Blizzard trademarks "The Dark Below," possibly a Diablo 3 expansion [Update]

Update: A new Diablo 3 teaser site has emerged, titled Reaper of Souls. The site quotes 'The Book of Tyrael ', saying "Death, at last, shall spread its wings over all". We'll find out more at Gamescom, but if Reaper of Souls is the name of the new expansion, what's 'The Dark Below'? Possibly something WoW related?

Original: We've known for a couple weeks that Blizzard will be making an announcement "sure to capture the attention of the Heavens, Burning Hells and all the shadowed places that lie between" at Gamescom later this month. That's about as on-the-nose as it could possibly get without sending out a press release saying "Hey guys, Diablo 3 expansion!" Considering the timing, Blizzard's newly-filed trademark for "The Dark Below" is likely to be the title of said expansion.

Of course, Blizzard could just be messing with us, and it might end up being the sequel to Blackthorne .

We've known about plans for Diablo 3's expansions since we got a look at one of Blizzard's leaked product slates back in 2010. Earlier this summer, we got official word that we probably wouldn't see the first of these expansions until 2014 , which seems like a compatible timeframe if the announcement is made at Gamescom.

We've reached out to Blizzard for comment, and will update this article if we learn more.

Thanks to IGN . Also to CVG for the update.

Contributor

Len Hafer is a freelancer and lifelong PC gamer with a specialty in strategy, RPGs, horror, and survival games. A chance encounter with Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness changed her life forever. Today, her favorites include the grand strategy games from Paradox Interactive like Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis, and thought-provoking, story-rich RPGs like Persona 5 and Disco Elysium. She also loves history, hiking in the mountains of Colorado, and heavy metal music.

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