Difference between revisions of "Diablo 3"
(→References) |
(→References) |
||
Line 287: | Line 287: | ||
=References= | =References= | ||
− | < | + | <small> |
1. [http://www.wowguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9257 http://www.wowguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9257] | 1. [http://www.wowguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9257 http://www.wowguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9257] | ||
− | 2. [http://kotaku.com/gaming/diablo-3/diablo-3-trashed-116290.php http://kotaku.com/gaming/diablo-3/diablo-3-trashed-116290.php] | + | <br>2. [http://kotaku.com/gaming/diablo-3/diablo-3-trashed-116290.php http://kotaku.com/gaming/diablo-3/diablo-3-trashed-116290.php] |
− | 3. [http://www.gamingsteve.com/archives/2006/02/rumor_diablo_ii.php http://www.gamingsteve.com/archives/2006/02/rumor_diablo_ii.php] | + | <br>3. [http://www.gamingsteve.com/archives/2006/02/rumor_diablo_ii.php http://www.gamingsteve.com/archives/2006/02/rumor_diablo_ii.php] |
− | 5. [http://www.gamespot.com/news/6130138.html http://www.gamespot.com/news/6130138.html] | + | <br>5. [http://www.gamespot.com/news/6130138.html http://www.gamespot.com/news/6130138.html] |
− | 6. [http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/02/11/news_6118466.html http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/02/11/news_6118466.html] | + | <br>6. [http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/02/11/news_6118466.html http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/02/11/news_6118466.html] |
− | 7. [http://www.netwars.pl/modules.php?name=news&id=3751 http://www.netwars.pl/modules.php?name=news&id=3751] | + | <br>7. [http://www.netwars.pl/modules.php?name=news&id=3751 http://www.netwars.pl/modules.php?name=news&id=3751] |
− | 8. [http://pc.ign.com/articles/456/456138p1.html http://pc.ign.com/articles/456/456138p1.html] | + | <br>8. [http://pc.ign.com/articles/456/456138p1.html http://pc.ign.com/articles/456/456138p1.html] |
− | </ | + | </small> |
[[category:diablo3]] | [[category:diablo3]] |
Revision as of 23:28, 13 April 2008
Diablo III, or Diablo Online, or the sequel to Diablo II, remains a mystery. Blizzard has never made any official comment on the game, other than frequently giving vague statements about how they're "interested in continuing all of our popular game worlds in future titles." Despite their lack of official confirmations, enough disparate bits of information have been assembled to (all but) prove that another game in the Diablo series has been in the works for years and years.
Contents
Timeline
A very brief chronological history of important dates in the development of the next Diablo title. All events in this timeline are elaborated on elsewhere on this page.
- June 28, 2000. Diablo II released.
- Late 2000. Preliminary work begins on Diablo III.
- June 29, 2001. Diablo II Expansion released.
- May 28, 2003. The "Big Four" resign from Blizzard North. (Bill Roper, plus Blizzard North company founders Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer, and David Brevik.)
Flagship Studios founded by Bill Roper, Max Schaefer, Erich Schaefer, and David Brevik. Joining them as co-founders are six other principles
- June 11, 2003. Rick Seis named new head of Blizzard North.
?? 2nd bliz north project shelved indefinitely.
- August 1, 2005. Blizzard North officially closed, employees offered severance or a transfer to Blizzard's Irvine HQs. The one remaining ongoing project (widely presumed to be Diablo III) put on hold pending a thorough review.
The Rumor Mill
Aside from numerous small rumors about Diablo III, most of them clearly speculative and hopeful predictions about impending announcement/release dates, there have been a few major rumors, the accuracy of which remains to be determined.
Early Work Trashed
It's known and confirmed through private channels (though not officially by Blizzard) that the version of Diablo III the Diablo II team had been working at Blizzard North was dumped and the game's development was essentially began anew, from scratch, in late 2003 after Blizzard North was shut down. Why the new Diablo III team didn't continue on with the initial version of the game is unknown; the new team might have wanted to do their own game, the original version might have been too similar to what WoW became, or too similar to what Diablo II was, or it might not have been very good. That's what Brian Crecente reported 2 on Kotaku on August 8, 2005:
I just got an interesting update about Diablo 3. Rumor has it that the current work on Diablo 3 was canceled and that the game is going to be completely reworked. My tipsters tell me that Blizzard North's work on the game was, to put it kindly, below expectations. While this is mildly disappointing, it's nice to know that Blizzard still so zealously guards their name.
