Blizzard reportedly had Diablo 4 ready to announce at Blizzcon, but pulled it at the last moment

QVUV0SL19HUP1539218129052.jpg

BlizzCon 2018 started off in standard fashion, with the announcement of Warcraft 3: Reforged, a new Overwatch hero Ashe, and more. After teasing "multiple" Diablo projects were in the works a few weeks before the convention, Blizzard took to the stage to announce Diablo: Immortal, their latest entry into the Diablo series, which is mobile MMOARPG game. Fans who had expected a Diablo 4 announcement took their ire online, and showed their anger over the lack of a major mainline Diablo title being revealed. However, it seems that just prior to BlizzCon 2018, Blizzard might have actually had plans to unveil Diablo 4 for real, but pulled the game from being at the show at the last moment. According to sources "verified" by gaming site Kotaku, Blizzard's co-founder Allen Adham would have officially announced that Diablo 4 was in active development directly after Diablo: Immortal was shown (though no gameplay would have been shown). The reason for the reveal being pulled is supposedly due to Blizzard "not being fully prepared to commit to an official announcement", despite their previous statement that they definitely have multiple Diablo projects in the works. According to Jason Schreier, Kotaku's editor, Diablo 4 has been in the works for a "while", as the project has moved through different directors and teams in that timeframe.


:arrow: Source
 

Dubbicakes

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2010
Messages
176
Trophies
1
Age
35
Location
America's heart, she's a beaut.
XP
2,039
Country
United States
I'm not a Diablo fan myself, would love to be don't have the time to learn the series, but this is so sad, and frankly, so stupid. How could a company be so detached from their own player base to announce a game in the faces of the probably the most unbending, hardcore gamers on the planet. Blizzard fans are in a league of their own when it comes to fandoms. I'm sure it was only a PR move to get the game out there as investor bait, but if it wasn't, sheesh.
 

CSpiritsong

Active Member
Newcomer
Joined
Jan 13, 2018
Messages
41
Trophies
0
Age
38
XP
234
Country
Malaysia
isn't the same as any company releasing anything in their platform of choice?? does nintendo deserves a similar treatment for not releasing mario on pc?? how isn't that being entitled??
since they are announcing a mobile game it's pretty obvious that it wont release anywhere else.


Consider this one historical fact. Just one historical fact.

All Diablo games has always, with exception of Diablo Immortal, been released FIRST on the PC platform, before other platforms.

Now with Diablo Immortal, its an AndroidOS & IOS release only, with possible Nintendo Switch release. One fan (who identifies himself as "Fluffy" asked "will this ever be launched on the PC), Wyatt Chang said that there are no plans to release on the PC.


If you call that "entitled", go do yourself a favour and go watch YongYea (a youtuber) on his views on this.

If despite all that, you still think its "entitlement", then you're definitely not looking at the gamer-publisher relationship as a reciprocal relationship (or a two way relationship)
Sorry but I just don't believe this rumor. So they are supposedly "not being fully prepared to commit to an official announcement". I know that a lot of gamers go plain nuts over release dates and announcements, but this is just ridiculous. They simply didn't have anything to announce in that field, so some disgruntled game "journalist" pulled this shit out of his ass to create controversy.

It wasn't the only announcement, dude. Besides... How many of that audience do you think wouldn't have a fancy smartphone?
I get it : mobile games have a bad reputation. But their technological capabilities grow much faster than the pc, and the majority of issues isn't even there but in the monetisation department, so it can be fixed. They'd be stupid NOT to tap in that market.

Let me put it this way. Huawei made announcement that their phones are far superior compared to Nintendo Switch when it comes to graphic prowess. Let's take that on face value. Second, look at the incredible job that Blizzard did to port Diablo 3 onto a portable gaming console called Nintendo Switch. Even Rhykker (a youtuber that does content very focused on Diablo) made comments on how he was surprised and impressed with what Blizzard did for Diablo 3 in Nintendo Switch (considering that he even says "I'm a PC master race, no offense."). Third, look at the retardly abysmal quality of the gameplay of Diablo Immortal (sans the cutscene) and compare it with other games that Blizzard's partner (called NetEase) had developed. Going by the "legendary" reputation that Blizzard built for shelving "low quality" games (even when its so developed that it was on the verge of release), a lot of things do not add up. A heck lot of things don't add up.

