A recap on the Diablo III rumours
A new splash image is up at Blizzard.com and tradition tells us that this means a new game. Strong indications say that it's Diablo 3.
The announcement is most likely to be made this weekend at Blizzard's
World Wide Invitational in Paris, where GosuGamers will be on-the-spot.
# Diablo I and II was originally developed by a company that, after Blizzard bought them, has been known as Blizzard North. In 2005, Blizzard North was moved and integrated with Blizzard's head quarters in Irvine.
Gaming Steve, claims that Diablo III was completed but "wasn't fun" and thus moved to the main head quarters where "the bigwigs in Irvine could better track and follow the development of [Diablo 3]".
Even if that would not be true, Blizzard stated that the team previously known as Blizzard North "will continue work on an unannounced project".
# April 2005, DiabloII.net reported that they got an email from a Czech musician who said the following:
"I have recently been to Bratislava in Slovak Republic for recording sessions with local Radio Symphony Orchestra, where we just recorded music for Diablo 3"
That is, according to GameSpot, the exact same location and orchestra that recorded the official music for Diablo II's expansion back, four months before the pack was released.
# In early 2006, Blizzard looked for people who could be working with "the team behind Diablo I and II" (old Blizzard North) to develop "an unannounced PC project".
# In the end of 2006, Richard A. Knaak, the author of several Diablo books, said in an interview with BlizzPlanet about his new Diablo book that he is "not writing for a dead world... but a world with dead. 'nuff said!", when answering a question whether or not Diablo III would come out.
# In July 2007, Blizzard told GamaSutra that they have a total of 2,700 employees where at least three different teams work with game development.
The StarCraft II team consist of 40 people, the World of WarCraft team are 135 and "team 3" are 40 people. Team 3, most likely the team previously known as Blizzard North (who made Diablo I and II), are "working on something really awesome. I can’t give you any hints, but it’s totally awesome", Frank Pearce told GamaSutra.
# At World Wide Invitation this weekend, a press conference has been scheduled right after the 'opening' presentation of WWI. The conference, scheduled to 13.00, has no title yet.
There's a lot more of this kind of information but this should give you a brief overview of the Diablo III related rumours. Note that we have not covered the details or rumours about any other possible game, even though such rumours might exist.
Updates
# Monday, 23, 18.11 CET:
The speculations continue as for whether or not this is Diablo III. WorldofWar.net claims to have solved the splash screen by finding that the image contains artwork from Arthas' runeblade. They made the conclusion that it's not Diablo III because of this.
Nonetheless, the tradition says that a new splash screen is always a new game, not a beta, patch or anything else. The only exception to this rule was when the current Battle.net website was released.
The second expansion to World of WarCraft, called Wrath of the Lich King, and StarCraft II, has already been announced. That most likely rules out the possibility of this being a new game in either of those series. That leaves us with Diablo and WarCraft, unless a new series is to be introduced or a really old one revided (Lost Vikings, anyone?).
It does indeed look like Arthas' runeblade. At this point, another WarCraft game seems unlike and that leaves us with the guess that this is a diversion rather than anything else.
Diversion or not -- we'll see about that. If Blizzard are true to the tradition, next splash image should be published around early morning tomorrow (Tuesday).
Links
Blizzard.com - Check the splash screen
