Whither Diablo 3?

[Tarrasque Wrangler]

It's been about three years since Diablo 2 came out, and I'm still playing that sucker. Anyone know when or if Diablo 3 will come out? I'd even settle for another Diablo 2 expansion pack. I gotta get a new Diablo fix!

 

[gariig]

Rumor is..not for a while. There has really been nothing officially said by Blizzard, but I've heard guesstimates of 2005-2006.

Gariig

 

[Kai Lord]

Bah, bring on Starcraft 2 I say!

 

[garyh]

If it's any consolation, the 1.10 DII patch, full of almost an expansions worth of content they say, is due soon.

Really.

Honestly.

Blizzard would never be late.

I mean it.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

Honestly, I think they're probably still making money off of Diablo 2, and that's why the long timetable until 3's release. Plus, Blizzard probably wants to make it worth the wait... like how D2 was head and shoulders above D1, they probably want to make D3 shine over 2 as well.

There has to be a 3rd game, though. Given the set-up at the end of D2, it'll be a big one.

 

[Viking Bastard]

I never played through the whole D2 game, how did it end? As for me, I was
kinda burned out on Diable with the second game. I'm still open for the prospect
of a third one.

 

[orbitalfreak]

Honestly, I think they're probably still making money off of Diablo 2, and that's why the long timetable until 3's release. .

Not too long ago, they had a lot of posts on the Battle.net forums showing video game sales ranks. Even in, IIRC, April - June of this year, DII routinely made the top ten weekly sales lists. They were usually in the 4th-8th place area, but it was consistent sales. So, yea, DII still brings in the cash.

 

[LightPhoenix]

When the four folks (whose names I don't recall of the top of my head) left Blizzard, some of their comments hint that a Diablo III is being worked on presently. That doesn't really give a timetable, and Blizzard is pretty lax about deadlines (they can afford to be) so I would say we might hear an official announcement sometime next year. I would guess around April, plenty of time for hype to build up.

World of Warcraft supposedly comes out "sometime in 2004". I would guess they're going to work hard on getting that out for the Christmas season. However WoW and a possible D3 would be worked on by different teams altogether, so the release dates may not be dependant too much on each other.

If I had to estimate, I would say not until 2005 at the earliest. Blizzard tends to announce their games pretty early, so even if they announced it next month, it'd be fairly safe to say we won't see if until then.

 

[Andrew D. Gable]

Spoilerish, Possibly

I never played through the whole D2 game, how did it end?

Been awhile since I played it, but lemme try to recall: of course in D2, you're fighting Mephisto and Diablo. Then the expansion adds some other things about that crystal Baal stole, which is vital to the world, basically. So you go on another quest, this time to kill Baal and retrieve the crystal and prevent it from being destroyed. Baal was a beast to fight, and then after the battle, it's revealed that he had already destroyed the crystal. More ideas on a massive world change, and not for the better.

Now that's all going by memory, so I may be wrong.

 

[Dark Jezter]

Blizzard tends to announce their games pretty early, so even if they announced it next month, it'd be fairly safe to say we won't see if until then.

Actually, World of Warcraft was under development for two years before it was announced at ECTS 2001. That's right; World of Warcraft began devlopment in 1999, over four years ago. Blizzard really likes to take their time with things.

The beta test for World of Warcraft is going to begin sometime in the fourth quarter of this year. I'm betting the final game will be out in fall 2004.