It's probably been said elsewhere already, but perhaps it's not a game at all, but a re-vamp of Battle.net? Incorporation of WoW and some additional support for some of the older games (some of the servers are pretty bad right now) would be both a huge money sink and a great way to build already exceptional company loyalty.
And there's no way a Starcraft sequel could even compare to the original at this point. Yes, it will probably go platinum on the first DAY it's available, assuming supplies hold, but the combined forces of nostalgia, anticipation, and let's face it, the fact that Starcraft may be the finest piece of coding ever introduced to the gaming community, will make any successor pale in the face of the granddaddy of RTS.
At this point, Starcraft is almost holy. By not immediately attempting a sequel, Blizzard has conferred a status of untouchability onto it. Historically, how many games can compare to Starcraft, on any level? Success when first released? Quite a few. Nine-ish years down the road, it's still the biggest game in Korea, and has worldwide tournaments.
Of course, that's not to say it shouldn't be attempted, merely that it will be quite literally impossible to live up to the hype caused by an announcement of a sequel, particularly if it's in the RTS genre so that the inevitable direct comparison will follow.
Any new Diablo game should definitely go back in the direction of the first. While the second offered a host of improvements, it most certainly lost something. While both games had that sort of hunting feel to them, the first made the player the prey, not the predator, at least until ~level 30-40. The gothic atmosphere was there, along with creepy music, and of course, the ever-present darkness. Putting the game outside and adding demons that were tacky at best (Sand maggots?) was not the direction to go in, at least unless you can get something akin to the claw vipers blocking out the sun for most, if not all, of the game.
And there is a slim chance that Blizzard will abandon their three gold mines temporarily for something not in ANY of the three universes. This is extremely unlikely as it is both bad business practice and many ex-Blizzard developers have cited their lack of freedom in this very area as one of the reasons they left, but it's still a definite possibility.
--me
edit: I suck at math. Also, Chesspiece_Face beat me to the punch on the revamped Battle.net in another thread.
And there's no way a Starcraft sequel could even compare to the original at this point. Yes, it will probably go platinum on the first DAY it's available, assuming supplies hold, but the combined forces of nostalgia, anticipation, and let's face it, the fact that Starcraft may be the finest piece of coding ever introduced to the gaming community, will make any successor pale in the face of the granddaddy of RTS.
At this point, Starcraft is almost holy. By not immediately attempting a sequel, Blizzard has conferred a status of untouchability onto it. Historically, how many games can compare to Starcraft, on any level? Success when first released? Quite a few. Nine-ish years down the road, it's still the biggest game in Korea, and has worldwide tournaments.
Of course, that's not to say it shouldn't be attempted, merely that it will be quite literally impossible to live up to the hype caused by an announcement of a sequel, particularly if it's in the RTS genre so that the inevitable direct comparison will follow.
Any new Diablo game should definitely go back in the direction of the first. While the second offered a host of improvements, it most certainly lost something. While both games had that sort of hunting feel to them, the first made the player the prey, not the predator, at least until ~level 30-40. The gothic atmosphere was there, along with creepy music, and of course, the ever-present darkness. Putting the game outside and adding demons that were tacky at best (Sand maggots?) was not the direction to go in, at least unless you can get something akin to the claw vipers blocking out the sun for most, if not all, of the game.
And there is a slim chance that Blizzard will abandon their three gold mines temporarily for something not in ANY of the three universes. This is extremely unlikely as it is both bad business practice and many ex-Blizzard developers have cited their lack of freedom in this very area as one of the reasons they left, but it's still a definite possibility.
--me
edit: I suck at math. Also, Chesspiece_Face beat me to the punch on the revamped Battle.net in another thread.