Despite the naysayers, Blizzard is very comfortable with the idea of creating another MMO that would directly compete with the company’s World of Warcraft.

"I think that if our developers come up with the next great game that they want to make and it’s an MMO, then we’ll do that," Blizzard exec Paul Sams told MTV’s Multiplayer Blog during the company’s Worldwide Invitational.

"We would go about trying to make the best MMO of all time, and to try to eclipse World of Warcraft, if we were ever to do such a thing."

Blizzard’s vice president of product development, Frank Pearce, shares Sams’ optimism: "At some point, some product’s going to come along and cannibalize the World of Warcraft player base, and if it’s going to happen, it’d be better for us to cannibalize our own player base compared to having another publisher do it."

While the duo seem coy on Blizzard’s future plans, recent job listings by the developer seeking team members for a "next-generation MMO" seem to indicate that the company has been giving the project a lot more thought than Pearce or Sams would lead us to believe.

Update Information:
Despite ongoing efforts with StarCraft II, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and Diablo III, PC developer Blizzard has confirmed that it has another MMO in the works.

"There is still one unknown project," Blizzard executive VP Rob Pardo revealed to OnlineWelten during the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational. "We have another development team."

Pardo affirmed that Blizzard’s recent job listings for an "unannounced next-gen MMO" were not related to Diablo III. The company had previously stated that the project was not a World of Warcraft expansion either.

Fans have long speculated that Blizzard may follow the ultra-successful World of Warcraft with a World of StarCraft MMO. The three-faction scenario and multi-world setting would seem to lend itself well to the MMO format.

Others believe that the project could be a new franchise, as Blizzard has not created a new property since StarCraft’s release in 1998.

"The idea of a new franchise is very intriguing to employees of the company," said Blizzard chief operating officer Paul Sams to Gamasutra in a recent interview. "Are we ever going to release a new one? I would absolutely say we will at some point. I just don’t know when that day will be quite yet."

And as for a release date on any of the three known titles? "We ship the games when they’re ready," Pardo commented. "You guys know this."