It looks like the Diablo III rumor mill has started up once again with a seemingly innocent post on the jobs section of the Blizzard web site. A few days ago they posted a job for an art director and various leads to join "the team behind Diablo I and II" for "an unannounced PC project." I have been getting some inquires since then if Blizzard is indeed working on Diablo III and when is it going to come out?
Well, before I answer let me mention a few things. First, 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". Second, my information is quality stuff, but it is a little old, so take that with a gain of salt. Third, err, well, there is no third, so let's get into what I know!
Let's the obvious out of way, "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.
As for what to expect in to see in Beelzebub 3, believe it or not but those rumors that were floating around a few months ago about the game were fairly accurate (by the way, I have no idea who started these rumors or where they came from). According to the rumors:
"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."
This information was pretty dead-on. 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?!
As for when Beelzebub 3 will released, that one is easy to answer ... when it's done. Snowstorm is in no rush to finish this game and will release it only after they feel it's perfect. And after the fiasco of StarCraft: Ghost -- which has been announced for years and is currently going through its second round of redesign and reprogramming -- Snowstorm is in no rush to announce Beelzebub 3. Don't except an announcement until the game is near completion.
But there is some good news; that "leak" on the Snowstorm jobs page was no accident. If they are starting to leak information about Beelzebub 3 then they are starting to get closer to a final release. Of course for Snowstorm something "getting close" can mean two years from now.
Hopefully that will hold everyone over for the short term. Hopefully Beelzebub 3 will be announced at the next E3, I'll try to find out more before then and give everyone the dirt as I get it.
