From Kotaku for those that don't want to get link aids:
When Blizzard’s sole Diablo announcement at this year’s BlizzCon turned out to be a game for phones, it set off a firestorm of angry reactions from fans who had hoped for a new Diablo on PC. As it turns out, Kotaku has learned, Blizzard had originally planned to tease Diablo 4, but pulled those plans at the last minute.
The original plan for BlizzCon 2018, according to two people familiar with Blizzard’s plans, was for Blizzard to announce the mobile game Diablo Immortal and then end on a video in which company co-founder Allen Adham told the audience that a proper Diablo 4 was in development but not ready to show just yet. Instead, at last Friday’s keynote, Blizzard revealed Diablo Immortal to a quiet, uncomfortable crowd and then ended the show. For most of the weekend, Diablo fans raged online as a result, expressing their anger on YouTube and various forums. There were a few reasons for the controversy, but the driving factor was that the company’s sole Diablo announcement was a game that appeared to be made for a very different audience than hardcore Diablo fans.
The reactions could have been very different. Blizzard changed its BlizzCon plans for Diablo at some point in the last couple of weeks, those people familiar with goings-on at Blizzard said. One of those people told me that the Diablo team wasn’t yet ready to commit to an announcement, as Diablo 4 has changed drastically over the past four years and may continue to change further. (We’ve heard it’s gone through at least two different iterations under different directors.)
Blizzard said it did not immediately have comment on this story.
On October 17, two weeks before BlizzCon, Blizzard put out a blog post that essentially told fans Diablo 4 was in the works but would not be at the show. “These are very exciting times—we currently have multiple teams working on different Diablo projects and we can’t wait to tell you all about them . . . when the time is right,” the company said. “We know what many of you are hoping for and we can only say that ‘good things come to those who wait,’ but evil things often take longer.”
But even after playing down expectations, sources said, Blizzard was still looking to assure fans that Diablo 4 was in development, until those plans changed.
Diablo III launched in May 2012, and its first and only expansion, Reaper of Souls, followed in March 2014. Since then, new updates have been scarce, with an occasional new content patch arriving sporadically and a Necromancer character pack hitting in 2017. Last Friday, Diablo III also came to the Nintendo Switch.
Blizzard has assured fans publicly that it has multiple Diablo games in development. One of them is the game that fans are waiting for, and it was nearly announced last week.
UPDATE (8:32pm): This article originally stated that Blizzard had recorded a video, planned for BlizzCon, in which co-founder Allen Adham talked about a new Diablo game. Although we can confirm that the video was made, Blizzard disputes that it was planned for BlizzCon.
“First off we want to mention that we definitely hear our community. We generally don’t comment on rumors or speculation, but we can say that we didn’t pull any announcements from BlizzCon this year or have plans for other announcements. We do continue to have different teams working on multiple unannounced Diablo projects, and we look forward to announcing when the time is right.”
However, two people familiar with Blizzard’s plans confirmed that the company had indeed recorded a video in which co-founder Allen Adham spoke to fans about a new Diablo project. What’s in dispute here is the timing. We had originally reported that it was planned for BlizzCon, but it’s possible that those plans were simply discussed and never solidified. (Either way, the video never came out.)
We can confirm that Diablo 4 is indeed in development. One of those sources told me that the Diablo team wasn’t yet ready to commit to an announcement, as Diablo 4 has changed drastically over the past four years and may continue to change further. (We’ve heard it’s gone through at least two different iterations under different directors.)
The regulators stated games providers must "ensure that features within games, such as loot boxes, do not constitute gambling under national laws"
What if they designed the game around loot boxes and this September they gave up this monetizing strategy since when D4 releases it could very well be banned? But why not show a gameplay trailer at least?
it would have been slightly better than just diablo immortal, period, but it means the game may take 4-5years before not release, but even definitive shape.
and we know well Soon tm.
Players need much more than a soon.
better d4 announce screen than nothing, but d3 is dead, and they're doing nothing to save it.
for higher purposes? still abandonware.
there is only poe for diablo players atm, and older fans won't forget, because diablo is more than fanboyism, is a different kind.
A representative for Blizzard responded to IGN's request for comment, saying, contrary to today's earlier Kotaku report, that the company "didn't pull any announcements from BlizzCon this year or have plans for other announcements."