I've also given my thoughts in a similar thread, but I won't copy and paste the same thing. Suffice to say, the rage and indignity suffered by the Diablo fans who paid to visit Blizzcon is very well justified, and their concerns are very much valid.
 

BORTZ

DO NOT SCREENSHOT
Supervisor
Joined
Dec 2, 2007
Messages
13,242
Trophies
3
Age
34
Location
Pittsburgh
XP
15,961
Country
United States
I wonder if this would have gone over better if there was a Diable 4 announcement as well as a cross play or cross account play-ability with mobile devices. Focusing on a mobile game instead of giving hardcore PC/Console fans a true sequel after 6 1/2 years seems like a bad idea.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Xzi and Noctosphere

Noctosphere

Nova's Guardian
Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2013
Messages
6,719
Trophies
3
Age
30
Location
Biblically accurate Hell
XP
18,001
Country
Canada
I wonder if this would have gone over better if there was a Diable 4 announcement as well as a cross play or cross account play-ability with mobile devices. Focusing on a mobile game instead of giving hardcore PC/Console fans a true sequel after 6 1/2 years seems like a bad idea.
even if they did, fans will always finds something to complain about
You know how they are... fans...
 

BORTZ

DO NOT SCREENSHOT
Supervisor
Joined
Dec 2, 2007
Messages
13,242
Trophies
3
Age
34
Location
Pittsburgh
XP
15,961
Country
United States
even if they did, fans will always finds something to complain about
You know how they are... fans...
I mean sure. I dont doubt that.

Personally, I have played a bit of Diablo. I am no mega fan who has dumped years of time into the game like many have, but even with what I have played, I feel like being able to play on pc/console, and then pull out your phone somewhere and play for a few minutes on the train or bus or what have you, would be pretty neat.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Noctosphere
D

Deleted User

Guest
I'd pull some Diablo 4 news out of my ass too if I was blizz lol! What the fuck were they thinking? I feel awful for the people who paid to go see a fucking mobile game announcement of their favourite PC franchise. I've sunk thousands of hours into Diablo and after the shitstorm they caused and luckily after time somewhat fixed with Diablo 3, you'd think they would start to give a shit about their main market.
 

dimmidice

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2009
Messages
2,359
Trophies
2
XP
3,004
Country
Belgium
I'm not sure why these "So and so had this planned! But they pulled it at the last moment!" theories going around.
Backpedaling. "Oh we were gonna commit to PC release but then didn't last second" is basically saying you're committing to a PC release without actually committing. It's all PR.
 

Tigran

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2002
Messages
1,628
Trophies
2
XP
3,638
Country
United States
Backpedaling. "Oh we were gonna commit to PC release but then didn't last second" is basically saying you're committing to a PC release without actually committing. It's all PR.

I would agree I'd it was the companies doing it. But it's not, it's fan conspiracy theories. "Oh blizzard had Diablo 4 but pulled it! " and "Oh! Nintendo WAS going to show Isaac but changed him to Isabella! "

I guess it's because people can't handle reality.
 

Kigiru

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2017
Messages
206
Trophies
0
Age
31
XP
436
Country
Poland
Kotaku and other game journalism outlets are known from attacking unhappy fans and covering asses of companies for money. If this would be an info directly from Blizzard or any developer i would see it as real, but considering that it's Kotaku then... whew, another bullshit.

Also, what the fuck is "entiltement"? We talk about the most basic producer-consumer connection for god's sake. If producer creates THE LITERAL SHIT then consumers are "entilted" to critism, especialy if they are long-term consumers that puts alot of money and time in said product, that's how it works.

