Is Diablo III Blizzards next Game after WOW?

[nobbie]

Just saw this thread on the Battle.net Forums:

http://www.battle.net/forums/thread.aspx?f...&p=1#post920286

QUESTION from a User:

Blizzard : Any Plans for the World of Diablo? | 10/4/2004 7:40:29 PM GMTDT
           
Just a plainly broad question, which does not specify to patches, new games, or overall updates, but does the Blizzard team devoted to Diablo plan on continuing the story of the Diablo world?

ANSWER by Kenny-Z:

Thank you for contacting us regarding the possibility of a sequel to the world of Diablo. Although we have not made an announcement, there is always the possibility that we will revisit the world of Diablo at some point in the future. For further information regarding future releases, please check: http://www.blizzard.com as this is the best place to receive the latest information about our games as it becomes available.

Place your bets in this thread :)

My bet is: Diablo 3 is coming next.

[NuurAbSaal]

Diablo3 will come from here , albeit with a different name I guess :)

Greetings

Nuur

[Lady Vashj]

My bet is: Diablo 3 is coming next.
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My bet is you're being naive.

[[wcip]Angel]

Aren't they working on Starcraft: Ghost?

Personally, I'd more like to see another StarCraft (RTS) than this Ghost-business or another Diablo-game. (Unless said Diablo-game would be in the 1st person. I have yet to see a decent 1st person hack & slash since Menzoberanzan or the Eye of the beholder-series.)

As Albert Einstein once said (in another RTS-game)
"Time will tell. Sooner or later.. time will tell.

[nobbie]

In addition to "StarCraft: Ghost", Blizzard North is also working on a not yet announced project.

Theme-wise, the next game should be in the "Diablo" universe. We recently had "WarCraft 3" and "The Frozen Thone", and currently "World of WarCraft" and "StarCraft: Ghost". The chances that the next big Blizzard game is a "StarCraft 2" RTS are close to nil, so I've heard. I seem to remember that Bill Roper said something along these lines too, before he left the company for Flagship Studios. The "Diablo" franchise still has HUGE potential, no matter how the next "Diablo" game will turn out. Prequel or sequel to the "Diablo" story, (MMO)RPG or FPS/RPG - anything that carries the "Diablo III" title should sell gazillions of copies. "World of WarCraft" - although surrounded by strong MMORPG competitors - will probably be the MMORPG of the next couple of years and Blizzard's financially most successful title ever with oodles of cash flowing into the company's wallet, so the money for the next adventure of epic scale will be there. Can you imagine anything better for an epic game than "Diablo"? I can't :)

Regarding Flagship Studios, I think they are currently too small to produce something of the scale of "Diablo II" in a reasonable time frame. They have something nice with the "Dark Fantasy" theme under development, but it will for sure not be something that can be considered a successor to "Diablo II". And buying the "Diablo" franchise with all its rights is certainly out of question for such a young company with limited financial resources.

[Medicine Man]

As Albert Einstein once said (in another RTS-game)
"Time will tell. Sooner or later.. time will tell.
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I'm going to be a total geek and correct this: I do believe that quote was from Tesla not Einstein. If we are both thinking of C&C that is. :)

[JustAGuy]

My bet is you're being naive.
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From a fiscal perspective, It's safe to say that Diablo 3 is coming. It just makes sense to produce a sequel to one of the most popular games of all-time.

Is it coming right away? Probably not. Ghost is still in production (they changed the dev team!), but that's being outsourced for the consoles. After Ghost, who knows what they'll do.

I would LOVE to see Diablo III be announced, but I'm definitely not counting on it.

EDIT: Removed one comment.

[Mithrandir]

If Diablo 3 really is in the works (even if on the most basic of design levels) I would hope that they could go back and capture what made the original Diablo a great game. Granted, Diablo 2 was a decent game, but what made the original great was the atmosphere and various other intangibles I, admittedly, am at a loss to put into words at the moment.

Diablo 2 improved on the original with skill trees (though the vast majority of skills were poorly balanced to varying degrees at different points in the game) and more classes, but was a major step backwards in other areas.

The possibility of this happening seem minimal though with most of the original Blizzard North members moved on by now.

I just pray that Blizzard doesn't get anymore caught up in the current MMOG bubble anymore than it already is and delivers a good solid non-MMOG Diablo game.

[Chaerophon]

have yet to see a decent 1st person hack & slash since Menzoberanzan or the Eye of the beholder-series.)

Were these even popular at the time? I can remember really enjoying them, although I remember little about the actual game. :) I don't remember them being particularly big names... did a lot of lurkers play them?

[JustAGuy]

If Diablo 3 really is in the works (even if on the most basic of design levels) I would hope that they could go back and capture what made the original Diablo a great game. Granted, Diablo 2 was a decent game, but what made the original great was the atmosphere and various other intangibles I, admittedly, am at a loss to put into words at the moment.

Diablo 2 improved on the original with skill trees (though the vast majority of skills were poorly balanced to varying degrees at different points in the game) and more classes, but was a major step backwards in other areas.

The possibility of this happening seem  minimal though with most of the original Blizzard North members moved on by now.

