Blizzard pro-cannibalism: Diablo 3 could eat into World of Warcraft audience

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.