Well, it’s been seven years coming. Blizzard Entertainment is finally ready once again to unleash upon us the hell known as Diablo. A cinematic and gameplay footage is available on Blizzard’s European website.

For the past few days, as many sites have covered,  Blizzard had left a mysterious teaser splash up on their sites leaving many to speculate what they would be announcing next. Some speculated it would be in regards to Starcraft II while others believed it may have had something to do with World of Warcraft. We now know it was neither.

Last night, in Paris, France, the mystery known as Diablo III was finally unveiled to the world. During the event, Blizzard - led by lead designer Jay Wilson - showed off developmental in-game footage. The same old feel still remains. You will obviously notice the graphical update though the basic premise still remains: You will still dungeon crawl across a multitude of random stages just like in Diablo and Diablo II (Lord of Destruction). Old friends will join us including Deckard Cain (”Stay awhile and listen!”). Also, we will be met with more items, more quest, and new environments to explore.

In terms of classes, reportedly, there are 5. Players will be able to choose between Male and Female as well. During the demo, we saw the familar, yet redone, Barbarian as well as a new class, the Witch Doctor. The Witch Doctor (Seemingly something of a cross of the Druid and Necromancer) controls pets and is also a master of disease and fire. Jay Wilson also took the time to inform us that like Starcraft II, Diablo III will retain the familiar Battle.net scheme. “[the game is ] primarily cooperative”, he stated. In the mean time, while we all now wait for more information and a gold date, enjoy the plethora of screenshots below.

Advanced apologies for the short notice. It has come to our attention that Miyazaki’s Spirited Away will be airing on Ovation TV tonight, Friday, June 20th, from 8:00pm to 11:00pm, and then again from 11:00pm, to 2:00am. Ovation TV can be found on DirectTV channel 274 and DishNetwork channel 157. Verizon FiOS customers can find Ovation on channel 168. Ovation TV’s availability is limited within cable markets so others will need to check their local listings.

According to Engadget HD, Japan’s Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry and the Education, Science and Technology Ministry reportedly have come to a consensus in deciding to place royalty fees on all blank Blu-ray Discs and Blu-ray recorders. According to the parties involved, the purpose of this levy is to “compensate copyright holders for the increase in copying by individuals due to the development of new digital technologies.” Engadget also states that there were disagreements on how to apply the levy to Hard Disk based standalone recorders as well as portable devices. Future discussions could lead to the fees possibly being applied elsewhere. In other words, the act of piracy by a few individuals will lead to the levying of taxes upon everyone else… or persons just resorting to imports.

It’s official; as of the release of PlayStation 3 firmware update version 2.40, owners will be able to access the Cross Media Bar (XMB) while in-game. 2.40 will also bring with it the long awaited Trophy feature, details to which are scarce at this point. According to the PlayStation 3 blog, Sony promises more information “Soon”. As in accordance with other updates, you can expect other enhancements will come bundled along. In the meantime, Sony is releasing firmware update version 2.36, “improving system stability when playing select PlayStation format software titles”.

Retailer, GameStop, has announced that they will be giving away free “Deoxys” as a download to owners of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl this month. These downloads will be available in store over the weekends on the following days: June 20th, 21st, 22nd, 27th, 28th, and 29th. On these days, people can bring in their Nintendo DS’ with a copy of their game and download the Pokemon free. For full details, you may read the press release after the jump.

[ Kotaku ] (more…)

GamePolitics reports (via vnunet) that in wake of the incident which occured recently in Akihabara, Konami has cancelled all scheduled launch events in Japan for the release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots:

The company said in a statement to Japanese media that it called off the events because it was concerned about the safety of the public. The cancellations follow a rampage by a knife-wielding man in Tokyo at the weekend in which seven people were killed…

One of the cancelled launch events had been scheduled for Tokyo’s Akihabara district, where the stabbing took place on Sunday… [in the game] Players control a soldier armed with a knife and various other weapons who fights his way through a multitude of enemies by killing and disabling them in a variety of missions.

Launch events outside of Japan have not been affected. MGS4 will be released as scheduled in Japan.

Tokypop, who recently announced the restructuring of their company, has announced that they will be cutting output in the United Kingdom by 20% to coincide with declining sales and a drop in market share.

Tokyopop UK’s plans came about after the decision by its parent company to significantly lower production in North America. Currently, Tokyopop UK released 25 titles a month, however, that number is expected to drop to 20 a month.

Andrew Whelan, the new marketing and sales manager for Tokyopop UK, stated that while manga sales increased overall 40% during the first 4 months of this year, sales of Tokyopop’s books dropped 4%. Previously, Tokyopop held an 80-90% of the market share in the U.K. for manga. Currently, it holds only 50%.

[ TheBookseller.com via ANN ]

The CineVegas Film Festival, taking place on June 16 in Las Vegas, Nevada, will be screening Takashi Murakami’s ( a contemporary artist) ten minute anime short titled “Planting The Seeds”. According to ANN, this showing will be open to the public for one night only.

“Planting The Seeds” has already appeared in larger exhibitions by Murakami in Brooklyn, New York and Los Angeles, California. It is the first episode in a planned series about the mascots, Kaikai and Kiki of the Kaikai Kiki Company. For tickets to the event, visit the CineVegas website. The full press release can be read after the jump. (more…)

FNN News Photo

As a followup to our story on the incident in Akihabara earlier today, FNN has posted video coverage of the incident which occured in Akihabara. Additionally, according to ANN, a message was posted on a bulletin board around 7 hours prior to the incident’s occurrence. It reads as follows:

I Will Kill People in Akihabara

06/08 05:21

I will come barging in with a vehicle, and if I can’t use the vehicle, I will use a knife. Farewell, everyone.

Suspect, 25 Year Old, Tomohiro Katō is currently being held on suspicion of attempted murder. Sadly, 7 of those he injured have been confirmed dead on the scene, or at a later time:

• Katsuhiko Nakamura (male, 74 years old)
• Kazunori Fujino (male, 19)
• Kasuhiro Koiwa (male, 47)
• Naoki Miyamoto (male, 31)
• Takahiro Kawaguchi (male, 19)
• Mai Mutō (female, 21)
• Mitsuru Matsui (male, 33)

Stores in the immediate area reportedly are and will remain closed as the police investigation continues. Tomohiro Katō relayed to police “that he came to Akihabara to kill people,” said Jiro Akagogi, a spokesman for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, to The Associated Press. “He said he was tired of life. He said he was sick of everything.”

It’s not a good day for the Japanese, especially for otaku. I was just looking at the BBC RSS feed and it would seem that someone decided today was the day they would go on a killing spree in Japan.

The suspect, 25 year old Tomohiro Kato, is said to have drove a truck into a crowd of people in Akihabara (otaku version of Mecca), and then started stabbing people at random. So far seven people have been confirmed dead, and another ten are injured.

Here is a quote from an eyewitness:

“The man (Kato) jumped on top of a man he had hit with his vehicle and stabbed him with a knife many times. Walking toward Akihabara Station, he slashed nearby people at random.”

Below are some pictures, grabbed from MSN Japan:

Hopefully the ten that are injured make it through ok.

Read more at: BBC, Japan Times, and Japan Today