Rumor: Confirmation of Diablo 3 announcement
by Natalie Mootz 
Jun 25th 2008 at 6:54PM
Diabloii.net is reporting that "reliable inside industry sources" have confirmed that Diablo 3 is the big announcement that will come at WWI on Saturday. Since Diabloii didn't say that the sources were at Blizzard, I'm skeptical and I still consider it a rumor, not a confirmation. I'm always skeptical of unnamed sources anyway, but in this case, with the secrecy surrounding the announcement and the legal actions coming against other Blizzard ventures, I'm especially dubious. If anyone at Blizzard leaked this information, they'd be found out and fired for sure. If it wasn't someone from Blizzard but rather someone else in the game industry, I wouldn't take what they say with a grain of salt. However, on the chance that this information is correct -- and Diabloii is asserting that it is -- we want to offer it to you so you can make up your own minds.
[Thanks, Conner.]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
haust Jun 25th 2008 7:13PM
Seriously, who cares ??
Even if it's true everyone will wait for june 28/29 to know what it's all about.
Nick Jun 25th 2008 7:34PM
Lol. You must cause you felt compelled to post....
Warcloud Jun 26th 2008 1:24AM
A lot of people care.
Demosthenes Jun 25th 2008 7:16PM
Only time will tell
Nick Jun 25th 2008 7:16PM
Here's hoping.
Jase Jun 25th 2008 7:19PM
I care. The thought that D3 may or may not be coming is exciting for us die-hard fans. As Demos says, only time will tell, it's still exciting though!
vlad Jun 25th 2008 7:31PM
d3 was released in 1996. get you facts straight..
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116000/
Jase Jun 25th 2008 7:33PM
HAHA...ya got me....
Saelorn Jun 25th 2008 7:43PM
There's roughly a zero percent chance of this happening, but I'm hoping that Diablo 3 is being announced as an MMO to compete against WoW.
No sane company would do this, but I'd really like a fresh world-wide reset on the big game that everyone's playing.
emoser Jun 25th 2008 8:24PM
I think that any Diablo game that's announced, regardless of what it's called, would necessarily have MMO-like features. If think about what the next logical evolution for the Diablo series is based on the online capabilities of D2, it seems inevitable that adding persistence to the online game is going to naturally happen.
Does it go in the direction of random-generated-instanced-maps like Diablo 2, or does it move into a virtual world like WoW... I could see either thing happening, but either way I can't see it not called a MMO, much like Guild Wars is a MMO.
Cowlitz Jun 25th 2008 8:09PM
Why? Either people go from WoW to Diablo and they still have that money or they bring in more fans who enjoy Diablo but not WoW. Seems win-win to me.
Michael Jun 25th 2008 9:42PM
I have no idea, but I could see Diablo 3 being an MMO. While it could strain some resources at Blizzard, I think a lot of people would subscribe to both World of Warcraft and Diablo 3 as an MMO, meaning a lot more income for the company. And when you think about their history, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness came out in December of 1995, and Starcraft came out not relatively long after in March of 1998. So yeah, I could see it.
Edboy Jun 25th 2008 11:43PM
The only difference from then and now is that warcraft 2 and starcraft don't have subscription fees and they weren't planned out like WoW is. If they made a Diablo mmo, that would put a strain on Blizzard and their plans.
Smart money says that there isn't going to be a D3 announcement, the splash screen is a WotLK release date, and we're not going to be seeing anything about Diablo for a long time.
At least, I hope so because I would love to see Blizzard crushing the hopes and dreams of eliteist fanboys who think they're too good for warcraft.
Edboy Jun 25th 2008 11:45PM
or crushing the spirits of fanboys in general. I'm not picky, just as long as someone starts crying.
BookhouseBoy Jun 25th 2008 11:41PM
About Diablo III being MMO-esque, well, it's definitely going to have online features, and to some degree, since it will be a MASSIVE game with MULTIPLE players playing... well yeah duh.
My hunch is that the game that Diablo III will be closest to is Mythos... an online solo hack-and-slash action fest with connections to hubs where you can meet and hook up with other players to then group up for the harder dungeons/zones with the best "lewt."
Bunkai Jun 26th 2008 10:05AM
Since Mythos and Hellgate:London are both products of the original Diablo development team, and the fact that Hellgate: London was basically designed as the next evolution that the original devs saw that the Diablo series should take, I'd say that your statement is a given.
What a lot of comments here seem to misunderstand is the difference between MMO and MMORPG. Of course D3 will be an MMO, hell the argument could easily be made that D2 was an MMO. Just not an MMORPG. The Diablo series was officially labeled as an "Action RPG" and not just a typical "Hack and Slash" game that many choose to call it. I think that with the release of Diablo 3, we would be witnessing the development of a new subgenre... MMOARPG... lol
IMO.
Knucker Jun 25th 2008 11:51PM
I think it would be a wise move for Blizzard to release a third game in the Diablo series. With this many people wanting it to be released, it would probably sell very well.
Edboy Jun 26th 2008 1:13AM
Knucker: master of the obvious
Badger Jun 26th 2008 10:02AM
'Since Diabloii didn't say that the sources were at Blizzard, I'm skeptical and I still consider it a rumor, not a confirmation.'
THANK YOU. Now if only a few OTHER Bloggers would follow this example.
Frank Jun 26th 2008 10:39AM
LOL - rumored confirmation. That's quite a headline there!
By the way, the splash screen is going to be a WoTLK beta announcement. We'll probably see something Diablo in the next year or two.