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So somehow I didn't stumble upon this until now, but it seems that WarCraft 4 (RTS) may have been accidentally leaked at Blizzcon last weekend.

Essentially what happened is this:

On day 1 of the Blizzcon stream during an interview regarding Mists of Pandaria, Chris Metzen made a comment saying that "the Horde and the Alliance haven't been at eachothers throats like this since WarCraft 2." Kat Hunter replied with, "Or at least until WarCraft 4!" This seemed to provoke a shaken response from Metzen.

Later that day, during an intermission panel with Kat Hunter, Geoff Keighley and Mike Morhaime, Hunter asked a specific question to Morhaime about the current status of WarCraft 4 - as though she were trying to clear the air after her earlier comment. Morhaime denied the question by saying, "All of our RTS resources are completely focused on StarCraft 2 and Blizzard DoTA."


The next day after yet another panel wrapped up, Hunter was overheard having a conversation with Keighley, imitating VP of Creative Development Chris Metzen - quoting him on giving her a hard time for leaking WarCraft 4. Neither of the two realised that their microphones were still recording, similar to the incident in last years event where Nicolas "Tasteless" Plott was recorded swearing repeatedly on the live stream during a break.


There seems to be a lot of speculation around this conversation as it clearly wasn't an intentionally broadcasted conversation considering the swearing from Keighley. So is it just a joke? Or is there substance there?

When both of the hosts were bombarded on twitter with WarCraft 4 questions, they offered responses such as, "There is no WarCraft 4. Seriously, we were just kidding. "

Kat Hunter herself stepped forward with the following public statement as well:
Now considering Blizzard has edited these conversations out of the VOD's, we can only wonder - is there any legitimacy here? Or is it truly a joke like they claimed? Why would they talk about Mezten being pissed if there was nothing substantial behind it?

Keep in mind that for the first time ever - Blizzard will be releasing 3 major titles in the same year when 2012 rolls around (Heart of the Swarm, Diablo 3, Mists of Pandaria), so they're gonna have more than enough to keep them busy with Legacy of the Void and the Diablo 3 Expansion Pack after that.

We all know WarCraft 4 is bound to happen... someday. I personally don't expect to see anything about it until Legacy of the Void has done a few laps of the shelves. I guess all we can do at this stage is keep our ears to the ground and our fingers crossed!