J. Allen Brack talked with Gamespot about the several changes made to regions like Darkshore, Azshara and other locations.
StrategyInformer interviewed David Kosak and Greg Street (Ghostcrawler). Greg jokes about having three games scheduled for release within a single year: Diablo III included. Was it a joke? Or maybe not? Can you imagine WoW X4, Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm and Diablo III released in 2012?
 Blizzard Quote: |
||
| Strategy Informer: Ok… do you know when you’re going to say something official?
Greg Street: Well, the World of Warcraft team is busy on World of Warcraft, and the RTS team is busy with Starcraft II, we don’t right now have enough bandwidth to tackle something like that. Strategy Informer: Well, this is rather odd – Blizzard don’t release games that often and now we have two in the space of a few months – it must be exciting times over at Blizzard HQ? David Kosak: *laughs* Yeah Greg Street: *laugh* Yeah, hopefully we’ll have Diablo III out soon as well, and then we’ll have three games in the pipe like that. | ||
Gamespot also interviewed Senior Art Director Samwise Didier who QQs about the changes of his home: The Barrens, which got split in half by Deathwing’s Cataclysm.
I don’t think his comment means that there will be 3 games coming down the pipe next time – I think he means that hopefully Diablo 3 will be out relatively soon. It’s anticipated to be released in 2011 not 2012.
From Blizzcon they said they hoped for beta to begin in early 2011 which would make for a 3rd or 4th quarter 2011 release.
The conditions for three games to be in the same pipeline, in terms of hypothesis, Diablo III would have to be released the same year as Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm and World of Warcraft: Unknown (expansion # 4).
Cataclysm was just released on December 7, 2010. The past WoW Expansions have been released more or less within a two year window.
November 23, 2008 (Wrath of the Lich King)
January 16, 2007 (Burning Crusade)
It took Blizzard around 22 months to ship Wrath of the Lich King after Burning Crusade’s release.
It took Blizzard 24 months and two weeks to ship Cataclysm after Wrath of the Lich King’s release.
Taking that in mind, the fourth expansion could take anywhere between 20-24 months.
20 months from December 7th, 2010 = August 2012
22 months from December 7th, 2010 = Oct 2012
24 months ” ” = December 2012
Either way anyone paints it the reality is the next WoW expansion won’t be out before 2012.
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty was released on July 27, 2010.
Starcraft was released on March 31, 1998.
The Brood War expansion was released on November 30, 1998.
Only problem here is Starcraft II is in 3D with more assets and technology. The staff back then was far less people than what the team is now. Each race story is divided into Episodes. I think I read somewhere the next episode would take approximately 18 months to ship (not set in stone).
Based on that projection, 18 months after July 27, 2010 is January 27, 2012. It may take longer or less.
It would be hard to have Diablo III, Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm and WoW X4 ship in 2011. That’s the point.
Greg Street was joking. That’s a fact. Yet, when you know something, and you can’t officially reveal it, you can sometimes vent off what you know through a joke. Now — that’s speculation. Fans love to speculate. Go to any forum and you will hear the most dubious conspiracy theories ever made. Speculation is amusing.
The point is he wasn’t hinting at 3 happening in a year… he was talking about how they released 2 now and hopefully Diablo will be coming soon.
With that said… Diablo 3 in 2011.
WoWX4 and SC2:HOS in 2012.
That’s my prediction based on what I overheard at Blizzcon.
“now we have two in the space of a few months” + “hopefully we’ll have Diablo III out soon as well, and then we’ll have three games in the pipe like that”
Sounded like Greg was speculating hopefully they can have three games in the space of a few months (within the same year). Not like that’s a fact or anything.