What IGN Wants From BlizzCon

This year’s BlizzCon is only a few days away, so IGN has cranked out a list of “things” that they’d like to hear or see on the show floor of Blizzard’s popular press event. Two obvious ones:

The Future of World of Warcraft

One of the biggest announcements about Blizzard’s ultra-popular MMO was made through a press release recently. After much speculation about whether the next expansion, Cataclysm, would make it in 2010 or slip to early 2011, Blizzard brushed aside all doubts by announcing the content would be made available on December 7 of this year. That means the chance to finally level to 85 or create a new character and explore the remodeled version of Azeroth is only about one month away.

If you’re a hardcore player, you’ve been playing the beta for a while now, but it still can’t compare with actually getting on the live servers and making some permanent progress. It’s doubtful Blizzard is going to talk much about plans for content beyond Cataclysm, but maybe we can get a few details on what they’re considering for the inevitable fifth expansion.

A Diablo III Release Date

The likelihood of this happening is about zero, but hey, we can hope. Diablo III most definitely has a spot on the show floor, and we’ve heard from game director Jay Wilson that the skill system will be talked about in detail. Announcing a release date early just isn’t how Blizzard rolls.

With StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, and with so much chatter rattling around video game message boards, the company answered all questions with an anti-climactic press release a few months before the ship date. Expecting something similar with Diablo III wouldn’t be too crazy. One thing we may get to hear about though, aside from the skill system and other details, is the as of yet unknown fifth character class. Odds are it’s not going to be a Necromancer, but hey, we have dreams too.

As long as Diablo III slips out before the end of 2011, I’ll be happy. Please don’t make me wait until 2012.