Development of new Blizzard title confirmed at E3

I didn't see this piece of news anywhere else on forum, so here goes. Talking to Gamasutra, Frank Pearce, founding member and senior vice president of product development for Blizzard revealed at E3 that the company has a third team hard at work on a new title, separate from World of Warcraft and StarCraft II.

From my post at Diablo3.com:

I ran through the facts I could dig up in preparation for a post on my own website, and this is the situation:

It has been known since last year that Blizzard has at least three new titles under development. Of these, one of them turned out to be StarCraft II. The second one is most likely a new World of Warcraft expansion, since Blizzard has mentioned plans to release a new expansion for that game every year. This leaves a third project, as confirmed at E3. What could it be?

• StarCraft: Ghost: Definitely not. This was ruled out by the Gamasutra article.
• World of Warcraft 2: Definitely not. Blizzard has <a href="http://pc.ign.com/articles/757/757586p1.html" target="_blank">said</a> in interviews that their next MMO will not be another World of Warcraft.
• World of Warcraft expansion: Very unlikely. Blizzard wouldn't want to develop two expansions for the same game simultaneously, nor would it be "totally awesome".
• WarCraft 4: Pretty unlikely. Most fans have had enough of the WarCraft universe for a while.
• World of StarCraft: Unlikely. Blizzard is already working on a game in this franchise.
• New franchise: Possible. This possibility has been referred to by Vivendi representatives several times.
• Diablo 3: Possible. Blizzard has been <a href="http://www.starcrafttwo.com/starcraft-2-news/diablo-3-at-blizzcon-2007/" target="_blank">hiring developer staff</a> for the "Diablo Team" the last three years.
• World of Diablo: Likely. Blizzard <a href="http://pc.ign.com/articles/784/784124p1.html" target="_blank">opened three positions</a> for the development of a "Next-Gen MMO" in April - would also qualify as "totally awesome".

Personally, I'm convinced that we can expect an MMO - either in the Diablo franchise or alternatively in a new franchise altogether.

 

Diablo's dead. It'll be another WoW exp, they even added files called Northrend_expansion (or something like that) in the new patch. WoW bring them millions of dollar every month, while the makers of Diablo are gone. And they said that they want to produce around 1 expansion for WoW every year, it will most likely not happen, but it's their goal.

 

we wont see blizzard have two MMO's on the market at the same time, if they are planning another, than they will be planning a release around 2010 or beyond
i think it is much more likely that they have started a new IP, probably going to be something really different to their current stuff.

 

You may kill be for saying this (But I'll sure as hell go down fightin'), but I still want Galaxy of Starcraft.

 

whatever it is, i probably won't care about it

 

Another WoW expansion is already under development, besides this new project - so its probably something else. As for Diablo being dead, an author of Blizzard's novels in the franchise has, on the contrary, stated the he "isn't writing for a dead universe".

Always the profound poster, Paragon. 2228 posts wasn't enough for you?

 

nice research. owerup:
im hoping for diablo3 too
i mean hey starcraft warcraft diablo woohooo
rts mmorpg rpg

hmmm.....all they needa do now is an fps :O
or turnbased but....turnbased.....

 

diablo 3 must be it, it's the only logical choice

 

if it is diablo 3, so when are they going to start developing it? now? i hope not yet.

i hope they release it maybe 3 years after starcraft 2.

 

It won't be D3, I bet 2000 minerals!

 

Tell that to the loyal fans of www.diablo3.com !

 

What about a new game? I never tried diablo so i dont know what its about, maybe i should, but a new game would be pretty kool. What about a FPS? Even a WOS would be kool. Im not sure how it could be done though but i still wont lose hope. Hehe.

-Trooper

 

Well you should look into Diablo! The 1st one was the best! 2nd was alright, maybe this 3rd will be better than both! Anyways, it's either gonna be Diablo, a new title or The Lost Vikings Make a Comeback Special

 

Well i guess i will 8), thx for the suggestion, o and i really hope its not a lost vikings, if it was fun excuse me, but that game made me laugh when i thought about some little viking getting lost. ;D Viking, "O NO IM LOST WHAT DO I DO"

-Trooper

 

That was basically the premise of Lost Vikings (your quote is reminiscent of Olaf the Stout), but it worked out suprisingly well

From the script:

 

Well then :-\

 

Blizzard would have taken the name ''diablo3.com'' by now. It'll be another WoW expansion.

 

Why develop two expansions for the same game simultaneously? Makes no business sense. And it leaves many questions unanswered - in particular the "Next-Gen MMO" job listings. And, finally, no one - not even a marketing drone - would dare describe the third expansion pack to a game which is already several years old as "totally awesome".

 

They want to release one expansion per year.
Expansion x 8million customers + pay per month > new game that will certainly not have 8 millions customers.
They implanted files about the next expansion in the previous patch.

Sad but most likely true.

 

Again, there is three active development teams at Blizzard: one working on StarCraft II, one working on the WoW expansion which you refer to and then "Team 3", working on an unannounced project. The recent article concerns this unannounced project.

WoW expansion + New game > Two WoW expansions competing with each other