He Can't Find Mankrik's Wife

Is the vice president of development at Blizzard, Itzik Ben Bassat, some form of newcomer or something to the company? He just can't keep his mouth closed. I wouldn't be surprised if it upset Michael Morhaime in one way or another. Last week we got to learn this:

"We'd like to say to our fans of Diablo and Starcraft that we haven't forgotten we have these franchises. We cannot wait to be here in a few years, or however long it will be. It won't be a decade, and we'll be celebrating the launch of [the next] Starcraft together." Since Starcraft went on sale in 1998, some took Bassat's comments as meaning a new Starcraft and/or Diablo would be out by 2008. Others interpreted his words as meaning new Diablo and Starcraft titles are less than 10 years away.

I guess it depends on how you interpret the comments, but if he spoiled the fact that they're announcing Starcraft 2 before 2008 - uh-oh.

Recently in Empire magazine he said this:

"When we announce our next MMORPG it's not going to be another WOW--we're not a company that tends to tread the same ground," he told British film magazine Empire. "It'll be something innovative and new that really brings entertainment to another level." American Blizzard reps delcined to expand on Bassat's comments, although the fact that the company began hiring real-time strategy developers last summer might offer a clue.

Ahh...So Blizzard is tinkering around with another MMO. Not a huge surprise when thinking about it though because this game is a cash cow and Blizzard now knows how to set up infrastructure properly and all that to speed up development and such things. There is no doubt in my mind that the development teams are looking at WoW right now and seeing specific fundamental problems or have ideas that would be impossible to implement. A Starcraft MMORPG could be different in so many ways...

Remember though - WoW has content for at least a couple of years worth of more expansion packs (one new world where the Burning Legion has invaded, Northrend, The Maelstorm). They could probably time the release of the game a year or so after the release of the last expansion or something.