Kotaku's Jason Schreier, who broke the original story, has subsequently said that while a Diablo 4 tease featuring Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham does exist, his original report that it was going to drop at this year's BlizzCon may have been off.
A representative for Blizzard responded to IGN's request for comment, saying, contrary to today's earlier Kotaku report, that the company "didn't pull any announcements from BlizzCon this year or have plans for other announcements."
Kotaku's Jason Schreier, who broke the original story, has subsequently said that while a Diablo 4 tease featuring Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham does exist, his original report that it was going to drop at this year's BlizzCon may have been off.
Is it though? I wouldn't call the rumor "fake", just not getting everything 100% right in an attempt to shed some light into the darkness that is Blizzard's PR machinery. Let's look at Blizzard's exact statement in response to the Kotaku article:
"First off we want to mention that we definitely hear our community. We generally don’t comment on rumors or speculation, but we can say that we didn’t pull any announcements from BlizzCon this year or have plans for other announcements. We do continue to have different teams working on multiple unannounced Diablo projects, and we look forward to announcing when the time is right."
"We didn't pull any announcements" is correct if it was never meant for Blizzcon. Also, what does the second part of that sentence mean ([no] "plans for other announcements" - in the last sentence they confirm that they *are* planning on announcing something regarding their multiple unannounced Diablo projects. They do not directly deny that the video was being made. They do not deny any development of Diablo 4. But their cop-out statement also gives them a carte blanche to do whatever they want.
"[W]e definitely hear our community." That's interesting, since when? At Blizzcon? Will there be action based on what you have heard? When? And since when did you hear the community? Because you clearly did not hear the community over the past half year, which unanimously stated (on your own forums!) that we don't want a cheap mobile game or a quick fix to D3 - we want to us to *show* that you care about the Diablo franchise. Selling out the franchise to a Chinese P2W mobile app developer is the opposite of that.
Also, the "multiple unannounced Diablo projects" could be a D2 Remastered (which is definitely in the works, as they officially confirmed that they want to remake all classic games), some D3 low-effort changes like quadruple bounties and goblins or just switching up some numbers to change the meta (Nevalistis: "we're not done with D3 yet"), and some Diablo videos (as they really focus on lots of videos for all the other franchises, and apparently HotS, HS, OW fans are loving it). Also, we haven't even talked about non-gaming stuff (comics, books, the Netflix show, a board game, a movie, ...)
All of this sounds terrible and absolutely ridiculous and cheap and not what we want. But then, as someone who expected *nothing* at Blizzcon, didn't buy a virtual ticket, and focused fully on SC2 while trying to ignore Diablo - even as someone who really expected absolutely nothing I was still super super disappointed, as if they drove a dagger into my guts. Yeah, at this current point we have to assume the worst and I'm absolutely done with "in dubio pro reo" for Blizzard. "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." Well, we've been fooled with Diablo way more than just once or twice, so at this point, unless they show tangible evidence that they *hear* us, I'm done believing any of their "we have multiple projects in the works" "it's the best time to be a Diablo fan" (yeah this last weekend was the worst time in 22 years to be a Diablo fan).
phew, such a post coming from bagstone surely is gut-wrenching.
Indeed, but I totally feel the same way he does. Unless they release some type of update in the next month offering at least minor changes I cannot bring myself to rebirth a toon for Season 16.
@Bagstone: Well, it's nothing ever certain with such statements, but if we decide to trust them here (and I think we should about that particular statement), I understand the following part this way (see below): "we didn’t pull any announcements from BlizzCon this year or have plans for other announcements".
We know Blizzcon have ended when they wrote this, so the first part is pretty clear: They announced what was planned to be announced. If they work on X projects and they planned to announce one of them aka DI, this is what they've done.
Now "or have plans for other announcements" could be kind of a tautology. Or they mean "we won't say we work on D4, stop insisting"? Or (what is most probable from the way of the writing) they mean they haven't planned to announce something AFTER Blizzcon.
Btw, something which proves they did not have any plans to announce D4 are the messages with a leaked info to Rhykker's twitter. Kudos to jimmy696 for the find! This also reveals D4 will have an open world, which is cool if you ask me, new Torchlight (also Mythos back in the days) has this too for example and it feels like a QoL when searching for groups and friends.
