If you were planning on going to BlizzCon, you'd best find an alternative means of entering the convention hall (such as a personal invite from the devs). Blizzard has officially stated that there are no more tickets to be had for the event. Learn more after the jump.

Tickets are now up for sale and we fully expect Blizzard fans to make a mad scramble to get a chance to go to the BlizzCon 2008 event. But no need to worry, a stampede is not necessary to get your tickets, cos it's all online, anyway. Oh, and if you can't come to Anaheim, let the event come to you via DirecTV. Everything you need to know after the jump.

Blizzard Entertainment has finally announced a specific date when BlizzCon 2008 tickets will be available. In addition, they also announced that video coverage of the event will be provided by DirecTV. To find out more, head on over to the full article

Been thinking about getting satellite television? This might be an opportune time to get one, especially if you're particularly fond of playing World of Warcraft... Wait, what?

Well, Blizzard Entertainment and DirecTV have joined forces to bring us a special promo that will get you eleven months of free gametime. All you need to do is sign up for a DirecTV subscription between today up until November 30 and you'll get WoW for eleven months. And of course, the operative word is "free". Also, new DirecTV subscribers who don't have the game yet will be presented with a copy of World of Warcraft and a unique authentication code that allows users to upgrade on trial account to full account with a month's worth of free gametime for that particular account.

Interested? Feel free to check out the promo's website by clicking the link below. In the meantime, we'll be digging up more World of Warcraft news and info.

 

COO and executive VP William "Bing" Gordon of Electronic Arts participated in a "blue ribbon" panel recently, together with Ubisoft's Yves Guillemot, Microsoft's Peter Moore, IGN's Dale Strang, and DirecTV's Steve Roberts. Dubbed the MI6 conference's "Gaming 2010," the panel of industry "experts" were to project where gaming is headed for the next five years.

For Gordon, the future of interactive entertainment will be completely over the Internet. By the year 2012, Gordon predicts that the market will be divided into three major groups: the marketers, the new generation of developers, and the new generation of gamers.

Marketing will soon be turning back into its roots. Gordon mentioned that products are now being revised based on daily customer feedback. Addressing attendees, he encouraged aspiring "hall of fame" marketers to be more involved in the marketing process and take into the account the industry's focus on user telemetry and feedback data.

The next generation of game developers are constituted by the college students of today's generation. By the near future, many of them would be pursuing their dream to create a game just like they see on television. But Gordon pointed out that other new developers would like to develop games that are free and more real-world-relevant.

And then there will always be the last portion of developers who would like to make games short and enjoyable. Casual gaming, according to Gordon, will have to be subject to proper "monetizing," which is no surprise given that this claim is coming from the advocate of microtransactions.

The third major group would remain to be the adolescents in high school. In his view, gamers of the current generation want "interruptible, multitaskable media." Gordon added, "Personalizable and customizable are somewhat different. We're trying with games like Spore and Tiger Woods to build games on this new foundation. We're learning on the fly."

He recommends to the attending marketers to begin hanging out with the college group to see what games they'd like to develop in the future, and then talk with high school students about innovative ways in using the Internet.

With professional video gaming happening for the longest time, it's no surprise that game competitions as of late are becoming just as elaborate as the world of professional sports. With that in mind, we're introducing the Championship Gaming Series (CGS).

As its name implies, the CGS is an international gaming league established to treat major gaming competitions like pro sports, and the players like pro athletes. The league does so by providing for major prizes for tournaments, doling out instant payouts for competing players, and giving heavy media coverage for game competitions.

To help further things along for the league, it has just been announced that Andy Reif has been appointed the new CGS commissioner. Reif's new post requires him to oversee CGS operations as it develops in its operating areas: North America, South America, UK/Europe, and Asia/Australia. Prior to being appointed as the new CGS commissioner, Reif was formerly the chief operating officer for the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour.

"The opportunity to start a major sports league, with global television coverage in more than 100,000,000 homes through DIRECTV (North America and Latin America), BSkyB (UK), and STAR (Asia and Australia), has never happened before," said Reif, as he commented on the resources that CGS would be given as it started off this year's events.

Keep posted in case the league begins announcing more upcoming events for its current line-up of sponsored games: Counter-Strike: Source (PC), FIFA 07 (PC), Dead or Alive 4 (Xbox 360) , and Project Gotham Racing 3 (Xbox 360).