A new set of Diablo 3 (PC) screenshots have emerged, showing male and female Barbarians and Witch Doctors in action.

In the ever-lumbering march towards an eventual release date, Blizzard has released two new screenshots and three new pieces of concept art from its upcoming hack-and-slash sequel, Diablo III (PC).

No release date has yet been announced for the title. For everything we know of Diablo III so far, be sure to check out our exhaustive informational hootenanny.

Though Diablo III (PC) was only recently unveiled and has no release date at the moment, developer Blizzard already has "plans beyond" it for more Diablo titles, though it is remaining understandably quiet on the details.

"We're not saying [Diablo III] is the end of the Diablo universe, but we are trying to bring this storyline to a close," lead designer Jay Wilson explained to MTV Multiplayer. "It's not just Diablo III--we've got plans beyond."

Speaking of story, Wilson noted that Diablo III's will feature numerous characters from the first two titles, including Deckard 'You Have Quite a Treasure There' Cain.

"We also tried to focus a little more on bringing characters back, and not just from Diablo II but from Diablo I," he revealed. "People can expect to see characters from Diablo I, more characters from Diablo II, and characters from some of the books."

Along with a tradition of eventual sequels, Blizzard has a history of providing least one expansion for its recent PC games, including StarCraft, Diablo II, and World of Warcraft. The studio also has an unannounced MMO in the works.

Blizzard has confirmed to Shacknews that Diablo III (PC) art director Brian Morrisroe has left the company, but stressed that his replacement does not signal any profound changes for the hack-and-slash sequel's art style.

"Regarding Brian, he recently resigned to form a startup technology company (outside the game industry), which is why we've posted about the open position," a Blizzard representative told Shacknews in an email correspondence.

"This change won't impact the game... we're really pleased with the look and feel that Brian helped create for Diablo III, and the new person we bring on board will work with the other artists on the team to maintain the art style moving forward."

The response affirms remarks made by the company following criticism of the title's new art style, which employs a brighter color palette as contrasted against the darker, desaturated tones of preceding Diablo games.

Reports that Blizzard was actively searching for a new art lead for Diablo III raised questions as to whether the company would consider making changes to the game's visual style.

Update: Blizzard has provided more information on the listing, telling Shacknews that "this change won't impact the game... we're really pleased with the look and feel that Brian helped create for Diablo III."

Original Story: A new job posting on developer Blizzard Entertainment's website reveals that the company is looking to recruit a new art director for their anticipated hack-and-slash sequel Diablo III (PC).

The listing, pointed out by Kotaku, follows reports of a number of fans dissatisfied by Diablo III's brighter color palette as compared against the darker, less saturated look of previous Diablo titles. The new hire would presumably replace current Diablo III art team lead Brian Morrisroe.

While it is not immediately clear whether Morrisroe has left the company, it appears unlikely that the posting is a direct result of the fan response to Diablo III's current art direction; other Blizzard staffers such as designer Jay Wilson and lead producer Keith Lee have reaffirmed the team's commitment to the new art style, pointing out its practical and technical merits.

Shacknews has contacted Blizzard for clarification, and will update as soon as more information is made available.

The stark white tombstones hover over the blood-red background of the graveyard.

"Tried taking on Duriel solo," reads one. "At level 19, I thought it would be cake."

RIP, FROZENBIATCH.

Nearby, another sad epitaph: "My poor golem and mercenary bought the farm immediately. I played the potion keys like a retarded kid playing a xylophone, but that only prolonged my own agony for a few seconds more."

RIP, JonesMcBones.

These are the last words of the hardcore; the truly brave souls that begin Diablo II never planning to see their own corpse. A single death, and the character... Read more

Unsettled by the brighter color palette of Blizzard's Diablo III (PC), fans took to the internet with online petitions and doctored screenshots, attempting to show the developer the error of its ways.

But Diablo III designer Jay Wilson believes that those fans may not grasp the capabilities and limitations of the hack-and-slash sequel's engine.

Left, an unaltered Diablo III screenshot. Right, a fan Photoshop recomposition.

"The key thing to remember here is that this has been Photoshopped. This isn't created by the engine," Wilson told MTV Multiplayer, when asked of the screenshots pictured above.

"Though it looks really cool, it's almost impossible to do in a 3D engine because you can't have lighting that smart and run on systems that are reasonable... Read more

Blizzard Entertainment's anticipated PC sequels StarCraft II and Diablo III will track a player's achievements via a unified "Blizzard Account," World of Warcraft lead designer Jeff Kaplan has revealed.

