Blizzard says it wants to break a long-running Diablo habit that has dragged on for roughly three decades. Executive producer Gavian Whishaw argues the next 30 years should deliver more Diablo releases than the past 30 years combined. The company is also aiming to end “Blizzard time” for Diablo: five games in 30 years is not enough, and Whishaw is already talking about speeding up with the 60th anniversary in mind.

Some franchises move slowly by design, but Diablo has turned waiting into a lifestyle, with gaps long enough to grow up, earn a degree, and even start a family between entries. Four mainline games plus Diablo Immortal over nearly 30 years is a tally few studios can claim with a straight face. Now that Diablo II: Resurrected has just picked up a new DLC that adds a playable class, parts of Blizzard would like the next three decades to look very different.

Five Diablo Games in 30 Years

In a Variety interview, Gavian Whishaw, executive producer and vice president of Diablo IV, sounded unusually reflective when asked where the series stands and where it goes next. “It’s quite complicated when you’re talking about titles that have been on the market for 20 years and people are still dedicated to them, still playing them, and still getting excited about new content,” he said, before shifting to what he hopes the next 30 years bring. “At a high level, I think in 30 years of Diablo we’ve released five titles. I hope that in the next 30 years we’ll do considerably more than that, perhaps release some more quickly,” he added (via Gamesradar).

The point Whishaw is making is that Diablo cannot keep operating on development cycles this stretched, even if everything suggests Diablo IV will remain the focus for years because it is a live service game – and it is also slated to launch a second expansion next April. When asked whether a new game could be revealed at BlizzCon 2026 in September, Whishaw sidestepped the question.

Even so, former franchise boss Rod Fergusson said last year that his plan is for Diablo IV to have content for the next 10 years, which does not exactly signal a sudden break with Blizzard’s traditional pacing. If you are hoping to see Diablo 5 anytime soon, the history lesson alone should be enough to cool that expectation: Diablo III arrived 12 years after Diablo II, and Diablo IV then took another 11 years. Next on the schedule is Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred, which launches on April 28.

Source: 3djuegos