I just pray that Blizzard doesn't get anymore caught up in the current MMOG bubble anymore than it already is and delivers a good solid non-MMOG Diablo game.
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As far as game quality goes, Diablo 2 was on par with, if not superior, to Diablo 1. Balance = not so much. Then again, Diablo 1's balance wasn't all that balanced...

The production values of Diablo 2 are partially what make Diablo 2 so good. Despite it being limited to 640x480 (and later 800x600), it was a great pick-up-and-play game; it looked good, sounded good, played good. Add to it the multiplayer elements, and the treasure-hunt elements, and you have one damn addictive game.

That addictiveness is what Blizzard would do well to replicate. To keep people playing, it's the "I have to run Meph one more time..." or the "I need to kill Baal one more time for that Windforce...", type of obessive compulsive, addiction inducing gameplay elements that give Blizzard big sales. They make the most money by making the most addictive game they possibly can. In Diablo 2, it was so addictive that some users bought 2, 3, 4 or more copies (I bought TWO, four all together, two D2 and Expansions) to maximize gameplay.

What's Blizzard's goal with Diablo 3? To make money, obviously. Sure, they want their games to be top-notch, otherwise they would lose sales on the come-back (put out a crappy game, and no one wants to buy Blizzard products anymore).

So there are a few of things we can assume of Blizzard:

1. There will be a Diablo 3. It makes sense; the money is there.
2. Diablo 3 will be very polished, and they will attempt to balance it, but most likely will fail initially. Starcraft was perfectly balanced, all other games not so much.
3. Diablo 3 gameplay will incorporate some sort of treasure hunt style gameplay. That's what Diablo has been all along, anyway. Kill a boss, get some loot.
4. It will have mutliplayer. What kind, is up to them.

From what I've seen of Guild Wars, that's what Diablo 3 COULD be, or even SHOULD be. If they did a Guild Wars type of massive game, would that be so bad for Diablo 3?

[[wcip]Angel]

I'm going to be a total geek and correct this: I do believe that quote was from Tesla not Einstein. If we are both thinking of C&C that is. :)
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It's from Red Alert, not C&C, and I could've sworn it was from Albert. Who is this "Tesla" person?

[[wcip]Angel]

If Diablo 3 really is in the works (even if on the most basic of design levels) I would hope that they could go back and capture what made the original Diablo a great game. Granted, Diablo 2 was a decent game, but what made the original great was the atmosphere and various other intangibles I, admittedly, am at a loss to put into words at the moment.
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They call it "The inaccuracies of nostalgia."

[Minionman]

I'm probably the only person hoping for a civilization/space colonizing type game with some story. Diablo has all the elements, a buch of different factions, different units for the sides, different areas to play on, demons, angels, and humans seem pretty balanced in power, advantages, and disadvantages. Blizzard is already fooling around with mixing up franchise game types, so this isn't that much of an imagination stretch for me.

[Hammerskjold]

> Who is this "Tesla" person?

I'm guessing this guy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

[Obi2Kenobi]

It's from Red Alert, not C&C, and I could've sworn it was from Albert. Who is this "Tesla" person?
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It's Einstein, not Tesla. Allow me to show my true nerdiness and get offended by someone getting it wrong. :) And yes, the Tesla he's referring to is Nikola Tesla, famed German (?) scientist who worked a lot with eletricity.

[Walkiry]

If Diablo 3 really is in the works (even if on the most basic of design levels) I would hope that they could go back and capture what made the original Diablo a great game. Granted, Diablo 2 was a decent game, but what made the original great was the atmosphere and various other intangibles I, admittedly, am at a loss to put into words at the moment.

I do know exactly what made (for me, of course) Diablo better than Diablo 2.

Click.Click.Click.Click.Click.

If you're thinking of the massive button clicking, close, but no. It was the timing.

In Diablo things happened in a perfect ordered manner. You could almost hear the ticks of the clock, 0.05 seconds each, click click click. The fact that the game was tiled helped that much. The flow of the game was great, and it was quite possible to have it under control in many different ways.

Click.Click.Click.

Diablo 2 was not the same, combat was fast and furious, and although controlling it was entirely possible, it had a much different feeling. To put it this way, there was no order or harmony.

I've played a lot of Diablo 2, and I've most certainly enjoyed it, but it was not the same ;)

[Archon_Wing]

Fools! Now that Blizzard has had numerous individuals hooked on their products, it's pretty obvious what the next project will be: World Domination!!

[Assur]

[quote=Archon_Wing,Oct 8 2004, 05:10 AM]
Fools! Now that Blizzard has had numerous individuals hooked on their products, it's pretty obvious what the next project will be: World Domination!!

Uh-oh, it certainly makes sense
:ph34r:

[Brista]

My bet is: Diablo 3 is coming next.

Could be, but

1) Why keep it quiet?
2) Do they have the personnel for it?

[Guest]

WoW would be a good reason "why".

It would make sense to wait till several months after WoW is released before drawing any attention to yet another fanatasy RP game. You waste valuable hype and publicity if you overlap too much.