"Eventually, our plans are for the Achievement system to become an account-based system," Kaplan told MTV Multiplayer. "For now the points are just a [World of Warcraft] character score. As we graduate to that Blizzard Account system, which is right on the horizon, it will switch over to a Blizzard Level."

Kaplan explained that a player's so-called Blizzard Level—essentially akin to the Xbox 360's Xbox Live Gamerscore—would be composed of achievements across numerous Blizzard titles including StarCraft II, Diablo III and World of Warcraft... Read more

Update: Later in the conference call, it was revealed that World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King will arrive between October and December.

Original Story: Blizzard Entertainment CEO and co-founder Mike Morhaime today discussed the effects that the recent launch of Funcom's PC MMO Age of Conan had on World of Warcraft (PC).

"Age of Conan released with some initial success," Morhaime noted. "We did see some of our players leave, [but] about 40% of those players have returned to World of Warcraft."

According to the CEO, World of Warcraft has a key advantage as competitors are going up against "a product that has been continually enhanced, expanded and refined for almost four years now."

Morhaime refused to specify a release date for either StarCraft 2 or Diablo 3, merely noting that both games were "heavily in development" and that the... Read more

Blizzard today announced that tickets for its 2008 BlizzCon event will go on sale August 11. The show is set for October 10-11 in Anaheim, California.

Tickets will be priced at $100, and can be purchased on the official BlizzCon website.

The company also noted that BlizzCon 2008 will be broadcast live on DirecTV, with a minimum of eight hours of HD coverage being provided on a pay per view basis. Starting in August, new subscribers to DirecTV will receive the event for free.

Blizzard Entertainment recently revealed two new screenshots and concept art from its anticipated action-RPG sequel Diablo III (PC).

One of the two shots shows what appears to be the female variant of the Barbarian class in all her bone-crunching glory, compared against the silver-haired masculine counterpart. All of Diablo 3's five classes will be selectable as either male or female when creating a character.

No release date for Diablo III has yet been announced, with Blizzard executive VP Rob Pardo offering only that "we ship the games then they're ready." For more on the title, check out our exhaustive round-up of everything we know so far.

In a preemptive strike against community outrage, Diablo III (PC) lead producer Keith Lee explained the merits and practicality behind the game's new art direction at last weekend's Blizzard Worldwide Invitational.

"One of the things that we considered when we were working on the visuals for Diablo III is the fact that color is your friend," Lee told MTV Multiplayer. "We feel that color actually helps to create a lot of highlights in the game so that there is contrast. A great analogy is like in Lord of the Rings—not everything is dark."

Following the debut of the game at the Worldwide Invitational, fans displeased by the game's vibrant new color palette issued a petition declaring that they "seriously want some changes in the artistic direction of the game so it could be more ... Read more

Despite ongoing efforts with StarCraft II, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and Diablo III, PC developer Blizzard has confirmed that it has another MMO in the works.

"There is still one unknown project," Blizzard executive VP Rob Pardo revealed to OnlineWelten during the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational. "We have another development team."

Pardo affirmed that Blizzard's recent job listings for an "unannounced next-gen MMO" were not related to Diablo III. The company had previously stated that the project was not a World of Warcraft expansion either.

Fans have long speculated that Blizzard may follow the ultra-successful World of Warcraft with a World of StarCraft MMO. The three-faction scenario and multi-world setting would seem to lend itself well to the MMO format.

Others believe that the project could be a new franchise, as Blizzard has not created a new property since StarCraft's release in 1998.

"The idea of a new franchise is very intriguing to employees of the company," said Blizzard chief operating officer Paul Sams to Gamasutra in a recent interview. "Are we ever going to release a new one? I would absolutely say we will at some point. I just don't know when that day will be quite yet."

And as for a release date on any of the three known titles? "We ship the games when they're ready," Pardo commented. "You guys know this."

With Blizzard's Saturday announcement of Diablo 3 came a veritable whirlwind of details in the form of developer interviews, panels, and gameplay demonstrations. After becoming frustrated with the lack of consolidation, I've compiled a simple bullet-point list of all the known features, changes and additions made to the series in this new sequel.

Considering the wealth of knowledge, I'm sure I've missed a thing or two. Feel free to use this as an opportunity to share tidbits of information, and to speculate on all things unknown.

