Diablo 3 has up to 16,000 lines of spoken dialogue

Between 13,000 and 16,000 lines, says Blizzard.

Diablo III will feature between 13,000 and 16,000 lines of dialogue, Blizzard confirmed during the BlizzCon 2011 Diablo Sound panel.

According to GameFront, which attended the panel, Diablo 3 features up to 16,000 lines of dialogue - more than four times that of World of Warcraft and StarCraft II.

Each of Diablo III's character classes has 1200 lines of dialogue, which when taking into account male and female variants already adds up to 12,000 lines. The rest is made up of characters in the game world which have been given speaking roles.

Monsters also boast unique sound palettes with specialised actors brought in to perform creature vocalisations - often blended with animal noises to create the final sound.

Diablo III will be released early in 2012.