Shely: Diablo V will have more classes than any base Diablo game

Since the reveal, coverage has said Diablo V will launch with the largest class roster in the series. This codex filed that as a rumour, because no Blizzard text said it and no developer was quoted saying it. The second half of that is no longer true. In a BlizzCon interview published by the French site Gameblog on 14 September, game director Joe Shely said:

Nous annoncerons naturellement d'autres classes au fil du temps, et nous prévoyons même d'en intégrer plus qu'il n'y en a jamais eu dans un jeu Diablo de base. L'objectif est vraiment de proposer l'épisode le plus ambitieux à ce jour.

In English: more classes will be announced over time, Blizzard plans to include more of them than any base Diablo game has ever had, and the aim is the most ambitious game in the series so far. The quote reaches us in Gameblog's French, and the translation is ours.

What that does and does not mean

Diablo II, Diablo III and Diablo IV each launched with five classes. Taken literally, Shely's sentence puts Diablo V at six or more - but "plan" is the operative word, and it is a plan made two and a half years before release. Nobody has given a number, and only three classes have been shown: the Demon Hunter, the Monk and the new Plague Knight.

The launch counts are ours, from the shipped games, and are only there to show what "more than any base game" would have to beat.

How it is filed now

The roster claim moves from rumours to developer statement: a named developer said it on the record, and no Blizzard post has said it yet. "The total number of classes" stays on the list of things Blizzard has not answered.