This is an unconfirmed rumor so don't put too much stock in this. Just spreading the news.
https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/11/05/diablo-4-announcement-reportedly-pulled-from-blizzcon-2018
https://kotaku.com/sources-blizzard-pulled-diablo-4-announcement-from-bli-1830232246
From Kotaku for those that don't want to get link aids:
When Blizzard’s sole Diablo announcement at this year’s BlizzCon turned out to be a game for phones, it set off a firestorm of angry reactions from fans who had hoped for a new Diablo on PC. As it turns out, Kotaku has learned, Blizzard had originally planned to tease Diablo 4, but pulled those plans at the last minute.
The original plan for BlizzCon 2018, according to two people familiar with Blizzard’s plans, was for Blizzard to announce the mobile game Diablo Immortal and then end on a video in which company co-founder Allen Adham told the audience that a proper Diablo 4 was in development but not ready to show just yet. Instead, at last Friday’s keynote, Blizzard revealed Diablo Immortal to a quiet, uncomfortable crowd and then ended the show. For most of the weekend, Diablo fans raged online as a result, expressing their anger on YouTube and various forums. There were a few reasons for the controversy, but the driving factor was that the company’s sole Diablo announcement was a game that appeared to be made for a very different audience than hardcore Diablo fans.
The reactions could have been very different. Blizzard changed its BlizzCon plans for Diablo at some point in the last couple of weeks, those people familiar with goings-on at Blizzard said. One of those people told me that the Diablo team wasn’t yet ready to commit to an announcement, as Diablo 4 has changed drastically over the past four years and may continue to change further. (We’ve heard it’s gone through at least two different iterations under different directors.)
Blizzard said it did not immediately have comment on this story.
On October 17, two weeks before BlizzCon, Blizzard put out a blog post that essentially told fans Diablo 4 was in the works but would not be at the show. “These are very exciting times—we currently have multiple teams working on different Diablo projects and we can’t wait to tell you all about them . . . when the time is right,” the company said. “We know what many of you are hoping for and we can only say that ‘good things come to those who wait,’ but evil things often take longer.”
But even after playing down expectations, sources said, Blizzard was still looking to assure fans that Diablo 4 was in development, until those plans changed.
Diablo III launched in May 2012, and its first and only expansion, Reaper of Souls, followed in March 2014. Since then, new updates have been scarce, with an occasional new content patch arriving sporadically and a Necromancer character pack hitting in 2017. Last Friday, Diablo III also came to the Nintendo Switch.
Blizzard has assured fans publicly that it has multiple Diablo games in development. One of them is the game that fans are waiting for, and it was nearly announced last week.
UPDATE (8:32pm): This article originally stated that Blizzard had recorded a video, planned for BlizzCon, in which co-founder Allen Adham talked about a new Diablo game. Although we can confirm that the video was made, Blizzard disputes that it was planned for BlizzCon.
“First off we want to mention that we definitely hear our community. We generally don’t comment on rumors or speculation, but we can say that we didn’t pull any announcements from BlizzCon this year or have plans for other announcements. We do continue to have different teams working on multiple unannounced Diablo projects, and we look forward to announcing when the time is right.”
However, two people familiar with Blizzard’s plans confirmed that the company had indeed recorded a video in which co-founder Allen Adham spoke to fans about a new Diablo project. What’s in dispute here is the timing. We had originally reported that it was planned for BlizzCon, but it’s possible that those plans were simply discussed and never solidified. (Either way, the video never came out.)
We can confirm that Diablo 4 is indeed in development. One of those sources told me that the Diablo team wasn’t yet ready to commit to an announcement, as Diablo 4 has changed drastically over the past four years and may continue to change further. (We’ve heard it’s gone through at least two different iterations under different directors.)
You're a wizard Harry.....
"Diablo 4 has changed drastically over the past four years"
This clearly signals their main driving force is the way of monetizing the game and it changed during development.
Btw, maybe this could have played a role.
What if they designed the game around loot boxes and this September they gave up this monetizing strategy since when D4 releases it could very well be banned? But why not show a gameplay trailer at least?
it would have been slightly better than just diablo immortal, period, but it means the game may take 4-5years before not release, but even definitive shape.
and we know well Soon tm.
