Vivendi Universal Games held a PowerPoint presentation on Wall Street recently, and it started a flurry of rumors when several official-looking slides gave the appearance that both "World of Diablo" and "World of Starcraft" games were on the horizon. A Vivendi representative on hand boasted: "All Blizzard franchises will become MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games)."

One slide in particular featured a chat that listed the names "Warcraft," "Diablo," and "Starcraft" in separate rows. "Warcraft" was listed with its popular World of Warcraft and five other strategy titles. Diablo and Starcraft listed their previous incarnations on the PC and Macintosh platforms but also hinted that an MMOG could be forthcoming. Several enigmatic statements followed, saying that VUG has a model in place to "develop an MMOG in three years for $50 million." Blizzard also has "put investments in place for numerous future Blizzard products," and "[d]ue to long development cycles, for competitive reasons, we do not disclose releases far ahead of street date."

Blizzard was quick to kill any rumors or suggestions that a non-Warcraft MMOG is forthcoming. "That rumor is not true in regards to Blizzard... We believe that the rumor circulating about this subject is based on a misinterpretation of information provided to industry analysts."