6 bucks - or so the rumors go - will be the magic price to keep a valid, unified Battle.net account, says Diablo 3 fansite Diii.net. And according to the source that confided to Diii.net, this is part of the "new plans" that Blizzard has in store for the revitalized Battle.net.

The real deal? Remember the Blizzard Authenticator that the company launched some time ago? The new Battle.net system will have something similar. There will be a key chain that updates every 10 minutes with an 11-digit number, designed to be your password to the unified Battle.net account. The good news is, it effectively fights off account hijacking.

The bad news is, it'll cost you US$ 6.00, and there's no indication that it's a one time fee. So yes, if multiplayer over the Blizzard's official servers is part of your Diablo enjoyment, it might cost you. And we know that some of you consider the lag up on Battle.net not even worth the "free" tag sometimes, either.

In other veins of the rumor, it would seem that Diablo 3 won't be based off of Diablo 2 (or even the first Diablo, for that matter). The whispers say that the underbelly of Diablo 3 was designed with many of the principles learned in WoW, including how to secure servers from duplicators.

In fact, according to what was said to the source in the unnamed private forum, "[Diablo 3 is] going to be a game with WoW architecture and a D2 skin." Painful words for the hardcore Diablo gamer, but as you must note - this is still a rumor.

We're bound to learn more about this after the word spreads, but you might want to do your fellow Diablo 2 LAN fellows a favor and spill the beans before they get the shock of their lives. We'll be all over the updates, as soon as we get them.

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