Diablo III's Senior World Designer Leonard Boyarsky.

Gameplanet: What do you see as the original Diablo's contribution to gaming?

Leonard Boyarsky: It totally reinvigorated the action RPG genre, there's really nothing like it on the PC for the most part, it really took the world by storm. It was a breath of fresh air. The original, especially, just had this great horror vibe to it that you really didn't get from fantasy RPGs a lot. It was a really different take on the genre.

Gameplanet: How has Diablo influenced you as a developer?

The announcement at the recent World Wide Invitational that Blizzard are in the process of developing Diablo III seems to have rekindled sales for the Diablo Battle Chest - a compendium consisting of Diablo, Diablo II and Diablo II Lord of Destruction.

Amazon.com public sales figures show that Diablo Battle Chest has hit the top of the PC game charts in North America, and has reached as high as fourth place in the United Kingdom.

Blizzard is stirring up speculation with a splash screen on their website, causing many to suspect they are about to announce a new title.

Blizzard's World Wide Invitational convention is this weekend in Paris, and if previous conventions are anything to go by, we may see the title announced around 11.45pm Saturday, NZ time.

Kotaku has published an article which appears to show similarities between the splash screen and runes found in Diablo II, immediately causing a nosebleed for dozens of hardcore fans of the epic franchise.