DiabloFans

They always choose to announce things in the US or in Asia, tho! Unfair!
At least we get the games at the same time

in Europe its just the same

Hellgate sounds promising but just doesnt feel right. I'm not sure i'll buy it, especially if theres more new content in WoW. There's still Lord of the Rings Online to play if i get bored too

just as StarCraft II was a WoW expansion?
We cant be sure of anything. For a WoW expansion beta it would be too early (an overkill to us players if it comes out too early). For Diablo III beta it would be too early too. Its not even announced yet. But, then, why didnt they say "StarCraft II beta keys"?

Of course they might aswell play with words again. They might announce a game in BlizzCon 2007 this August, but the beta keys could aswell be StarCraft II.
They said before its announcement "We have nothing to say about StarCraft II at present." and 30 days later they announced it. With the same logic StarCraft II is an upcoming Blizzard game, is it not?

D2 oldschool online PvP and questing was the ultimate gameing pleasure.

actually questing and pvp was completely primitive in Diablo 2.

Blizz making a new MMO franchise to be released in say 2 years would be a very bad desision (in 4-5 years ok), do you have any idea how much money and people it costs to keep WoW running?

i actually do, only about 15% of the total income from the WoW subscriptions is profit. Server maintenance, buying new servers, paying for the bug fixing and (content) patch development, 24/7 online customer support, forum moderation etc cost money and they have quite a few employees working in that. And i do agree that making a new MMO every 2 years would be a disaster. WoW is now 3 years old. If their next MMO comes out within 2-3 years it should be the timing they said they'd stop supporting WoW (on announcement they said they'd support it with expansions every year for 5-6 years). I'm not in the industry so i cant say for sure, but it looks to me that they'd have more income if they made a more "mature" MMO and got back people they lost to all of the new MMORPGs we see lately.

There will atleast be one more expansion pack to WoW, people that are in MMO and have been playing WoW on a regular base will keep playing it, some will lose interest, some will gain interest with new expansions, so i dont see WoW being in that much trouble.

thats certain, yes. There already are textures of Northrend in the latest patch, and there have been Emerald Dream textures since the Scourge Invasion patch. WoW isnt in trouble yet. But after a couple years? I'm not too sure. If we started killing major lore characters now, what will we do for the next couple years?

Besides a new MMO doesnt equal bigger revenue, lets say the new MMO will do as well as WoW did (this is the best kind of result in that senario) there would still be a lot of players swiching to the new MMO.
This isnt good business at all. (even in a very good senario)
Two MMO's is almost always losses. (or they have to be very different in nature so people would consider paying both, and one thing with mmo's is that they are quite simmilar)

again, good in theory. But there already are companies that keep multiple MMORPGs up at the same time and have profit. Just as NCsoft has game cards for all of their games, they could easily have packages to include them all too. And even if some people dont see it that way, many players (WoW and all MMORPGs alike) pay attention to the story. A Diablo MMO has a completely different (just as Starcraft that i wouldnt like much tho) setting and offers completely different opportunities to make the game nothing like the "other". It would definitely be hard to keep the profit, but since i'm not in the industry i'm not in a position to tell.
Anyway, its getting to theoretical. Odds say it wont be an MMO just yet. But we'll find out in time.

turning Diablo into a MMO would draw a lot of custormers away from WoW ( Since i'm sure mostly were & are Diablo fans ).

WoW lost and looses people to Lord of the Rings Online, EverQuest 2 (and to come, Age of Conan and Warhammer Online). Another MMO would just get them back, or keep them in the company, which isnt that bad for Blizzard since people that pay monthly stay to them, no matter for which game they stay. WoW is a social phenomenon now. Its not about Diablo players that got bored over the years, or Warcraft fans. Everyone knows WoW and most have tried it at least once too.

But that being said, i'm sure sooner or later a new Game will problaly draw the WoW players away, even with a new Expansion..

for some people it just lost interest. I know quite a few people myself. A new game (especially a darker one) might bring people back to Blizzard or "steal" people from other games. However i dont believe they'll make such a move just yet. Diablo has a very good setting for a pvp oriented mmorpg, but i dont think its time for it. They might have it in the back of their heads, or even in development, but i do expect a Diablo III before that. (I however have nothing to support my theory as i'm not in Blizzard - its just what i think of it).

Aint gonna happen, look at WoW, it began as Warcraft 3 with lots of rpg and it ended up with 2 games, Warcraft 3 (with much less rpg then planned in the beginning) and WoW (with lots more rpg and mmo then planned in beginning)

dont infect another thread with that crap, there's the other one still not finished.

ok, my mistake on the colors, havent played Diablo II in a while. Still, they were different colored for each of the prime evils.

each soulstone had a different color. Diablos was red. Mephistos more like yellow/golden. Baals was green/yellow sort of combination. Prolly it doesnt have to do with Diablo, but it was a nice thought anyway. We all know Blizzard doesnt give pointers that early. The most encouraging thing is that we havent heared of anythign else they might be preparing (except for the WoW expansion thats bit too early to have a beta).

didnt notice that before. it indeed looks like a soulstone.

every BlizzCon shows all franchises. Theres always a contest for the best fan pictures for each franchise. Many rumors come out lately though, with best the "beta keys for an upcoming Blizzard game". And that comes from Blizzard. Wondering if they'll fool us again with "hey its Starcraft II beta, what did you expect?" or if we'll see Diablo III and will just go mental

to be honest, i'd prefer a way darker MMO world if they decide to make one out of Diablo. But first i really want to see Diablo III. Hell, i'd play Diablo II again if they made a version with a new graphics engine. So good and fast hack & slash with awesome cinematics arent in the market anymore (except for Diablo 2 that is).

too pvp oriented and there wouldnt be any chance for people from different factions to do something else than kill each other. I think they'd come with another game style like that. Still havent thought about it that much, though, i always thought its too far in the future.

i wouldnt mind a Diablo MMO and it would sound possible. But, well... who knows for sure? i got tired of assuming without anything to support my assumptions. A Diablo MMO wouldnt be that easy to plan, though. This would mean that especially the 7 forces of Evil and the 7 forces of Light (if there would be 2 factions and the "raid" content wouldnt be the same for both) wouldnt be availiable for years. If Diablo dies (early) so dies the game. Lets hope Blizzard will throw us a hint about BlizzCon 2007 and if there's gonna be an announcement there.

there arent any leaks from Blizzard. Anything that might come out, does only when they intend to and suits their marketing policy more. I really hope for a surprise. Would be awesome to have Diablo III announced together with its beta. Its just not that possible to happen.