According to a report from Kotaku, Blizzard planned to announce Diablo 4 at BlizzCon, but changed its mind in the final hour. Instead, Blizzard anchored the show with the reveal of Diablo Immortal, the contentious mobile entry in the franchise that has led to backlash from core Diablo fans.
Blizzard fans have had a few days to digest the reveal of Diablo Immortal, the upcoming mobile entry in the action RPG series that received a startling amount of criticism from ardent Diablo fans. A new report from Kotaku suggests that the maelstrom could’ve been completely avoided had Blizzard followed through with their original BlizzCon plans. According to Kotaku, Blizzard had a Diablo 4 teaser on the docket, only to remove it “at the last minute.”
Diablo Immortal anchored the BlizzCon opening ceremony over the weekend. Once it was shown, the presentation ended and the mixed reactions started pouring in immediately. However, Kotaku said the presentation was supposed to continue with a video message from Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham. In the address, Adham was going to relay to fans that Diablo 4 wasn’t available to show off, but that it was currently in development.
Kotaku’s report echoes the rumors that have been swirling on Reddit since the Diablo Immortal announcement.
The thing is: We already pretty much knew Diablo 4 was in development. Blizzard said as much leading up to BlizzCon when it wanted to quell expectations of what would be shown. So this begs the question: Why didn’t Blizzard just go ahead with the teaser? Especially considering it sounds like no footage would’ve been shown at all. The announcement would have been comparable to when Nintendo teased a core Pokémon game for Switch, the Metroid Prime 4 logo reveal, and Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls VI tease at E3.
Well, according to one of Kotaku’s sources, the team working on Diablo wasn’t quite ready. In the four years since the sequel was conceived, the project has had “at least two different iterations under “different directors.” It sounds like Blizzard is still figuring out what it wants Diablo 4 to be.
While that explanation still doesn’t wholly address why a simple announcement with no footage was scrapped, it’s clear that Blizzard thought it was in its best interest to hold off on the reveal.
If you’ve been following this saga, you already know that Diablo Immortal received a ton of backlash, including mass down votes on YouTube and even an audience question about whether the mobile game was an April Fool’s joke .
For what it’s worth, we enjoyed our hands-on time with Diablo Immortal at BlizzCon. While you continue to wait for the inevitable reveal of Diablo 4, make sure to check out our interview with Adham. He assured us that Blizzard hasn’t forgotten about core Diablo fans.
