Bad news for Diablo fans...

[AlexMax]

Vital employee's from Blizzard North jumped ship (http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/030630/media_vivendi_games_1.html)

Yep.

And a note to all the people who are panicked about *craft, fear not. The only thing this leave affects is Diablo and Diablo II.

Blizzard North = Diablo series
Blizzard = *craft series, classic arcade series.

[Brasel]

Well then...hopefully Blizzard will take up the Diablo series.

[EWild]

Maybe they will, we never know, I mean with Warcraft alive and kicking, they'll sure have their hands full. Maybe they'll make a Blizzard South... :\

[Prrkitty]

Blizzard would be stupid if they let the Diablo Series (original and 2) die. It might take some time for new software engineers to come up to speed in keeping the series alive. But I think it would be worth it. I think Diablo 2 is the game I've kept the longest from computer to computer as hubby and I have upgraded computers.

[Mak-X]

Here is a interview about it
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/news/news_6030892.html

One day I'd like to run my own game company, ah the gaming industry...

[mike5000]

Wait! What happens to our pomised 1.10 patch for diablo 2!!11

It was looking good!

[AlexMax]

Oh well. Guess you guys will actually have to try Nethack (http://www.nethack.com) if you want your dungeon hack fix.

I do not know what might replace online play though....maybe the v1.10 patch will get released...eventually...

[Shadowblazer]

Just because the founders have left doesn't mean that Blizzard North is closing up shop. The sky isn't falling just yet. There's an interview here (http://www.homelanfed.com/index.php?id=15275) that explains things a bit better.
Roper said that he and his colleagues made sure that Blizzard and Blizzard North would not be adversely affected by their departures. Roper told us that Blizzard North currently has two unannounced projects in development but that he expects that the studio responsible for the hugely successful Diablo game franchise will continue to make great games. “We don’t want to see Blizzard North or anything they have worked on disappear and we don’t believe they are going to,” he said.I don't know where you got the idea that this spelled doom for Blizzard North and the Diablo series, Alex. While I'm sure those guys were very influential in the creation of the games that Blizzard has made, and that there will certainly be ramifications over their departures, it's not the end for Blizzard North. The company will survive without them and they'll undoubtedly continue to create new titles based on all of their overwhelmingly successful franchises.

[Prrkitty]

Thanks for posting the interview URL's. Very interesting what's going on. I hope the new v1.10 patch comes out soon.