Blizzard Public Relations got a response to the recent rumors that Diablo III would ship before Starcraft 2. The rumor was widespread last week to be a “leak” from a anonymous Blizzard employee. I squashed the rumor by linking to the Ten Ton Hammer interview with Jay Wilson (held two weeks ago) where it is implied Starcraft 2 and Battle.net 2.0 would be launched simultaneously, which makes the rumor very unlikely.

Jay Wilson: Well we have a brand new version of the Battle.net that is in the works. It’s going to come out with Starcraft 2. I cannot really steal their thunder in terms of the specific feature set, because that is their announcement to make. What I can talk about is the philosophy. It is essentially as a company our goal is to provide the best online experience that players will have in gaming.

Fans have been submitting the rumor as a news heads up, but Mockery, Sol_Invictus and I reached a concensus not to post about the rumor unless we had an official statement from Blizzard Entertainment. We wish to post news responsibly.

I was at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitationals and played Starcraft II. All reviews online say it is a very polished game. All it needs is start beta testing process for balancing. Anyone who has played Starcraft II at the public hands-on events will tell you that game is ready to ship.  It is unlikely that Diablo 3 could be released before Starcraft II. That’s my personal view. My recommendation to all forum members is to please refrain from posting alleged leaks or baseless rumors. Moderation is in full swing by our roster of moderators. We do not wish fans to get misinformed or misled.

Diablo III Community Manager Bashiok responded Diablofans.com with an official statement concerning the rumor:

We’re pleased with the development progress on both StarCraft II and Diablo III and are looking forward to sharing more news about both games at next month’s BlizzCon event. Development is proceeding at full speed on both games, but we do not currently have any release dates to announce for either game.

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