Diablo III Interview

[GameBanshee News]

AbleGamers.com interviews Jay Wilson and Leonard Boyarsky about Diablo III, with part I up now and part II up Monday.

Steve, AbleGamers: With the characters that were announced in the invitational being the barbarian and the witch doctor... the expansion of Diablo II at seven characters. Was there any reason that two of the characters, well actually three, were left out, and can you comment on which five will be in the game?

Jay, Blizzard: We're not trying to match the number of characters that Diablo II and the expansion had, in some way as we look at that as, "that's no fair! That's two game for the content that you asking us to match, as supposed to one." We're really trying to think what we would feel would be the right number of starting archetypes for the player and in the long run we will have five classes for Diablo III. I'm sure we will expand that with expansions down the road, but were really trying to focus on making those classes each kind of a unique and good experience for Diablo III. For example, the barbarian, we brought him back because he was a class that we really thought we could improve, but other classes... the other classes that were done really well and Diablo II, we looked at it and said "well, all I would really do is repeat that class." We don't think we could make such a significant improvement that it provides new gameplay or new experience. So in those cases, we haven't focused on really have heavily and bringing them back. That being said, once we get the original game out, and we start looking at expansions, we might think about different ideas like bringing back old characters that were really popular. But in the initial game are really focused on bringing new experiences to everyone.

Mark Barlet, AbleGamers: So necromancer yes or no?

Jay, Blizzard: In the core game, I would say what the witch doctor there that the necromancer is highly unlikely, but it is definitely one of those classes that will be looked at when, I don't see a way we can make that class significant way better. We know he's really popular; he's my favorite classroom Diablo II. So it's not like a snub on necro lovers. It's that we really want the classes to stand on their own and not just a rehash of the previous game. That being said, if the outcry is so great after we released the game will probably consider bringing back some old classes in an expansion.

Spotted on Hellforge.