Diablo 3 IS In Early Development At Blizzard, "World of" Ideas Also Touted

Before we go any further let us set the record straight about the story we are about to post.

• We don't care about Diablo because we never really got into the games, and we're too busy using our PC's for "other" activities
• We aren't doing this to get hits, we don't do that and never have - this is a blog from two chaps who like playing video games and that is it
• We don't make money from this site and we detest hit grabbing sites as much as the next person
• We DO know people who work within the video games industry, lets face it most people do
• We don't lie - we simply tell you what we have been told from someone who works at Blizzard and we DO trust them
• We're writing this because we think it is fair that the public know. The Blizzard employee we were told by does not mind, and in all honesty Blizzard aren't revealing anything about it because they don't want to get hopes up and divert attention away from the upcoming StarCraft 2.

Now for the news...

We have been informed that Blizzard are indeed in the early development stages of the next in the series of their most loved titles, this being Diablo 3. This Blizzard employee has told us on numerous occasions of progress and how proud the company are of it so far. The game is not even at 10% completion yet but they have a decent engine for it - the specifics of us to which have not been revealed.

They have completed a demonstration of the first half of the first chapter of the game. However with StarCraft 2 on the horizon there is not much development time allocated to the title. Once StarCraft 2 is out of the door then we shall see the development ramp up and we can expect to hear more about the game. The likely release for the game at the moment has been speculated as 2009/2010.

Most of this is obvious to those of you who have great faith in Blizzard and understand that they would want to develop another title in the Diablo universe. It is dearly loved and they want to bring you a game that will hold up to the high standards of the previous titles in the series. For now rest assured that it is coming but only when it is deemed ready by the company.

It should also be noted that the company has toyed with extending their "World of" brand to the StarCraft and Diablo series. Yes it would work however the company does not believe it to be necessary for several (again obvious) reasons. These being that World of Warcraft is hugely successful and does not need another title from the same company aimed at the same demographic right now. The overhead involved with such development has also been deemed unattainable at this moment in time. Finally the Diablo and StarCraft properties do not require this style of game this moment in time, their natural course of development is to stick with the previous game genre.

So that's the story. Please take it as you will but please remember that we're only reporting what we have been told and that it has taken us several weeks to decide whether or not to post this information. We're both fortunate and unfortunate in that we are fairly anonymous in the video gaming world. Fortunate in that we are able to post this sort of news without having to worry about NDAs etc. Unfortunate in that we are just another blog in a vastly overcrowded and untrusted area of the internet.