Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm release date set for 2012, new Diablo 3 videos

At GDC Online held in Austin, Texas two weeks ago, Greg Canessa, Battle.net project director hinted away that the next episode of the Starcraft II trilogy won’t be ready until 2012. Heart of the Swarm will focus on the Zerg faction, whilst the third installment in the series (whose release date is unknown at the moment) will concentrate on the Protoss faction.

At the BlizzCon 2010 event held this month in Anaheim, California , some more details were revealed during a Q&A panel. Blizzard mentioned that Heart of the Swarm will take place less than 100 years after the events of Wings of Liberty. With many of the participant asking where Samir Duran was following Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty’s ending, Blizzard suggested that he might appear again in the future. In the Starcraft : Brood War expansion game, Duran was working on the Zerg/ Protoss hybrids that turn out playing an important part in StarCraft II.

Blizzard also confirmed, through Chris Sigaty, what Canessa was saying a couple of weeks ago about the release date; the game won’t be ready next year, but most likely in 18 months.
That’s about all Blizzard was willing to share with us on Heart of the Swarm. Should any other piece of news appear, we’ll try to bring it to you as soon as possible.

But Blizzcon 2010 was not only about the upcoming Heart of the Swarm, though. Blizzard announced that Starcraft 2 would soon receive new multiplayer leagues, multiple in-game chat channels and four StarCraft 2: WoL custom modes:

The StarCraft 2 Custom Modes announced at BlizzCon 2010 are:

• Left 2 Die – which will come with a ”new co-op take” on the Outbreak mission
• Auir Chef –in which gamers will mix ”cooking and killing” in order to become ”Executor Chef”.
• Star Jeweled. This mode will combine gem-matching, troop building and energy gathering mechanics.
• Blizzard DotA. DotA fans will be very excited about this mode, which adapts their favorite game to the StarCraft 2 world.

Last, but definitely not least, Diablo 3 has got two new videos you’ll be wanting to watch:

This Diablo 3 video shows the Demon Hunter (5th and last playable character):