The co-founders of Blizzard North, Erich and Max Schaefer, president David Brevik as well as Blizzard's vice president Bill Roper have resigned from their positions at the development studio behind the popular Diablo series to set up a new game company.

In an interview with GameSpot, Roper mentioned the role of Blizzard's parent company Vivendi Universal as one reason for the surprising decision. He also mentioned that all four are very excited to build up a new "lean and mean" company. Interestingly enough, the decision came so quickly that already tomorrow the group will sit down to discuss their future plans in-depth.

More details as well as a company name and an official website are expected to be available soon.

• GameSpot