This news does help paint a broader picture about the closing of Blizzard North. I'm not saying the two incidents are related, but they may be.
Diablo III Takes Place in Heaven
The next big rumor about Diablo III turned up about a year later. As the tale goes, a Blizzard employee named Chris Hartgraves left the company in late 2005, and promptly spilled all he knew about ongoing projects at Blizzard. In an email posted on a World of Warcraft fansite forum 1 on October 28, 2005, Chris was quoted saying the following about Diablo III:
It is about Diablo 3. Last week they had a thing called "Show N Tell" which they have every 6 months to all the full time employees - Anyways Diablo 3 takes place in heaven. Hell is trying to take it over and it is AWESOME looking ... I magine the brightness of heaven being taken over by the darkness of hell ... Imagine WoW but in a Diablo world in amount of size and playability ... Also, guild housing is available in this game for those of you who know about it. They should have a gameplay demo to show at BlizzCon.
There was no way to confirm this account of Diablo III, since, contrary to Hartgraves' prediction, the game did not debut at the 2005 BlizCon, and still hasn't made an appearance, more than 2.5 years later. That it might debut as early as 2005 was highly unlikely, since it was known (though not publicly) that
That doesn't do much to argue for Hartgraves' claims, and they would be forgotten by now if not for the fact that he also said Starcraft II was under production long before it was officially announced. He also made several predictions about World of Warcraft in the same email, and most of them turned out to be accurate.
Hartgraves' Diablo III comments were echoed, or backed up, by a pointless obscure post3 GamingSteve.com, on February 3, 2006.
I don't want to get any of my friends at Blizzard in trouble, so from instead of mentioning "Diablo III" let's call this theoretical game "Beelzebub 3" and instead of "Blizzard" let's call them "Snowstorm".
"Snowstorm" is indeed working on "Beelzebub 3". Not only are they working on it, but they have been working on this game for no less than the past four years. In fact, "Snowstorm North" nearly completed the game several years ago, but what they developed just "wasn't fun" and been quietly reworked. This was actually one of the key reasons why Snowstorm North was closed and everyone was relocated to Irvine-based Snowstorm, so that the bigwigs in Irvine could better track and follow the development of Beelzebub 3.
...It is true that Beelzebub 3 will be done in true 3D and it did indeed look freaking awesome. It is also true that Beelzebub 3 features a story between the conflicts of Heaven and Hell and contains a very cool feature where every single item in the game can change between a "light" version and a "dark" version. However this was also one of the problems with the original version of the game. Other than the ability for any item to visually change from light to dark it didn't affect the actual stats of the item or change the gameplay in any way. So the game has gone through a total rework to inject some "fun" into the gameplay and to make it feel like the Beelzebubs of old.
The core gameplay Beelzebub 3 will play pretty much like Beelzebub 1 and 2, but the game world will be much larger and provide a much deeper experience -- many more items, more levels when you go through the game for first time, more skills, more of everything. In addition, the multiplayer aspect will be greatly enhanced from the past installments and don't be surprised to see more than a couple of WoW-based concepts to leak over into the Beelzebub 3 universe ... such as two opposing factions (Alliance and Horde = Heaven and Hell), enhanced guild functionality, and maybe even mounts?!
Like the leak from Hartgraves, there's no confirmation of this yet, and it's been more than two years since it was posted. The plot concept, of the game being set in the Heavens, is logical. After all, players descended into the Hells in Act Four of Diablo II, the game world's mythology features numerous battles between the Angels and the Demons, and there's constant interference/assistance from the archangel Tyrael. Most of the other predictions are pretty common sense too; of course the game is fully in 3D, and of course there will be expanded online play, guild housing, faction warfare, and so forth. Those features are all but mandatory in an online RPG these days.
Blizzard North Upheavals
Blizzard North was founded by the creators of the Diablo series, and they were allowed to remain at their own location in the Bay Area, despite the greater expenses this entailed, since the studio worked better as a semi-autonomous entity, and the guys running Blizzard North preferred the Bay Area and had the clout to call their own shots.
