Blizzard Community Manager Zarhym confirmed that the company’s unannounced MMO project is based on a new IP  which has nothing to do with World of Warcraft, Starcraft II, or Diablo III.

Zarhym’s comment is part of an answer to a thread on the WoW forums that accuses Blizzard of laying aside future expansions for the popular MMO. He answers the challenge and gives an explanation of how the development process works in response to the thread “Blizzard going the way of SOE?”

Quote:
“I’ve heard that they are focusing on other projects. If this is true you can expect more of this, and less customer service/content. At this point they can just sit back and add some new arena/pvp gear every4-6 months and that’s it.”

Zarhym:
“This a common misconception. Such a misconception requires nothing but assumptions and misinformation to hold water. We have completely independent art and development teams for each project on which Blizzard Entertainment is working. Sure, people switch positions and may move to other projects from time to time. This is common practice in any company, whether or not the company develops games. But if a position is vacated, it is filled. You may have seen earlier this year that Jeff Kaplan, former game director for World of Warcraft, announced he would be leaving his position to begin work on the new, unannounced MMO. Tom Chilton stepped up to fill his role on the World of Warcraft development team. We’re never short on talent and our teams are constantly growing. There’s absolutely no reason or evidence to support the theory that we’ve shifted focus away from the Warcraft franchise. I’m surrounded by employees in this building working hard every day that can attest to this, were they not too busy working on a prioritized list of new content for this game to speak directly. ”

The Poster goes on to insinuate that there can’t be a new MMO because it hasn’t been advertised yet.
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I’m not usually one to litter the site with “This Game has Shipped!” announcements but the news that the console conversion of CDV/Ascaron’s Sacred 2 is out gives me a good opportunity to talk a little about the game and sing its praises to our readers here at Gaming Today.

So.. first the news:

Sacred 2 will be in stores soon. Its available for the Xbox 360, PS3 and Windows PC platforms. It will retail for around $50 US and you should consider buying it, the folks at CDV would really like that. (Ascaron might also if it hadn’t gone belly up the same day the game went gold – poor developers.)

Now, to the reason why I recommend Sacred 2: Simply, Sacred 2 is like Diablo II on crack after its gone out and finished its Masters degree in Mathematics.

Kill stuff, get loot, power up, kill more stuff. You know the basic formula.. but add in hot hi-tech angels, undead champions and robot dogs to the character list and you have a game that will hold over action RPG fanatics until the eventual release of Diablo III for every system known to man – probably iPhone as well.

Initially Sacred 2 can be a bit intimidating – there is a lot to grasp beyond shooting stuff and collecting loot but the conversion from PC game to Console title went very smoothly for this title. Simply equip a skill or weapon, map it to one of the controller buttons and go to town. Earn upgrades, equip loot, learn new magic powers and go forth to purge the enemies of your character. The game features two main campaigns and each of the character classes has a unique starting point that leads players to wander the world of Ancaria in search of action, adventure and T-energy.

The Console version also supports co-op and online multiplayer too so there is no need to venture out alone. While the game features a lot of generic “step and fetch” quests every once in a while you’ll run across some seriously funny quests that poke fun at the conventions of action RPGs and fantasy games in general. The comments of the characters as they die also should not be missed.

If you’re looking for some great insight into why Sacred 2 is worth your time you can read through Tom Chick’s Sacred 2 Game Diaries over at Fidgit.com. Tom speaks a good deal about the problems that plagued the PC version but also manages to capture the fun of Sacred 2 that I share.

Blizzard has updated the Diablo III website with five new screenshots from the game and three new bits of artwork. The screens show off the Barbarian, Witch Doctor and Wizard, with plenty of cool graphics and magic spells such as fire, lightening bolts, and otherworldly pets.

The artwork is the bandit city of Caldeum, a palace, and what looks like a dungeon. All are very cool and definitely worth taking a look at.

If you’re looking to get your hands on Diablo III sometime soon, well, don’t hold your breath. Many people thought the game might be nearing completion after Blizzard VP, Rob Pardo, mentioned at the developer’s World Wide Invitational that all the different classes and the first act were finished. Sadly, that isn’t exactly the case, mostly since their definition of “playable” doesn’t mean “done.” Bashiok, a Diablo CM with Blizzard, explains:

Just to clarify this was an interview with Rob at the announcement of the game at WWI, and just to avoid any conclusions drawn without watching the video here’s the quote:

“I think most of the other classes are actually playable back at the home office, but I’m not going to tell you about them today. And most of, kind of the first act, is also pretty playable, but we still have a long ways to go.”

So you’re quite a bit off from “all classes” and “all of act one” being finished. It’s really insubstantial information though, because anyone that understands the Blizzard development process and core values we’re all about iterating. It’s not done until it’s done.

As far as information releases go and current development everyone on the team is working really hard on the game, and it’s progressing really well, but we’re just kind of in a weird spot as far as new information releases go right now.

Most likely, Pardo’s comments were partly accurate: the first act can be played, but there’s still a lot of work needed to be done. They probably still need to do a lot of work on the graphics and animation before they can call it “done.” And since they’re working so hard on getting those sorts of kinks ironed out, we probably won’t be hearing much about the game itself anytime soon. In other word, I wouldn’t go adding Diablo III to your 2009 Christmas list just yet.

Seemingly every detail of Diablo 3 has sparked a controversy, from its art style to both of the first two character classes that been revealed. It’s not surprising given the sort of diehard fanbase the game’s predecessors have garnered, and even Diablo 3 lead designer Jay Wilson admitted to VideoGamer.com that he would hate Blizzard too if he were just a fan. But what he said after that was what really caught the eye — that the third Diablo 3 class will seem familiar to series vets.

