel about the current products and future ones,” Sams said. “It’s a great kind of give and take.”
BlizzCon also stokes the fires of all the creative folks at Blizzard.
“We love interacting with the people there because there is such a high level of enthusiasm and excitement,” Sams said. “There’s like a monthlong afterglow post-BlizzCon.”
Some 20,000 tickets to the show, which go for $150 a pop, sold out within minutes in June.
“We estimate that we’ll have about 28,000 people in attendance over the two days,” Sams said. “And all of our management teams and development teams are going to be out in full force so they can interact with the players, many who will travel from around the world to be here.”
Players from some 60 countries were represented at past BlizzCons, Sams said.
“I would be stunned if we didn’t have representation from almost every continent,” he said.
Last year’s event was held in late August at the convention center and drew a similar-sized crowd.
Blizzard fans fielded months of rumors earlier this year, when word spread that the convention would jump ship for a bigger venue—in Las Vegas. Rumor had it that this year’s event was set to move to the Las Vegas Convention Center and take place at the end of July.
News got around fast after a handful of blogs and video game news websites posted the story that BlizzCon 2010 would be in Sin City.
Some die-hard fans even went so far as to snatch up cheap flights and hotel rooms.
Blizzard sought to quickly dispel online reports while remaining mum on its plans until the spring, when it announced BlizzCon would stay here and be moved to the October dates.
There were a number of reasons for the change of dates, with availability of the venue a key consideration.
“That’s one of the big pieces of the puzzle,” Sams said. “We didn’t know if we would be able to get the dates we wanted and the number of halls we wanted. There are very few open dates.”
It also made sense for the company’s schedule of product launches, according to Sams.
“It fits really nicely between our product releases,” he said. “Doing BlizzCon right after the ‘StarCraft’ release would have been challenging.”
The convention comes after the July release of “StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty,” the first in a trilogy of “StarCraft II” games that are a follow up to 1998’s “StarCraft.”
In December, Blizzard is set to release “World of Warcraft: Cataclysm,” the latest “expansion pack” addition to “World of Warcraft.” The first two expansion packs shattered PC game sales records when they were released.
Keeping the convention in Anaheim also ensured that more of Blizzard’s employees would attend.
“It’s close to home,” Sams said. “What’s nice about that is we will have a much larger selection of our employees and management attending.”
Sams said Blizzard also likes “the intimate feel” of the Anaheim Convention Center.
“Even though there are 20,000 people milling around, the setting does feel relatively intimate compared to some of the other big trade shows. It really feels right.”
BlizzCon takes up all four of the convention center’s halls. It builds out one end of the space with a massive stage, complete with stage lights and projection screens.
More Seating
The company is set to boost the seating at the main stage by 50% this year, Sams said.
It’s also set to add more ways for Blizzard fans who didn’t get tickets to watch the event. Blizzard has a deal with DirecTV to broadcast BlizzCon via pay-per-view television. It also streams it online.
This year’s BlizzCon will add a charity component.
The company is putting on a special dinner with Blizzard’s founders and key developers the night before the show starts.
It held an online drawing to pick who can purchase tickets to the dinner, which went for $500 a head. All proceeds are going to the Children’s Hospital of Orange County’s foundation.
BlizzCon isn’t a money maker for Blizzard—but that doesn’t matter much, Sams said.
“We have not broken even on it, but that’s not a big driver to us,” he said. “We feel like this is an opportunity to give back to the most passionate players in the world.”