General Overview

• Largely follows in the style of past Diablo games.
• Controls and camera kept simple, but depth of combat enhanced.
• The story takes place 20 years after the events of Diablo II.
• Greater emphasis has been placed on a character-driven story.
• Targeting a length similar to Diablo II, which ran four acts. ... Read more

In case you somehow missed it, Blizzard officially announced Diablo 3 over the weekend. Per Blizzard tradition, no release date was suggested, but we do know that the action-RPG will eventually hit PC and Mac.A torrent of media and details accompanied the announcement, including word on the story, giant evil trees, and classes. Below are links to everything we have thus far:

• Official Announcement Plus Class, Story and Gameplay Details
• Three Different Trailers, Including Gameplay
• More Gameplay Footage!

Blizzard has also released a slew of new Diablo 3 media following the announcement of the sequel.

First up are a mess of screenshots, viewable below. Several videos are also now available--check out a few here, and view the full set at Shackvideo. If you want the 19 minute gameplay video in glorious HD, head over to FileShack.

Click on through for a trailer showcasing the game's artwork.... Read more

After weeks of speculation, Blizzard has officially announced Diablo III at its World Wide Invitational event in Paris.

Said to feature more quests than ever, the anticipated sequel will stick to its roots by being "first and foremost a cooperative game."

Download Diablo III videos on FileShack.

Diablo III will feature old standards such as the quotable Deckard Cain, as well as a new version of Tristram and a fresh class dubbed the Witch Doctor. The jungle-born warrior will use ancient tribal magic to cast disease and mind control spells, in addition to utilizing pets such as locust swarms and mongrels.

The game will also include several control improvements, including full zoom capability and a hotbar to easily access skills. Players will be able to quickswap between skills using the mouse wheel or tab key.

Armor will now be class-specific, designed to provide each character a unique look. Classes themselves are more diverse, as it was noted that there will be female versions of both the Barbarian and Witch Doctor.

In a demo of the Barbarian class, the company noted that less of an emphasis will be placed on potions for health. Instead, red orb-like items will drop that immediately recover health once the player picks them up.

Environmental destruction was also shown off, with a character at one point busting through a solid wall. The environment can also be used to kill enemies, as in the case of objects that fell from a wall, killing a group of monsters.

Enemies were shown to be larger in scale than in past games, with giant evil trees and a massive demon called a Siegebreaker.

Blizzard has released a set of official features and a story description, which can now be conveniently viewed below the fold:... Read more

Blizzard design VP Rob Pardo revealed that the company does intend to announce a new title at the event at this weekend's Blizzard Worldwide Invitiational in Paris, but declined to offer further details.

"So you want me to announce the game before our announcement?" he told GamesIndustry. "No offense, but I think there's like 300 people here, and I'll be ripped apart by 8000 people [at the Invitational] if I pre-announce it—but it's going to be really exciting. I think everybody here will be really excited about the announcement."

Moreover, Diablo fan website DiabloII.net reports that Blizzard's game announcement will be Diablo III, the long-awaited next title in Blizzard's hack-and-slash RPG series.

The site claims to have confirmation of the forthcoming announcement from "inside sources," but does not specify whether the information came from within... Read more

Update: The Blizzard.com splash image has been changed, with few new developments. The number/letter theory has been ruled out, as the new puzzle piece is numbered 23, which does not correspond to a letter in the word "Diablo." I've uploaded my own stab at the up-to-date puzzle, which you can view on the left.

Original story: Anticipation for a big announcement this weekend at Blizzard's World Wide Invitational event has reached a fever pitch after the company posted a slowly-revealing teaser image on its website.

While the icy image at first seems to be an obvious match for the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King--a game set on a frozen continent--several images hidden in the page's source code have been found by internet detectives. In the hopes that Blizzard is pulling a fast one, some Diablo devout have pieced together a theory that the hellish action-RPG series will in fact be the franchise to steal this weekend's show.

Pieces of an apparent six-piece puzzle, the purple-dominant pictures are being released one at a time with each change of the splash image. Here's where things get crazy.

The images released thus far--named tundra 04.jpg and cavern 15.jpg--seem to fit opposing corners of the puzzle. Using logic that could only be derived from years of following the Nancy Drew saga, the detectives have speculated that... Read more

While developer Blizzard has yet to officially comment on the matter, rumors continue to circulate that the famed Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo creator will unveil a new title at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational on June 28.

The latest batch of activity comes from an Xfire.com update spotted by DiabloII.Net, in which Xfire encouraged users to "follow the opening ceremony and discover what new game will be announced."

Though Blizzard revealed StarCraft II at last year's Worldwide Invitational, that marked the only major announcement to come out of the event's three-year history.

As this year's Blizzard Worldwide Invitational takes place on June 29, the eighth anniversary of Diablo II's release, many have speculated that the company may finally premiere the long-awaited Diablo 3.