If my favorite restaurant suddenly would start to serve me cold, watery soup from not-so-fresh products i would get loud about it and it would be no different from situation like this.
 

the_randomizer

The Temp's official fox whisperer
Member
Joined
Apr 29, 2011
Messages
31,284
Trophies
2
Age
38
Location
Dr. Wahwee's castle
XP
18,967
Country
United States
Kotaku and other game journalism outlets are known from attacking unhappy fans and covering asses of companies for money. If this would be an info directly from Blizzard or any developer i would see it as real, but considering that it's Kotaku then... whew, another bullshit.

Also, what the fuck is "entiltement"? We talk about the most basic producer-consumer connection for god's sake. If producer creates THE LITERAL SHIT then consumers are "entilted" to critism, especialy if they are long-term consumers that puts alot of money and time in said product, that's how it works.

If my favorite restaurant suddenly would start to serve me cold, watery soup from not-so-fresh products i would get loud about it and it would be no different from situation like this.

Wonder who someone has to suck in order to get good reviews from big online outlets?
 

kevin corms

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2015
Messages
1,013
Trophies
0
Age
40
XP
1,768
Country
Canada
The whole thing just makes me think people are very ridiculous these days. Is life so easy that we have to rage at blizzard for not announcing the game we want?
 

FAST6191

Techromancer
Editorial Team
Joined
Nov 21, 2005
Messages
36,798
Trophies
3
XP
28,282
Country
United Kingdom
isn't the same as any company releasing anything in their platform of choice?? does nintendo deserves a similar treatment for not releasing mario on pc?? how isn't that being entitled??
since they are announcing a mobile game it's pretty obvious that it wont release anywhere else.

I have long said Nintendo should go multiplatform. Either way though not buying something is fine, voicing an objection is fine too.

Also why would it being a mobile title make it obvious? We have had plenty of emulator wrappers in the past and something similar could be done here.
 

Xzi

Time to fly, 621
Member
Joined
Dec 26, 2013
Messages
17,703
Trophies
3
Location
The Lands Between
Website
gbatemp.net
XP
8,370
Country
United States
The whole thing just makes me think people are very ridiculous these days. Is life so easy that we have to rage at blizzard for not announcing the game we want?
People use gaming as an escape from the reality that life isn't easy for most of us, so they don't want to be treated like shit by gaming developers on top of that. Yes, some people are getting overly heated about it, but there's no denying it was a massive PR fuck-up for Blizzard to announce a mobile game, and only a mobile game for Diablo at a paid event for their core community.

I have long said Nintendo should go multiplatform.
No more than Sony should. The reality is that we've always got PC emulation a generation later anyway, so both might as well go multiplat just to make more money from their games and not force people down the emulation route. At the same time, that would stop Rockstar and other developers from using the double/triple dip strategy on old gen, new gen, and PC. So it would make some unhappy.
 
Last edited by Xzi,

Song of storms

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2018
Messages
759
Trophies
0
XP
837
Country
Antarctica
even if they did, fans will always finds something to complain about
You know how they are... fans...
No. Bullshit.

Bethesda released two mobile games for their major IPs: Fallout Shelter and The Elder Scrolls Blades. Was there any backlash? No. Why? Because they were announced at the same time as Fallout 4 and The Elder Scrolls VI.


Blizzard had an event that wasn't free (you had to pay to get there or to watch it) and for fans of the franchise. They knew that fans were waiting for a Diablo IV for several years and when they hype a new title with a new trailer and all... and it's a mobile game. No Diablo IV. No announcement for anything else. Complete disrespect for their playerbase ("don't you guys have phones????") and so on.
 

Wrathcaster

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2018
Messages
115
Trophies
0
Age
39
XP
438
Country
United Kingdom
lmao this is damage control, diablo 4 is obviously not far enough along to show it otherwise they would have, but they only mention it now to soften that cringing blow they recently got....we are not stupid Blizzard!!
 
Last edited by Wrathcaster,

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
    K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2: Sorry for accidentally bending over