Jason Schreier, one of the writers at Kotaku looked deep into Blizzard‘s plans, and he found some shocking results.

Schreier talked with eleven current or ex-Blizzard employees, and he thinks the situation in the studio is turbulent and unsure. This thought is underlined by Diablo 4‘s reboot: the first version’s development started in late 2013, early 2014, not long after the launch of the two current-gen consoles, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, after they cancelled the second expansion of Diablo III. Rise of the Necromancer turned out to be Diablo 4/Project Fenrir. Around this time, Blizzard felt that they have screwed up with Diablo III, and thus, they tried to „run ahead” by starting development of the next main instalment. (However, Reaper of Souls did improve the game by a lot.)

The first Diablo 4 iteration, which ran under the Hades project name, was meant to be Blizzard‘s idea about how Dark Souls would have been: a gothic, challenging action game with a camera over our shoulders. However, it didn’t turn out to be as they expected, which is why the development restarted in 2016 under a new director – Luis Barriga replaced Josh Mosqueira, and his main thought was returning to the basics of the series. An isometric camera angle is used with a new art style that „embraces the darkness,” differing significantly of Diablo III: instead of being colourful, it will be darker, more realistic, and somewhat „gross.” The issue is that the development is in an early state, and until at least 2020, we will not play the game. By then, Blizzard will decide what to do with online integration and monetisation – they have plans to implement „MMO-light” elements: there would be a central hub with other players before we take on new quests.

Activision is more and more influential over Blizzard (don’t forget: the Activision Blizzard name is for a good reason – the two companies are under one banner!), and perhaps it would be the reason why they seemingly make more games nowadays, such as Diablo Immortal, which is developed by another team than Diablo 4‘s. There are also rumours about Warcraft getting a mobile game, imitating Niantic/Nintendo’s Pokémon Go. (How will they even pull that off? Hey look, there’s an orc on your shoulder…?)

So, the situation is somewhat complicated: Activision might be brute forcing Blizzard to make more games (which is why we might have heard the thought of „all Bizzard IPs” getting mobile titles), and Diablo 4‘s restart didn’t help them either. Quantity over quality is not always a good thing, especially with games!

Source: WCCFTech, DualShockers