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Analysts speculate on leaked Blizzard release schedule

by Jef Reahard on Dec 9th 2010 6:00PM

Fantasy, Sci-Fi, MMO Industry, News Items

Last week's leak of a series of internal documents detailing Blizzard's upcoming products has taken a turn away from tabloid headlines with reports of a full investigation underway at the gaming behemoth's China offices. The leak, brought to light by MMOGameSite.com, may be linked to the recent resignation of Ye Weilun, Blizzard China's general manager.

Among other things, the leaked documents indicated that Blizzard could be releasing Diablo 3 and something Starcraft 2-related (dubbed "Phoenix") in 2011. The 5-year roadmap also shows two new World of Warcraft expansions and Blizzard's long-rumored WoW followup, an MMO code-named Titan.

While much of the information surrounding the leak should be taken with a grain of salt (Blizzard has yet to officially confirm any information relating to the story), several analysts and industry reporters have speculated that the scenario seems entirely plausible.

Source: Cnet

Tags: Blizzard, blizzard entertainment, blizzard-china, Blizzard-Entertainment, blizzard-titan, BlizzardEntertainment, diablo-3, rumor, starcraft, titan, World-of-Warcraft, wow, wow-expansion

Reader Comments (30)

Please let the details of D3 be true... I've been waiting SO long for the followup. Diablo blew me away in 97 and I've loved the series ever since.

I heard about this last night...

First off, it is not surprising (but it IS sad) that it was the chinese branch that was responsible for this leak.

Secondly, I believe this schedule. Blizzard has always done a very good job of "playing their cards close to their chests" and now that is gone. It's going to be VERY interesting what other companies will do/plan with this info.

The only way Blizzard can recover is if they change their schedule of releases; this would not only create doubt to the list's veracity, but also throw the other companies into confusion because their target dates were wrong (and no, I don't think this leak was planned by Blizzard: no conspiracy here).

@Space Cobra

Go on, I'll bite. Why is it "not surprising" that it was "the Chinese branch" who may possibly have leaked the docs?

The thing about this "Product Slate" that I find strange is that it doesn't make sense for it to exist. The reasons I say that are each game has different teams working on it, and as far as I know, there isn't alot of cross pollination between the groups. Because of this, I don't see why each group would need to know what other groups are doing. The chart could have been made up for investors or whomever to show them the schedule, but again, it seems to be too simplistic for that kind of use. If this is an actual blizzard document, I really don't see why it was made. "Lets put all our secret information in one easy to read place."

Maybe I just haven't seen the details and this was just a simple chart made by an outsider to visually depict all the information of the leak, and I'm just uninformed.

Either way, I really do hope this is real, because I can't wait for D3...but I'm not nearly convinced yet.

@MotionX
If it was really leaked by an insider, that person probably made the chart to sum up the information.

@MotionX

The reason the data is relevant isn't because of the development teams, but because blizzard like any company staggers their product releases because often the same customers are going to be buying each product, o in order to maximize the sales you don't release them too close so that your customers have time to purchase and consume one product before they consider themselves ready for another

@MotionX

Chances are that it was intended as basically an overall outline of their schedule/future plans, so that shareholders/business partners overseas and whatnot would be able to know when to expect each product.

@Marklar19

I completely understand staggered release dates, though just because these dates are staggered doesn't make them automatically accurate.

W/e just realese Halo MMO fast as possible lol

@xyna031

what would blizzard have to do with that?

halo is still owned by microsoft

@BrianH Bungie who are the developers of Halo (and owners of the IP), are now developing an MMO which is going to be published by Blizzard and therefore have a 10-year worldwide partnership with them. So yes, Blizzard have a lot to do it, but the MMO they are developing themselves (if they are) is probably not this since they say it's based on a new IP. However, judging from this post http://www.incgamers.com/News/21928/cancelled-halo-mmo-details the Titan MMO seems indeed to be the one in the Halo universe (or is it coincidence?)

@BrianH Also don't forget this part "Monk also notes that, since Ensemble's closure, a number of Ensemble staffers have since moved to Blizzard"

@paterah

On October 1, 2007, a mere six days after the release of Halo 3, Microsoft and Bungie announced that Bungie was splitting off from its parent and becoming a privately-held Limited Liability Company named Bungie LLC. As outlined in a deal between the two, Microsoft would retain a minority stake and continue to partner with Bungie on publishing and marketing both Halo and future projects, with the Halo intellectual property belonging to Microsoft.

@Tenjo

agreed. i like akamikeb but hes the dude that stirred all this nonsense up without doing any research.

bungie is NOT doing a halo mmo

@paterah

Bungie branched off, but microsoft forever owns Halo

Any idiot knows what the Starcraft 2 thing is in 2011 it's Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm the next installment in the SC2 trio series

@(Unverified)
"Any idiot" who actually looked at the chart would see that there are two releases in Q4 2011: Starcraft 2 X1 (which seems to indicate expansion packs in the chart, in this case Heart of the Swarm) and Starcraft 2 Phoenix and what that means is anyones guess.

I think I'll go with some sort of Starcraft remake. Or dare I even hope, may Starcraft: Ghost be making any kind of return?

@Lafajet
it's most likely referring to Phoenix as in the guy who makes a second return in SC2 during the Protoss Campaign pack
They're not necessarily expansions but a Campaign Pack
Wings of Liberty was Terrans
Heart of the Swarm is Zerg & a New Kerrigan (

WoW2? lol...

I'm not a pro when it comes to Activision Blizzard future plans...i study computer science - game development, not corporate business management...but all i read from the news was "two new World of Warcraft expansions"

Not a wow player for some time now, but i was saddened when hearing the news about tauren paladins and gnome shammys/mages. That just seems logically wrong or at least a very optimistic WTF

now i hear they're planning 2 new expansions in the next 5 years and to be honest for some strange reason the words "lore anal raep" spring to mind. i mean already so many antagonists from the warcraft lore have been mercilessly farmed for loot, they seem to be stretching it way too far...and yes, i know there are possibilities, in case someone wants to make a list.

but yeah, i'd bet my house that one expansion (probably the last) will be with Sargeras...it's a bit sad to think that the greatest villain in the warcraft universe will be killed each week by a thousand 13 year old boys for ze shiny epix giev

but then again hey, lore in RPGs are sooo 1990s, right?

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Analysts speculate on leaked Blizzard release schedule

Reader Comments (30)

Posted: Dec 9th 2010 6:10PM Pewpdaddy said

Posted: Dec 9th 2010 6:12PM Space Cobra said

Posted: Dec 10th 2010 2:54AM pcgneurotic said

Posted: Dec 9th 2010 6:50PM MotionX said

Posted: Dec 9th 2010 7:12PM Irem said

Posted: Dec 9th 2010 9:37PM Marklar19 said

Posted: Dec 9th 2010 9:58PM Sorithal said

Posted: Dec 10th 2010 10:12AM MotionX said

Posted: Dec 9th 2010 7:16PM xyna031 said

Posted: Dec 9th 2010 9:23PM BrianH said

Posted: Dec 9th 2010 10:45PM paterah said

Posted: Dec 9th 2010 10:50PM paterah said

Posted: Dec 9th 2010 11:06PM Tenjo said

Posted: Dec 10th 2010 3:20PM cerebrix said

Posted: Dec 11th 2010 11:04AM BrianH said

Posted: Dec 9th 2010 10:36PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 9th 2010 11:30PM Lafajet said

Posted: Dec 10th 2010 8:19AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Dec 9th 2010 11:46PM Valentina said

Posted: Dec 10th 2010 12:03AM Xilmar said

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