The Big Four Quit
The happy existence was rocked in late June, 2003, when the big four departed.
First somewhat shocked. PR from Blizzard about the departures. June 30, 2003.
More composed announcement later that day. Note the last sentence:
"I speak for everyone in our company when I say how grateful we are to have had the opportunity to work closely with this group of individuals. Each one of them has made valuable contributions to many of our games, and we would like to thank them for all of their hard work over the years. We wish them nothing but the best and are confident that they will be successful in their future endeavors," stated Mike Morhaime, Blizzard Entertainment president and co-founder.Blizzard does not believe that these resignations will cause any significant delays or have long-term negative effects on the "Diablo®" series or other projects in development.
"At the same time, we want to convey that Blizzard's success has never been attributable to any one person or small group of individuals, and I am confident that we have the teams in place to continue creating some of the best games in the world."
The last line was patently ridiculous, since one of the two projects underway at Blizzard North was frozen (apparently forever) shortly after the Big Four left, and development on the other project (assumed to be Diablo III) largely ground to a halt when most of the rest of the company quit, moving to Flagship, Castaway, or other Bay Area studios. Blizzard North was eventually shut down in late 2005.
Why They Quit
The basic reason the Big Four gave for quitting remained constant throughout dozens of interviews they gave in the months after the split. Here's what Bill Roper said about it in late 20037.
Actually, we didn't plan on leaving Blizzard, but that's the way things ended up working out. Basically, we were looking for a higher level of involvement concerning the sale of the Vivendi Universal Games unit and felt we had to go as far as tendering our resignations to try and open a direct line of communication with the decision makers in France. It was difficult to plan for our futures, and the futures of our co-workers, and with no long-term compensation or employment contracts in place, we wanted to be able to interact directly with the people making the key decisions that could drastically affect our lives and workplace.
In the end, Vivendi chose not to make that opportunity available and accepted our resignations over the matter. But going forward, we look at this as a great new opportunity to start all over again doing something we love. Life threw us a curve but, to use a baseball analogy, we're aiming to drive it out of the park.
Another major issue various of the Big Four have cited was that they wanted to get back to making games, rather than running a business. There were nearly 50 employees at Blizzard North in early 2003, and due to Blizzard's organization scheme and parent company, communication was difficult and the company heads had to spend far more time than they wanted to spend on management, company business, and other administrative tasks. Bill Roper elaborated on this to IGN8 on October 22, 2003, when talking about their plans with Flagship:
We want to keep the company a lot smaller. When we left Blizzard North was up to two teams and was part of Blizzard overall. That was a lot of people to interact with and maintain ties with. We ended up getting in to much more management and much less making games. We want to get back to (as close as we can) spending all day every day making games, not figuring out how to keep 50 or 100 or 200 people all happy and working together. That's one of the bigger changes.
There has always been a great deal of speculation about other possible reasons: did they want to make Diablo III an MMO but were shot down since World of Warcraft was going to be Blizzard's MMO? Did they want to make a new game world but weren't allowed to since Diablo was the franchise? Were they lacking in creative freedom as part of a large company that didn't let them make the final decisions on their own title?
Some or all of these might have been issues, but if so none have been hinted at by the Big Four, and they have been very consistent with the reasons they have given, so it doesn't seem like any controversy is required to explain things.
Blizzard North Shut Down
August 1, 2005. 5 Gamespot:
The team behind the enormously popular Diablo franchise--most recently known as Blizzard North, the Bay Area outpost of Irvine, Calif-based Blizzard Entertainment--has been officially shuttered. Arguably, the office was moribund for months, those with ties to the Diablo franchise having departed months or even years ago to form studios of their own.In a statement today, Blizzard president and founder Mike Morhaime said the relocation will "improve our efficiency as a company" and "represents an opportunity for all of our teams to have regular, direct input on each other's projects."
Those from Blizzard North who were offered relocation packages "will continue work on an unannounced project," which most believe is the third installment in the hugely popular Diablo series.
Many employees took the offer to remain with Blizzard and relocate to Irvine. Others did not, and many more joined Flagship Studios, or looked for other work in the Bay Area.
Blizzard Job Openings
Over the years there have been numerous job openings posted on Blizzard's Jobs Page that strongly hint at a connection to Diablo III. One was so obvious it made Gamespot's Rumor Control page6 on February 11, 2005.
