Diablo Year In Review
I can say with confidence that 2018 was certainly an interesting year for Diablo news. Between the launch of the Diablo 3: Eternal Collection on Nintendo Switch and the announcement of Diablo: Immortal, this year has had many ups and downs for fans of the franchise. Before we look forward expectantly into 2019, let's take a review of all the big news stories from this last year!
Big Names Leave Blizzard
The first half of the year was rather light on news as Season 12 ended and Season 13 began. In hindsight, this quiet period was just the calm before the storm, and the news of Travis Day leaving Blizzard after 13 years was an ominous foreshadowing of what was to come later in the year. In addition to the departure of Travis Day, Mike Morhaim stepped down as President of Blizzard Entertainment and announced that his replacement would be J. Allen Brack.
Themed Seasons
Season 14 introduced the concept of Themed Seasons into Diablo 3 with the Season of Greed. During this season, all goblins spawned outside of The Vault would spawn in pairs. Season 15 would later introduce the Boon of the Horadrim, where all Horadric Caches earned from bounties would be doubled. Themed Seasons were a clever way to change up the existing seasonal structure and incentivize players to return with each subsequent season.
The Future Of Diablo
The lead up to BlizzCon began with a video from Associate Community Manager Brandy Camel announcing that there were multiple Diablo projects in the works, and some announcements were soon to follow.
Netflix Diablo Series
As the hype began to build for what was to come at BlizzCon, rumors of a Diablo Netflix Series surfaced. We still know little about this series, but we do know that it is being developed with Andrew Cosby.
Diablo 3 On Nintendo Switch
The Diablo 3: Eternal Collection came to the Nintendo Switch on November 2nd, bringing a Loot Goblin Amiibo and exclusive cosmetic items with it! Those that have played the game on Nintendo Switch agree that it's a great way to enjoy Diablo 3 on the go.
Leading Up To BlizzCon
Hype for a potential announcement of a new installment in the Diablo franchise was at an all time high in the months leading up to BlizzCon. All signs were pointing to something big being announced, and Blizzard had to step in to curb expectations.
Diablo: Immortal
During the opening ceremony at BlizzCon, Blizzard announced Diablo: Immortal to a disappointed audience. Several of us got a chance to play the demo on the show floor, and our impressions were similar. Blizzard faced back-lash from fans, and had to reiterate that multiple Diablo projects were in the works.
Looking To The Future
This past year has been a rough year for fans of the franchise, but the promise of new announcements in 2019 has the player base hesitantly optimistic. Only time will tell if 2019 will be a good year for Diablo or not, but Season 16 adding an interesting seasonal theme seems to be a good start.
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Posted Jan 8, 2019Why would you beven optimistic about this at all? Because of the new announcements this year? Only 2 possible scenarios. Either they don't announce it. Or they do. If they do it is still way off so...hooray I guess? Franchise needs to either die or have the next iteration come out asap or it will die anyway
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Posted Jan 8, 2019you left out some major stuff. just when you think diablo immortal.... mobile EXCLUSIVE was rock bottom, they go ahead with snarky comments like "do you not have phones" and comments like, oo they'll luv it once they try it...... (not happening)
there is this chasm deep disconnect with their long time base of diablo players, and shoving them all under the bus for this mediocrity of a mobile game.
If they wanted to go mobile EXCLUSIVE, they should have made a new game franchise for it, and not ruin diablo.
at this point it is very hard to be optimistic about Diablo 4.....
A lot of people are already eyeing Lost Ark as a possible game to jump ship. Heck, POE is already available, some already migrated over.
even at the barest minimum, the least critical diablo gamers will have the better sense of not going collectors edition for diablo 4. just watch.
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Posted Jan 11, 2019Well, I write for myself now, so I will not "speak" for the whole community. (Maybe some feel the same, maybe some don't):
I think the term "optimistic" is not the correct way to describe it. I, for myself, will believe it when I see it. Hell, I want it now and I want it to be good. But as the Blizz Buzz continues, Morhaime leaving for good, 2 CFO's leaving right after the other, cost cutting ( the greatest paradox of all with Ahujas' task of cost cutting then leaving right away, lol), Activisions influence getting bigger, weekly. One may say after the phrasing of Activison : "Need more shipping", that Diablo (4) will ship faster than expected. But only time will tell. Only problem: D3 has no new content, D:Immortal has no release date yet, season of grandeur has really nothing new to provide content wise, but interesting nonetheless, but seasons will not forever make me happy. I even don't know if I will play this season. New ARPG's are on the horizon, that look promising, not only Isometric ones (that I truly love) but games like Anthem look very good. I too started new PoE leage, because I wanted to try it out and became a Level 82 Deadeye Hunter and it makes a lot of fun when you look up some build guides. It took me some time and started over 3 times, but now I have a very good build.
As you can see, Diablo's spirit is not dead, because the game mechanic lives on in other ARPGs, but I want a new Blizzard Diablo as soon as possible, because I love this franchise and lore. Will we see an announcement this year? Maybe yes...
Maybe even some early gameplay. They need it badly, we need it too, but the long wait won't help growing faith in that, I was so disapointed with 2018s BlizzCon, same last year and same the year before...Diablo got gutted, one of the companys most iconic flag, just burnt.
I will wait, but I wont hold my breath anymore.