Diablo 3 has seen its share of turmoil since it launched in May of last year. Today it takes another hit as its project lead, Game Director Jay Wilson, posted on the Blizzard forums today to announce that he'll be leaving Diablo after seven years to work on unspecified projects at Blizzard (Titan, perhaps?). No successor is named, but Wilson says Blizzard is looking for someone who can bring "fresh ideas" to the table. Considering there's an expansion still in the works, we could potentially be looking at an opportunity for a major design revamp.

Wilson promises that the plans for Diablo 3 will continue under new leadership -- so we can rest assured that the PvP dueling in 1.0.7 and the expansion are still happening. He also acknowledges that his handling of certain community interactions could've been better.

Jay Wilson: I'm proud of Diablo III, and despite our differences at times I will miss the community that has formed around it. I feel I have made many mistakes in managing that relationship, but my intent was always to provide a great gaming experience, and be as open and receptive as possible, while still sticking true to the vision the Diablo team has for the game.

I know some of you feel we fell short of our promise to release the game "when it's ready." While we're not perfect, we try to make the best decisions we can with the information and knowledge we have at the time. That doesn't mean we always make the right decisions, but if we made a mistake then I feel we've made an exceptional effort to correct it.
There may be some understatement there, but I for one am not cynical enough to believe that Wilson ever wanted to do anything other than make the best damn Diablo 3 he could. Even if he didn't end up knocking it out of the park, I got several dozen hours of enjoyment out of it, and that's more than most games can say.

Now seems like an excellent time to bring up that GameSpy's staff posted a list of what we'd like to see in the Diablo 3 expansion. What's on your wishlist? (Yes, we all want an offline mode, so you can skip that one.)