RUMOR: Blizzard is hiring developers for Diablo III.
Source: A job listing on Blizzard's Web site.
The official story: "We can't comment. Sorry!"--A nice-but-reticent Blizzard rep.
What we heard: While many people consider the hack-and-slash-happy World of Warcraft to be Diablo's spiritual successor, that hasn't stopped rumors about an outright sequel from circulating. That speculation spiked this week when Blizzard posted a job listing for "an experienced Game Designer to help lead the team that designed Diablo and Diablo II." Besides the requisite experience, Blizzard would like said designer to have "Experience working on RPG titles." Given that description, the Diablo III theory would seem like a logical conclusion, even though Blizzard won't even acknowledge the game's existence. But given the Diablo series' legendary status, development of a new installment would seem to be an inevitability, if not already an open secret.
Bogus or not bogus?: Probably not bogus.
In the years since then, many more such openings have been posted, many of them giving every indication that they were for a game in the Diablo series.
Top Secret, Non-MMO?
This issue came to light in mid-2008. Blizzard lists the job openings on their Employment Opportunities page with an icon for the game the job is connected to. Their only announced projects (as of April 2008) are Starcraft II and World of Warcraft. They have icons for those two games, and another Top Secret icon for other project(s). The interesting part is that of the 25 or so Top Secret jobs, roughly half mention Diablo II, and the other half mention "Next Gen MMO. Yet none of those listings say both "Diablo II" and "Next Gen MMO."For example, here's a typical Diablo series job listing:
Lead 3D Level Designer
The team behind Diablo I and II is looking for a skilled lead 3D level designer with experience building levels using Maya or other similar 3D level building tools. The ideal candidate has experience creating levels in a senior or lead role on a shipped game. We would also like for this candidate to have excellent analytical understanding of competitive online play with various Blizzard Entertainment games and mods (real-time strategy, World of Warcraft, Defense of the Ancients, etc.).
A typical Next Gen MMO opening reads like this:
Lead 3D Character Artist - Next-Gen MMO
Blizzard Entertainment is looking for an exceptionally skilled lead 3D character artist for a team focused on next-generation massively multiplayer online games. The ideal candidate has extensive experience modeling and texturing a diverse visual range of characters and creatures at a senior or lead level. A solid grasp of form, structure, color, and light for both 2D and 3D art assets is essential. The lead 3D character artist must have experience leading a team, have skill in another art task as well (illustration, modeling, texturing, animation, or concept drawing), and be well-versed in related tools -- Maya, Photoshop, etc. The ideal candidate also works well in an environment with peers that are passionate about making great games.
Note that there is no mention of any specific game; not Diablo, or even World of Warcraft.
Possible conclusions:
- The Diablo series game is not an MMO.
- The Diablo game can't be that close to completion, not with 5 key design job openings, including Lead 3D Level Designer, Senior 3D Level Designer, Senior Game Designer, 3D Level Designer, and Associate 3D Level Designer.
- Blizzard is working on a next gen MMO, and it's very early in the process, since all they're hiring are artists and not level designers.
- The Diablo game is a next gen MMO, and Blizzard is being careful not to mention both in the same job opening since that might tip their hand.
Key Events
Other important facts relating to Diablo III's development.
Work began on a third title in the Diablo series shortly after Diablo II was completed, in June 2000. This fact was alluded to in various interviews and comments by the D2 team, and more obviously in various biographies. For instance, when the Blizzard North exodus began in mid-2003, three of the key team members, Mike Scandizzo, Stefan Scandizzo, and
http://castawayentertainment.com/about.html
Stefan joined Blizzard Entertainment in 1998 as a level designer. While at Blizzard, he developed key functional elements for Diablo II’s random maze generation and also created much of the dungeon layouts using both his artistic and programming skills. He continued his level designing in Diablo II’s expansion: Lord of Destruction . In 2000, Stefan started producing 3D monsters for the character team for an unannounced upcoming sequel. Stefan worked for Blizzard for five years.
July 13, 2007
Third project underway. Not Starcraft Ghost. WoW and SC2 and _______.
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=14691 Talking to Gamasutra, Frank Pearce, founding member and senior vice president of product development for Blizzard revealed that the company has a third team hard at work on a new title, separate from World of Warcraft and StarCraft II.
