Blizzcon 2018, Major announcments on Friday. Highlight being something new for Diablo.

[CaitSeith]

Do you guys not have phones

This whole thing in a nutshell:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29_ny2U0vnw

F*cking badass! Some things never change...

 

[Hawki]

Bare in mind that Diablo 3 came out May of 2012. It's sixth year anniversary just passed. And people are told to still wait. What people are seeing is that we'll have to wait until 2019 to year that Diablo 4 is coming soon. When? 2020?

People came into this frustrated, and as we can see by the overwhelming response, Diablo Immortal doesn't sate that frustration.

I'm only going to respond to this because it's about the only subject I didn't touch on in the other thread. The issue of delay between releases.

Okay, first of all, that's technically misleading, since D3 was getting content up until 2017 - that includes Reaper of Souls in 2014 (which is reportedly when D4 began development BTW).

Second of all, in the context of Blizzard, it's nothing. Warcraft III was launched in 2002, WoW in 2004, StarCraft II in 2010, and Diablo III in 2012. I can't help but be kind of pissed off that we're getting Diablo IV before WC4 or SC3 (not so much WoW 2, because I doubt anyone's actually asking for that).

Third of all, in the context of Diablo itself, six years means very little. There was a 12 year gap between D2 and D3, similar to the 12 year gap between SC1 and SC2, along with the knowledge that we're never going to get Warcraft IV, or fuck, Lost Vikings 3 (yes, I played the Lost Vikings back in the day, thanks for asking). Even D1 and D2 had a four year gap, and neither of those games had years of post-launch content.

Fourth, and most importantly of all, if Diablo fans have gone for six years without a major release, even if Blizzard develops at a, ahem, "glacial" rate...sorry, you're not getting my sympathy. Least not to the extent that I believe many are owed. There's many IPs that have gone longer than six years with nothing in sight. There's plenty of IPs that will almost certainly never have another installment in their series for whatever reason. So when people complain that six years is too long, in the knowledge that they're getting at least three games in the future, my sympathy is very, VERY limited. Even if you're only interested in one of those games, you're at least getting such a game. That's more than many IPs can say.

 

[Lord_Jaroh]

Bare in mind that Diablo 3 came out May of 2012. It's sixth year anniversary just passed. And people are told to still wait. What people are seeing is that we'll have to wait until 2019 to year that Diablo 4 is coming soon. When? 2020?

People came into this frustrated, and as we can see by the overwhelming response, Diablo Immortal doesn't sate that frustration.

I'm only going to respond to this because it's about the only subject I didn't touch on in the other thread. The issue of delay between releases.

Okay, first of all, that's technically misleading, since D3 was getting content up until 2017 - that includes Reaper of Souls in 2014 (which is reportedly when D4 began development BTW).

Second of all, in the context of Blizzard, it's nothing. Warcraft III was launched in 2002, WoW in 2004, StarCraft II in 2010, and Diablo III in 2012. I can't help but be kind of pissed off that we're getting Diablo IV before WC4 or SC3 (not so much WoW 2, because I doubt anyone's actually asking for that).

Third of all, in the context of Diablo itself, six years means very little. There was a 12 year gap between D2 and D3, similar to the 12 year gap between SC1 and SC2, along with the knowledge that we're never going to get Warcraft IV, or fuck, Lost Vikings 3 (yes, I played the Lost Vikings back in the day, thanks for asking). Even D1 and D2 had a four year gap, and neither of those games had years of post-launch content.

Fourth, and most importantly of all, if Diablo fans have gone for six years without a major release, even if Blizzard develops at a, ahem, "glacial" rate...sorry, you're not getting my sympathy. Least not to the extent that I believe many are owed. There's many IPs that have gone longer than six years with nothing in sight. There's plenty of IPs that will almost certainly never have another installment in their series for whatever reason. So when people complain that six years is too long, in the knowledge that they're getting at least three games in the future, my sympathy is very, VERY limited. Even if you're only interested in one of those games, you're at least getting such a game. That's more than many IPs can say.

I will say, as a Diablo fan, I have been waiting for a long time for a Diablo sequel, that is more a return to form for D1 and D2 especially considering the backlash they received for Diablo 3. Seeing as this was a convention mainly for PC games, having them show only Diablo Immortal was pretty much an insult from the company to their fanbase. That they were so out of touch to believe that the fans have traveled that far and spent a lot of money (or even just bought virtual tickets to watch the stream) would be happy with such an announcement is pretty disingenuous. They were so apologetic after D3, even going so far as to release an expansion with a lot of changes to help fix the game somewhat, to see them doubling down on shitting on the franchise has left a sour taste in a lot of fans mouths.

I think the Q&A questions at Blizzcon were more than fine, and shows Blizzard more than anything how disinterested the fans are in a Diablo that was not made for fans of the franchise. Sometimes a backhanded insult is a wake-up call that a company needs. Not that I think Blizzard will really care in the long run. They have decided to monetize the franchise in a terrible way, and to hell with what their fans think. They are banking on Chinese gamers handing over money hand over fist, and if they can fool enough gullible gamers over here (NA side) to get the game, bonus.

 

[Hawki]

https://www.kotaku.com.au/2018/11/the-past-present-and-future-of-diablo/

Interesting read.