Orange County Register

Blizzard Entertainment just got back from its own gaming event in Paris, where it announced Diablo III. The MMO developer is now turning its attention to product development instead of going up to the E3 convention in L.A.

“After meeting with hundreds of international media there, we’re very happy with the attention that both Diablo III and the eSports tournaments we hosted in Paris received,” said Bob Colyco, a Blizzard spokesman.

“Because events such as the Worldwide Invitational require a lot of our time and resources, we felt it would be best to stay focused on the development of Diablo III, StarCraft II, and World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King.”

Blizzard plans to attend PAX, Leipzig and its own BlizzCon, which will be held in Anaheim in October.

The creators of “World of Warcraft aren’t the only MMOs skipping E3 this year. Martin Zagorsek, vice president of games and software for market researcher The NPD Group isn’t shocked …

“I don’t think E3 was ever a big showcase for MMOs,” Zagorsek said. “MMOs don’t launch the same way that console games do. With console games, you need to make a really big splash in the beginning because you sell most of the games in the first three months. With MMOs, you sell over time. First the anticipation builds. There’s usually a large public beta. The ramp up is much more gradual. I’m not surprised that the big guys aren’t going to E3.”

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