You see, Blizzard’s hordes of loyal WoW fans are also salivating over the launch of the long-awaited Diablo 3, meaning a dip in Azeroth’s population is almost a certainty. While some might see that as bad news, Blizzard’s choosing to look on the bright side: if anyone’s going to steal their business, it might as well be them.

It’s a unique problem, since the average lifespan of most games is at most a year or two. Other PC games and MMOs have far more staying power, but never reach the size of WoW’s 12-million subcribers. So while Blizzard didn’t have as much to worry about with their release of StarCraft 2- since that was a distinctly different genre of game - Diablo 3 is a different story.

Another juggernaut in the dungeon-crawler RPG space, Diablo 3 is likely one of the few games that brought Blizzard to the attention of many current fans, so the impending launch is a major milestone.

What does that mean for Diablo 3’s impact on World of Warcraft? It’s unlikely that WoW will suffer any serious hits, since Cataclysm succeeded in getting fans addicted all over again, but Blizzard isn’t holding onto any illusions either. With their super-secret MMO Titan still being developed, the unshakable foundation of WoW isn’t seeming quite so sturdy.

Blizzard has made it clear that they think Titan will be bigger than WoW, but Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce sees Diablo 3 as the more immediate threat. Speaking with Gamasutra, Pearce explained that while Titan may change the future of the company in a major way, it would be unwise to underestimate the impact of Diablo:

It’s hard to argue with Pearce’s logic, since most WoW subscribers are likely to keep their accounts active as they dive headlong into either game, so it’s a win-win. And with the rumors of a Diablo 3 console release growing stronger, Blizzard may end up bringing in plenty of new console fans as well.

Blizzard has proven to be anything but greedy, recently stating that they have nothing but hope for The Old Republic and its developer BioWare, as success for a game in the genre is success for the genre itself. Pearce feels the same way about any potential Diablo 3-converts:

Ever the ambassador for the PC space, Blizzard is once again showing how they’ve managed to last 20 years in the business. It’s obviously impossibly to accurately predict just how many players will be moving from one franchise to another, but it is apparent that Blizzard’s next few years will be infinitely more interesting than the past few.

Diablo 3 is currently projected for a 2012 release on the PC and, just maybe, the Xbox 360 and PS3.

Source: Gamasutra