BlizzCon is an annual convention held by Blizzard Entertainment to celebrate their major franchises: Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo. The 2009 edition, featuring a live performance by Ozzy Osbourne, was held on August 21-22.

General information

BlizzCon first started in October 2005, held at the Anaheim Convention Center where it has been held since. Some features included the announcements of release of new content for their franchises, previews of content for upcoming games, and Blizzard developer Q&A sessions.

Throughout the days are hands-on experience of new and existing games, various panels related to the multiple franchises, and judging of the contests being held – including costume and songwriting. The closing night has held a concert, previously The Offspring and Blizzard’s in-house band (whose members are employees) Level (10, 60, 70, or 80) Elite Tauren Chieftain.

Everyone attending gets a “Goodie Bag”, which consists of various items related to the Blizzard Franchises. For example, at the 2005 BlizzCon, there was a code that could be exchanged for an in-game pet from World of Warcraft, which was a baby Murloc named ‘Murky’. As well, there have been passes to get in to the closed beta test of an upcoming Blizzard game – World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade from 2005, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King for 2007, and StarCraft II for 2008.

Tickets for the first three events wereUS$100 each for admission to both days of activities. For 2009 the price was raised to US$125. All of the extras in the gift bag, concerts, panels, and contests are included in the price.The similar event is the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational and it can be held in other countries.

BlizzCon 2009

On February 17, 2009, Blizzard announced their fourth BlizzCon, taking place again at the Anaheim Convention Center on August 21 and August 22, 2009.

In an attempt to reduce frustrations linked to lack of ticket availability for previous BlizzCons, there was be four halls (increased from three) of space available.Tickets went on sale on May 16 and May 30 2009. For this batch of ticket sales, Blizzard implemented an entirely new system designed to make buying BlizzCon tickets much easier than the previous year. The new system implemented an online queue, effectively creating an organized online “line” for anyone who wants to purchase tickets, an improvement on 2008′s chaotic sale of Blizzcon tickets. The ticket queue system worked much more fairly during both the May 16th and May 30 sales though many did not get tickets due to quick sales time. There were, however, a number of browser related issues that caused a number of people to be unable to purchase tickets. For many, their queue stayed at the same spot no matter how long they waited, and others noticed their queue go up, effectively keeping them at the end of the line and preventing them from purchasing tickets. Blizzard also created a new flash game “Failocalypse” to play while waiting in line.

Blizzard announced on August 11, 2009 that Ozzy Osbourne would perform live during the 2009 BlizzCon closing ceremonies.

Source from: wikipedia