GamesIndustry.biz recently had an opportunity to chat with Frank Pearce, co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment, about World of Warcraft and their other properties. At the Games Convention in Leipzig, Pearce was asked if he found WoW's performance since launch interesting to watch. He doesn't quite say no, but he doesn't say yes, either. "I don't know if I'd describe it as 'interesting' as much as exhausting," he says. He goes on to detail just how much the company has grown, up to 3000 employees worldwide, with 130 people on the WoW development team trying to sate our 'voracious appetite for content.' World of Warcraft is almost directly responsible for that growth.

Pearce talks a bit about Blizzard's other franchises and projects, specifically Starcraft II and Battle.net, suggesting a brave new world where World of Warcraft players could crack out a quick 15-20 minute multiplayer round in Starcraft II while waiting for their WoW raid. That sounds like an awesome time to me, but perhaps that's a little too much Blizzard in one evening for most folks. Then again, maybe not!

Videogame Price Charts (who?) has compiled a list of seven videogame conventions to attend before you die. Unfortunately, the list seems unattainable by design, as they want you to attend E3 before 2007, but besides last week's Leipzig Games Convention and this weekend's upcoming PAX, Blizzard's own BlizzCon is right there on the list.

We're not sure why you'd want to go to BlizzCon if you didn't happen to be a fan of Blizzard's games, but then again, who isn't a fan? They list the legendary costume contest and the chance to try out PC games as reasons to go (along with meeting your guild -- I did all three at BlizzCon last year), though they forget all of the great Blizzard panels and the entertainment offered at each 'Con (where else can you see Level 70 ETC, besides, you know, in-game).

Especially since it's going to be bigger than ever this year, there's no question that BlizzCon is going to be awesome. And even if you weren't able to grab a ticket (we're hearing just now that lottery winners are being notified), we'll have everything you need to know and see from Anaheim this October right here on WoW Insider.

[via WorldofWar]

We originally predicted that we'd finally see the Wrath cinematic at BlizzCon in October, but we may not even need to wait that long. Multiple sources are reporting that Blizzard plans to show off the cinematic at the Games Convention in Leipzig on August 21st at 1PM.

If this is true, that means we only have 3 days left until we finally see if Gnomes get their cinematic day in the sun. We'll be sure to keep you updated on the cinematic and any other new information that comes out of Leipzig, so stay tuned.

The European-gaming savvy among our readers will already be familiar with the Leipzig-held Games Convention. "If a seismograph were installed in Leipzig," says the GC website, "it would probably swing to its limits for four days non-stop in August."

Vaneras announced today that Blizzard's going to be once again showcasing at the Games Convention. Not only will attendees be able to try out StarCraft 2 demos, they'll get a chance to play around with Wrath of the Lich King. And, as seems to be standard operating procedure, Blizzard will be providing a "Live Raid" during the show. They've not announced who the Live Raid is going to be, but I think safe money's on Nihilum.

The other thing at Leipzig which is pretty cool is that Blizzard's going to have representatives at the booth ... recruiting. They recommend bringing your resume along when you visit the Blizzard booth, and asking questions about what it's like to work for the Big Blue.

The Leipzig Games Convention had a few interesting things coming out of it last year, so we might get a chance to hear even more without having to wait for BlizzCon.

Monde Persistants, a French Warcraft site, has released their full interview with Lead Designer Jeff Kaplan and Art Director Chris Robinson from last week's Leipzig Games Convention. Some of this information we already know, but there's quite a bit that was new to us. You can read the entire interview (in English!) and see the video at MP. Here's the summary of the new items:

• Part of the lore behind the Wrath of the Lich King expansion has Arthas trying to seduce players to the dark side, both Alliance and Horde.

• Part of the Death Knight lore will have them "break away" from the Lich King influence to be free agents, the way the Forsaken have broken away from being mindless undead.

• Death Knights will "probably" be able to inscribe any weapon with their Runes that give them power.

• Ulduar is going to be a new raid instance. It's controlled by storm giants and is a fortress of the Titans like Uldaman and Maruadon according to WoW lore.

• The Nerubians (spider guys) will host a few instances at the underground Azjol'Nerub.

• The Nexus will have a L70 5-man instance.
  

• The main boss in the CoT: Stratholme instance will be Mal'ganis.

• Possibly new daily quests introduced with the Sunwell Plateau patch (2.4?)

Previous information gathered from Leipzig can be found here.

Via World of Raids

In the last four days, we've reported on interviews with Lead Designer Jeff Kaplan at the European Game Conference going on currently in Leipzig, Germany. So far he has dropped many new bits of information about the Wrath of the Lich King and some new patch content coming before that.

Turns out, Blizzard is reporting on its own activities at Leipzig on its official European page. In addition to the Wrath and Starcraft II demo stations, Blizzard hosted the demise of Illidan Stormrage. Uberguild Nihilum performed a Black Temple raid live at the Blizzard booth in front of 5,000 spectators. Afterwards, Blizzard gave away the keyboards signed by members of Nihilum to the crowd. Blizzard also interviewed the guild. You can read it here.

With the convention wrapping up today, we'll have to start looking elsewhere for more news on the upcoming expansion.

First, we reported on German game site Buffed's interview with Jeff Kaplan that revealed more details of the new COT: Stratholme instance and an explanation of the Death Knight rune system. If you go to their page, scroll down past all that German and you'll find a video of the interview (in English!)

Later in the day, we covered Curse Gaming's own interview with Kaplan that announced Utgarde Pinnacle, gave more detail on the new Inscription profession, revealed the plan behind the increased pre-60 leveling curve and explored the dev's thoughts about giving the Hunter class some PvP love. Now Curse has put up a video of the interview.

Leipzig isn't over yet. Hopefully we'll have more revelations before the weekend is over.