The comment came amid discussion of the company's current workforce. "Our global headcount is 2,700," said Pearce, "And most of that is customer service for World of Warcraft! In terms of development staff it’s probably around 350. World of Warcraft is about 135 people, 40 for Starcraft II, 40 for team 3, our cinematics team is about 85 guys. Then there’s sound and Q/A and that sort of thing."
When pressed for details regarding the new project, Pearce was cagey. "Team 3 is working on something really awesome. I can’t give you any hints, but it’s totally awesome."
August 5, 2007
"Diablo ... well, it is obviously a very important franchise to us. And I would say, that as with Starcraft and Warcraft, we will certainly get back to it at some point. We are focusing currently on World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and content associated with World of Warcraft and Starcraft II. We do have some other things in development, and we are not ready to talking about it yet, but what I can say is that we do love that franchise. And its something that we will get to revisit at some point." -- Paul Sams, Blizzard VP of Business Operations
October 26, 2006
BlizzPlanet [1] with Richard Knaak, author of some of the Diablo novels.
Question: How much of the book is creation of yours, and how involved is Chris Metzen behind the canon storyline of Diablo: The Sin War Trilogy? Do you think the ramifications of this book impact in the storyline of Diablo 3 the game?Knaak: I am not writing for a dead world ... but a world with dead. 'nuff said!
Knaak: This is a pure collaboration between myself and Chris Metzen/Blizzard. All that is written is passed by him and the others there. This will be canon and has adjusted earlier info. The ramifications here will be used for any future project ... and I ain't writing for a dead game. :)
Question: So ... Diablo 3?
June 14, 2006
Some confusion after media coverage of a Vivendi Games presentation reported that all future bliz games would be mmos, thanks to the massive success of wow. Official refutation from bliz via their forums.
I believe this was a misquote. We haven't announced any specific development plans beyond the upcoming expansion for World of Warcraft, and we don't have any intentions to focus on only one genre or platform with our future games.
May 11, 2006
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/worldofwarcraftexp1/news.html?sid=6150919
When asked by GameSpot if the Warcraft universe was all that's left for the company to mine, chief operating officer Paul Sams said, "No. Absolutely not. We have multiple games in development, currently, they are just not announced...to the outside world--and the reality of it is--we are laser focused on what is the thing right then, but there's a ton of additional focus being put toward these other [games] that are in development."
Reflecting on the existing franchises, Sams emphasized, "World of Warcraft and the Warcraft franchise is not the last and the only franchise we are going to operate within. We have two other very, very key franchises to our company's history and to our company's future success. The Diablo and Starcraft franchises are of the utmost importance to us as well. I wouldn't be surprised to see a new franchise from us at some time in the future; there's certainly a desire to do so."
A PR rep later expanded on Sams' statement, clarifying that not only were there "multiple games" in development, but that Blizzard was considering "multiple platforms" for those titles. The spokesperson confirmed that the company was looking at both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, but that a decision as to which platform might get the nod had not been made.
February 2, 2006
Gamespot picks up news about all the Diablo II team positions in new jobs on the bliz site. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6143594.html
December 1, 2005
Site visitor Parke popped a note over to say that Hyboreal Games have changed the wording of Michio Okamura biography on the official site to read "unannounced project" instead of "unannounced sequel". Another indication that Diablo III was/is in the works and Hyboreal thought it best to change the text? The plot thickens.
Update: Lanth mailed in to point out this tidbit from Stefan Scandizzo's bio on the Castaway Games website:
He continued his level designing in Diablo II’s expansion: Lord of Destruction. In 2000, Stefan started producing 3D monsters for the character team for an unannounced upcoming sequel.
Stefan worked on D2 and D2X, before leaving Bliz North back in 2003.
October 28, 2005
Wild and wow expansion rumors from an alleged former bliz employee. the wow stuff turned out to be quite accurate, but the d3 is still classified entirely as rumor. Now 2.5 year old rumor.
Blizzard will also use the BlizzCon event to introduce Diablo 3 to gamers and if the excitement of Blizzard employees is anything to go by, the game will be a big deal. According to a message sent to WoW Guru by former Blizzard employee Chris Hartgraves, Diablo 3 takes place in heaven. Hell is trying to take it over and it is AWESOME looking ... Imagine the brightness of heaven being taken over by the darkness of hell ... Imagine WoW but in a Diablo world in amount of size and playability ... Also, guild housing is available in this game for those of you who know about it. They should have a gameplay demo to show at BlizzCon.
