BlizzCon 2009: No Diablo III Date, Consoles

Diablo III made an appearance at BlizzCon 2009.

BlizzCon 2009 kicked off earlier today and revealed a few tasty nuggets for StarCraft II and World of WarCraft fans. However, BlizzCon attendees and Diablo III fans discovered a startling truth: Blizzard did not announce any plans to release the action RPG next year. In fact, the company only mentioned the two previously mentioned titles for 2010. Does that mean Diablo III will likely see a 2011 release? It's possible, but we're crossing our fingers that some kind of miracle might happen before then.

But even though Blizzard didn't chisel a definitive release date into stone, the company did provide a few tasty morsels regarding the fourth Diablo III class, the Monk, a character that first made an appearance in the original Diablo's "Hellfire" expansion.

"It's a class that has its roots in old school fantasy, but we believe you haven't seen it quite like this before," said Blizzard's Chris Metzen. "I'm very proud to introduce to you, the new Diablo 3, with all of its open-handed, Tiger-strike packed fury, the Monk."

Blizzard updated the BlizzCon website with new information regarding the Monk class here along with additional details explaining combo moves, runes, monsters, and more monsters. The opening ceremony blog even dictates the following: "Lots of melee, very fast. There's that shielding spell again. Another spell that has the Monk warping from enemy to enemy in a blur. Touch an enemy and it explodes in blood and gore. He does carry some mace/staff thing, so it's not all hand-to-hand like an old-school Monk."

Additionally, Joystiq pointed out that Blizzard COO Paul Sams said that the company hasn't completely ruled out Diablo III for the consoles. "We've met with the major manufacturers, and they've made some pretty compelling arguments," Sams said. While the game is quite possible on the PlayStation 3 given its compatibility with a mouse and keyboard, we're wondering how the game would perform on the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. The last Diablo title to hit the console--namely the original PlayStation-- didn't fare well, mainly because the control scheme didn't work quite so well using the PlayStation controller.

Joystiq also provides video footage of the Monk from Diablo III right here.