Blizzard insider leaks Overwatch release, a new StarCraft, and much more

Yahoo Finance editor Tae Kim has taken to his blog, The Firstadopter Column, to reveal information given to him from an "Activision Blizzard insider." The insider, who chose remain un-named due to Blizzard's policy on employees speaking with press, commented on all of Blizzard's current projects.

It would seem as the the entire Diablo 3 team — except for those tasked with maintaining it — has been taken off of the game's development and is working on a new game set in the StarCraft universe. Hearthstone is booming and so is the World of Warcraft development team, especially when it comes to the next expansion.

Blizzard has chosen not to speak out on these claims and has issued a statement in response to the following Diablo 3 rumor:

The focus of  the Diablo III team “is on continuing to support the game with patch content. We generally don’t comment on rumors or speculation, but I do want to make sure it’s clear that they’re not working on a secret project in the StarCraft universe.”

While the Diablo 3 rumor has seemingly been debunked by Blizzard, the rest of the rumors still have a chance. Here are the rumors, in a concise format, from The Firstadopter Column:

Hearthstone:

The insider says Hearthstone numbers “are off the charts.” The next expansion is due to come out soon and will be more PvE focused. The team is also experimenting with a 2 vs. 2 version. Stunningly Hearthstone has more than tripled the last publicly released players number of more than 20 million.

Heroes of the Storm:

Executives have “low expectations” for Heroes of the Storm. The insider thinks many of the senior staff on the Heroes of the Storm team will be laid off.

Starcraft 2:

The next Starcraft 2 game is already done and ready to go. The release date is still not settled. The current time window ranges from April to June.

World of Warcraft:

The World of Warcraft team has “quadrupled” its art outsourcing, which has been a bottleneck in the past, and is nearly "feature complete." The next expansion's art is nearly complete.

Diablo 3:

The insider says the members of the Diablo 3 team have been moved to a new project set in the Starcraft universe. The game will be similar to Warframe and contain gameplay aspects from Left4Dead, DayZ, Smite, and other MOBAs. It is in early pre-production, which means late 2016 or later.

Overwatch:

Regarding Overwatch, the insider says the business model is still in flux. They are trying to decide between a free-to-play or expansion type focused model. No matter what, you will initially be able to play the game for free, but how you pay for heroes is still to be decided. The development team is pushing to launch the game this year, but senior executives are skeptical it can be done by then according to the source. There is a tiny chance for a December release, but it’s more likely to come out in early 2016 at this stage.

[Tae Kim]

Twitter: TatiMo_GZ