With the passing of BlizzCon 2017 comes a certain amount of reflection. Gamers from all over are still reeling from the announcements that filled the last few days, of how the Alliance and the Horde are going to war once more in “Battle For Azeroth”, of how Overwatch has a new healer in Moira, and a new stage in Blizzard World, or how about StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty going free-to-play? All exciting announcements. But there was one Blizzard franchise that had no news, or even an appearance: Diablo.
To be fair, Blizzard said a while before BlizzCon arrived that there wouldn’t be any Diablo news, that their recent ending of Season 11 of content and the upcoming Season 12 was going to be the major focus for them. But that didn’t sit well with players at all. Since the outset, Diablo III has been a very divisive game. It’s antagonized those who loved Diablo II with all they had, and the sequel didn’t live up to the hype.
Though they did make strides to try and salvage the situations, such as with Reaper of Souls and the Rise of the Necromancer expansion, it still didn’t serve as a full solution to their problems. So, fans were hoping, or maybe even praying for a true solution: Diablo IV. And more importantly, they were hoping it would’ve been announced, or even teased, at BlizzCon. But it wasn’t. So where does that leave them?
On one hand, it’s clear they love the franchise, and that it still has a large fanbase (else they wouldn’t have made the recent Necromancer expansion, or Season 12), so to say they’re abandoning it would be wrong. But, we also have to look at this objectively. If they’re going to announce a fourth game, it really needs to be soon.
After all, Diablo III came out in May of 2012, so it’s already been five years since launch. How much longer are fans going to have to wonder before Blizzard gives them what they want? It’s something to ponder for sure.