Blizzard pro-cannibalism: Diablo 3 could eat into World of Warcraft audience
by Christopher Grant 
on Mar 21st 2011 10:55AM
While Blizzard cofounder Frank Pearce is
unexpectedly bullish on EA's prospects with its
Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO – and of course Blizz's own next-gen, untitled "Titan" MMO – he sees another potential product that could cannibalize his massive
World of Warcraft audience. "I think even a shorter-term concern is whether or not we might see cannibalization of WoW players from
Diablo 3 when we launch it, because it's a similar type of experience," Pearce told
Gamasutra. "Not exactly similar, but it's that RPG feel."
While
Diablo 3 currently has no release date –
it's possible it may not make it out this year – Pearce said "it's better we cannibalize them ourselves than let someone else do that, because if we cannibalize them ourselves, they're still a Blizzard customer." And that, ladies and gentlemen, is maybe the only kind of cannibalism that we can endorse.
