Blizzcon and the super secret project

Yesterday Blizzard announced that they will again hold BlizzCon 2010 in October this year, and not in Las Vegas like so many people were reporting.  Good news for me, since we moved down to Anaheim in September.  What's more interesting is the timing if it all, since my sources are telling me we can expect the Cataclysm expansion sometime this summer.  If that is the case, Blizzard will have a dirth of gaming news sufficient to fill a two-day convention.  Or will they?

We could look back two years at the 2008 BlizzCon, where Wrath was already released, and point and say "but then, there wasn't much WoW news, and they still held the con."  True, but there was news about StarCraft II, huge news in fact, and plenty of info about Diablo 3.  Last year we had starting content for Cataclysm, which would make it eternally silly not to have the expansion before this year's Blizzcon, since we've already had our hands on it.  But looking forward, Diablo 3 is chugging along, so is StarCraft II -- heck we've been playing the beta for weeks.  That tells me that what news they have can't be too huge, after all we know they are coming, and soon.  Blizzard doesn't do release date announcements.  It's done when it's done, remember?  So why then, are they having the convention?

Some might say they are obligated at this point, being the kings of MMO, to hold court.  I say that bigger news is coming.  I say this because I heard first hand from a Blizzard staffer that they were witness to a spectacular demo of the Next Gen MMO project Blizzard has been cooking in their secret gaming kitchens for years now.  A demo that blows the staff out of their chairs in 2009 says to me at least an announcement in 2010.  They most likely already have something playable by now, and most importantly, they just announced a convention where there will be hardly any significant news about their main three franchises for the first time in the history of BlizzCon.

Get ready to be introduced to the fourth franchise my friends.  I hear she's really pretty and smells like roses and wads of cash.