August 1, 2005
Blizzard North studios shut down and blizzard operations centralized in Irvine. Most of the long time Bliz North employees have already quit; most of the rest do now, many joining Flagship Studios, Castaway Studios, or other companies.
"We're looking forward to having our PC development teams together in Irvine," stated Mike Morhaime, president and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. "In addition to improving our efficiency as a company, the relocation also represents an opportunity for all of our teams to have regular, direct input on each other's projects."Blizzard does not believe that these changes will cause significant delays on any of its projects in development. The company released its subscription-based massively multi-player online role-playing game, World of Warcraft, at the end of 2004 and is continuing work on StarCraft: Ghost, its upcoming tactical-action console game set in the award-winning StarCraft universe. Plans for future products will be revealed at a later date.
April 27, 2005
d3 music recording session? http://www.diabloii.net/newsupdates/archive/arc9.php
We received an email today from a Diablo fan and classical musician in the Czech Republic.
I am musician in Czech Republic. I play not with one orchestra but with many depending on work. 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.
For some historical perspective, check the Battle.net page with the D2X:LoD bonus mp3s. Scroll down a bit and you can read news and see pictures from Blizzard's recording session for the D2X music, held in Bratislava, Slovakia, with the Slovak Radio Philharmonic. Those sessions were carried out in early 2001, before the game's release that June, so perhaps D3 is further along than we've been assuming? Either that or they're recording the music earlier in the game's production cycle than they did for D2X.
Update: More from the musician:
I did not find the people from Blizzard in the studio, but composer (Ulman?) was there and conductor was named Kirk Trevor, I think he is from England but he conducts in Bratislava much and also in some other cities in Czech Republic like Zlin.
The music is again, like in Diablo 2 expansion, very much based on Wagner. In Diablo 2 expansion there are many plases in Act 5 that take directly from Wagners opera "Tristan and Isolde". This time for Diablo 3 there was music similar to Wagner operas "Lohengrin" and also "Siegfried" from Ring cycle. But this is not so bad that he takes from these things, almost all movie composers borow Wagner music, like Williams for Star Wars and others like Nino Rota who made music for Fellini's films.
So now when Diablo 3 is finished I must buy, maybe I will hear all my mistakes (I play percusion instruments).
Unannounced Projects
While Sams wasn't ready to spill the beans just yet, he did say Blizzard "will have a major product announcement in 2007," and that Blizzard was currently working on at least three other unannounced titles at the moment." -- IGN, 8-28-06
Domain Names and Trademarks
Blizzard Entertainment owns numerous domain names for future Diablo products. www.diablo3.eu www.diablo3.es Diablo4.fr
May 28, 2004 diablo2.fr, diablo3.fr. vivendi owned.
Diablo II: Salvation was a title Blizzard registered years ago, apparently to use for a potential Diablo movie. I remembered hearing the name long ago, and a search turned it up in our news archives, way back on 27, 2001. Since they haven't done anything with it yet, I think we can chalk it up to just another trademark bought and not used. This happens all the time in business, which is why we aren't getting too excited about that "The Burning Crusade" trademark.
Ricard sends word that on 24th March 2006 Blizzard registered the diablo3.es (Spain) domain. They recently also aquired the diablo3.de domain from a third party.
People
July 2003: Big 4 leave Bliz North, many others follow them. Flagship Studios announced shortly afterwards.
July 11, 2003: Blizzard names Rick Seis new head of Bliz north.
REDWOOD CITY, CA – September 6, 2005 - Castaway Entertainment is proud to announce that former Blizzard North studio lead Rick Seis has accepted the position of Technical Director and lead programmer for their current unannounced project.
References
1. http://www.wowguru.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9257
2. http://kotaku.com/gaming/diablo-3/diablo-3-trashed-116290.php
3. http://www.gamingsteve.com/archives/2006/02/rumor_diablo_ii.php
5. http://www.gamespot.com/news/6130138.html
6. http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/02/11/news_6118466.html
7. http://www.netwars.pl/modules.php?name=news&id=3751
8. http://pc.ign.com/articles/456/456138p1.html