If you were hoping that the next Blizzard MMO was going to be World of Warcraft II now is the time to take that Orc mask off and snap back to reality, at least according to Blizzard COO Paul Sams. “I think the (new MMO) is going to be significantly differentiated enough, such that, you’re not going to feel like they’re one and the same resulting in that you have to pick or choose” explained Sams in a recent post-BlizzCon interview.

Does that automatically mean that the next MMO is StarCraft or Diablo themed? Most definitely not. We already know that the new MMO will supposedly feature a brand new IP from Blizzard, something we haven’t had since StarCraft’s debut back in 1998. The question now is what direction they’ll take with it; fantasy, sci-fi or a blend of both? Who knows really, but either way we’re expecting nothing short of Blizzard’s high standards when it comes to their games.

Sams also addressed concerns about the new MMO stealing subscribers away from WoW, “If the bad thing that happens to us is that they leave WoW and go to this other thing of Blizzard’s, then we’ll work through that pain.” He also reassured WoW fans that their game will continue to get full support and isn’t going away any time soon. “We’re going to continue to support this game. You can’t go and make this game available and get this many people interested and excited about it, and then say, ‘You know, I guess we’re all done.’ Because they’ve made a commitment to us and we’ve made a commitment to them, and we intend on fulfilling our commitment, which is to keep making this game bigger and better.”