“All the barbarian players are delighted and all the necromancers hate us. I understand, I don’t begrudge them that. I would hate me too! But what I would say is that when we announce the next class, which is quite similar to a previous class, then all those players will hate us too. You can’t make everybody happy, but I think when the game finally come out players will find there’s a good class for them, one they will love as much as the ones that came before. And if they don’t, I absolutely promise that in the expansions we’ll consider bringing back old classes. We just don’t want to do it with the first release. We want to establish our identity.”

The comparisons between the Necromancer and Witch Doctor aren’t difficult to draw, and it sounds like the next class will be another reinvention of an existing class. We know the decision to reinvent the Necromancer was simply a matter of being unable to improve any further on a class Blizzard believed to be nearly perfect. Looking at the remaining roster of Diablo II characters and looking at what Diablo III is lacking so far, it’s easy to imagine a new Sorceress-type class or a Druid-Amazon hybrid. Personally, I plan on holding out hope that this new class draws upon the Paladin. I won’t be mad if you make it happen, Blizzard. Promise.

Considering it was announced long before Diablo III, you’d think Starcraft II would be the next new game releasing from Blizzard, right? Not so, according to the latest rumor. An anonymous source apparently tipped off BattleForums, saying that the development of the Starcraft sequel has been postponed for the most part until Diablo III is ready for launch. They’ve even shifted around the teams as such:

[Starcraft 2] is still being worked on, but only by a minuscule amount of people compared to what [Blizzard] put on the Diablo 3 team.

Personally, I’ll be happy with either game, though I do wonder if this means we’ll have to wait even longer for a new Blizzard title. It’s also kind of strange that Blizzard would do this now, since everything I’ve seen of Starcraft II lately makes it look like it could be finished any day now. We’ll have to see how this all plays out.

Via BattleForums

Blizzard announced a few minutes ago that they are offering up some of their gaming soundtracks via iTunes.

This follows in the footsteps of the Diablo III Overture, which was recently released as a Discovery Download and is free until Tuesday, September 9. At least in the U.S. – visitors to this site have reported that it was not free in other countries, but hopefully Apple has fixed that by now.

Much of this music was originally available only in collector’s editions of the games, or at special events such as the company’s BlizzCon. Each set will cost the usual in your area.

Here is what is currently being offered up in North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan:

• StarCraft Original Soundtrack
• Diablo II Original Soundtrack
• Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos Original Soundtrack
• World of Warcraft Original Soundtrack
• World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade Original Soundtrack
• World of Warcraft: Taverns of Azeroth Original Soundtrack

The albums have been placed on a new Blizzard Entertainment hub page within the iTunes store. This page also hosts content such as the BlizzCast podcast and trailers and gameplay footage from upcoming games, with more material to be added in the months ahead.

via: Press Release

It should come as no surprise that WoW would be number one in sales on the PC charts, but for one company to have five titles in the Top 10? That is a testament to the popularity of the games it creates. Blizzard is no stranger to being the dominant company in the NPD charts though, and as you can see below, the week of August 17-23 was no exception:

• 1. World of Warcraft: Battle Chest
• 2. The Sims 2: Double Deluxe
• 3. World of Warcraft
• 4. Spore Creature Creator
• 5. World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade
• 6. The Diablo Battle Chest
• 7. Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice
• 8. Call of Duty 4
• 9. The Orange Box
• 10. The Warcraft III Battle Chest

It is also no surprise that the Spore Creature Creator is up there, nor CoD4 or even The Sims 2 for that matter. I have even stopped batting an eye at the Nancy Drew game because despite what we choose to believe, even little girls like PC games too. However, what is shocking to me is that The Orange Box is still in the Top 10 after all this time- maybe this is because of all the Team Fortress updates and the like, because I would think that Portal and Half-Life 2 would be old hat by now.

Got iTunes? Like Diablo? Excited about Diablo III? Enjoy soundtrack music?

If you answered yes to at least one of these questions, then you need to head on over to iTunes and download the “Diablo III Overture” from Emmy-winning sound designer Russell Brower and The Eminence Symphony Orchestra. If not only because it is FREE, but because it is highly cool as well.

Not only does it sound very epic, has interesting vocals that are a bit creepy and is totally worthy of a really cool sci-fi or fantasy movie, it is just really good music. Plus, it just got me even more excited for the game. If this music is any indication of what the soundtrack to the game is going to be like, then we will hopefully have a game not only full of eye popping graphics and great gameplay but glorious sound as well. Great music and sound always add to the experience.

Oh, did I also mention that it was free?

For more on Diablo III, check out some of our previous posts. To add to the experience, listen to 3:46 long track while you read over them.

*** UPDATE: Please note that this is for the United States. This site is in the United States. Sorry if iTunes screwed the rest of the world, but we have no way of knowing what is free and what is not via iTunes in other countries.  If anyone else eventually gets it free please drop us a line.***

There’s a debate on Video Gamer Examiner on whether Diablo III can persevere where its spiritual successor Hellgate: London failed. The author starts off by saying he found Guild Wars and Hellgate, both products of various branches of former Diablo designers, disappointing.

The author cites replaybility as the key to Diablo’s popularity and Diablo III’s success.

In fact, the developers hinted that not only would we get our random dungeons, but we also might be seeing some random quests and/or events. This is way overdue! Dynamic quests are something I’ve been wanting to see for a long time and could really add a whole new level to the idea of replayability.