Jeff Kaplan, one of the two lead designers for Blizzard's obscenely successful MMORPG, World of Warcraft has announced that he is leaving the development team for WoW and starting work on something new.

Contrary to some rumours though, the Blizzard designer will be staying with the company and is just starting work on Blizzard's next MMO project.

"I wanted to take a moment to let the community know that I've switched roles here at Blizzard to work on our upcoming, unannounced MMO," said Kaplan on the official World of Warcraft forums.

"I still plan to be very involved with the future course of WOW, but will leave the day to day operations of WOW to my partners in crime, Tom Chilton and J. Allen Brack."

Kaplan has long been a prominent figure in the history of the game, having been recruited to Blizzard after a chance in-game meeting with design chief Rob Pardo while playing Everquest.

Kaplan's particular specialities on WoW were the design of quests, dungeons and establishing the complex lore that fills Azeroth, so his departure is sure to be noticed by long-time fans. Hopefully Blizzard's next project will feature the same attention to detail and Kaplan will be able to great an MMO that's even more involving.

Are you hopeful that Blizzard's next MMO will be of equal quality to WoW, or do you doubt that even Blizzard is able to replicate that kind of success? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.