Today Activision-Blizzard's Fourth Quarter Earnings Call was broadcast live over the web to investors and the press. Of special interest to Blizzard gamers ,Thomas Tippl, Activision's COO, stated that if no Blizzard games are released this year, we can expect them next year:
"Because Blizzard Entertainment has not yet confirmed the launch date for its next global release, our outlook at this time does not include a new game from Blizzard in 2011. Should we not release a major title from Blizzard this year, we would expect for planning purposes to launch a minimum of two Blizzard titles in 2012."
Presumably, those two titles would be
Heart of the Swarm and the long-awaited
Diablo 3. Blizzard president
Mike Morhaime spoke on the call after Tippl and promised that more information was coming about both. Blizzard's developers, he said, are hard at work on
Heart of the Swarm, and we'll hear more "in the coming months." Speaking of
Diablo 3, Morhaime also said that he would discuss it "and the upcoming beta on the next call," which will be in around three months. However, despite Tippl's suggestion that two Blizzard titles will be released in 2012, Morhaime added a word of caution:
"Until we get to beta and have the community help us test the game, we're not going to lock in a release date."
Be sure to take all of this release date information with a grain of salt. Just because Activision-Blizzard plans on shipping two titles in 2012, doesn't mean it will actually happen. Blizzard runs on Blizzard time to ensure that it's titles are as polished as possible before shipping.
Source:
Activision.com - Activision-Blizzard Investor Relations