Players need much more than a soon.
better d4 announce screen than nothing, but d3 is dead, and they're doing nothing to save it.
for higher purposes? still abandonware.
there is only poe for diablo players atm, and older fans won't forget, because diablo is more than fanboyism, is a different kind.
--- Kev ---
https://www.deviantart.com/aerisot
I hope Diablo 3 gets some damage control driven improvements. Balancing, Paragon rework, Runewords, new game mode and such.
Ok, this rumor is confirmed to be fake:
i don't know why nobody inside blizzard can leak the status of the diablo dev team. "team for number 4 exists and has 140 people currently."
shouldn't be too hard.
Is it though? I wouldn't call the rumor "fake", just not getting everything 100% right in an attempt to shed some light into the darkness that is Blizzard's PR machinery. Let's look at Blizzard's exact statement in response to the Kotaku article:
"First off we want to mention that we definitely hear our community. We generally don’t comment on rumors or speculation, but we can say that we didn’t pull any announcements from BlizzCon this year or have plans for other announcements. We do continue to have different teams working on multiple unannounced Diablo projects, and we look forward to announcing when the time is right."
"We didn't pull any announcements" is correct if it was never meant for Blizzcon. Also, what does the second part of that sentence mean ([no] "plans for other announcements" - in the last sentence they confirm that they *are* planning on announcing something regarding their multiple unannounced Diablo projects. They do not directly deny that the video was being made. They do not deny any development of Diablo 4. But their cop-out statement also gives them a carte blanche to do whatever they want.
"[W]e definitely hear our community." That's interesting, since when? At Blizzcon? Will there be action based on what you have heard? When? And since when did you hear the community? Because you clearly did not hear the community over the past half year, which unanimously stated (on your own forums!) that we don't want a cheap mobile game or a quick fix to D3 - we want to us to *show* that you care about the Diablo franchise. Selling out the franchise to a Chinese P2W mobile app developer is the opposite of that.
Also, the "multiple unannounced Diablo projects" could be a D2 Remastered (which is definitely in the works, as they officially confirmed that they want to remake all classic games), some D3 low-effort changes like quadruple bounties and goblins or just switching up some numbers to change the meta (Nevalistis: "we're not done with D3 yet"), and some Diablo videos (as they really focus on lots of videos for all the other franchises, and apparently HotS, HS, OW fans are loving it). Also, we haven't even talked about non-gaming stuff (comics, books, the Netflix show, a board game, a movie, ...)
All of this sounds terrible and absolutely ridiculous and cheap and not what we want. But then, as someone who expected *nothing* at Blizzcon, didn't buy a virtual ticket, and focused fully on SC2 while trying to ignore Diablo - even as someone who really expected absolutely nothing I was still super super disappointed, as if they drove a dagger into my guts. Yeah, at this current point we have to assume the worst and I'm absolutely done with "in dubio pro reo" for Blizzard. "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." Well, we've been fooled with Diablo way more than just once or twice, so at this point, unless they show tangible evidence that they *hear* us, I'm done believing any of their "we have multiple projects in the works" "it's the best time to be a Diablo fan" (yeah this last weekend was the worst time in 22 years to be a Diablo fan).
phew, such a post coming from bagstone surely is gut-wrenching.
Indeed, but I totally feel the same way he does. Unless they release some type of update in the next month offering at least minor changes I cannot bring myself to rebirth a toon for Season 16.
@Bagstone: Well, it's nothing ever certain with such statements, but if we decide to trust them here (and I think we should about that particular statement), I understand the following part this way (see below): "we didn’t pull any announcements from BlizzCon this year or have plans for other announcements".
We know Blizzcon have ended when they wrote this, so the first part is pretty clear: They announced what was planned to be announced. If they work on X projects and they planned to announce one of them aka DI, this is what they've done.
Now "or have plans for other announcements" could be kind of a tautology. Or they mean "we won't say we work on D4, stop insisting"? Or (what is most probable from the way of the writing) they mean they haven't planned to announce something AFTER Blizzcon.
Btw, something which proves they did not have any plans to announce D4 are the messages with a leaked info to Rhykker's twitter. Kudos to jimmy696 for the find! This also reveals D4 will have an open world, which is cool if you ask me, new Torchlight (also Mythos back in the days) has this too for example and it feels like a QoL when searching for groups and friends.
It won't. Blizz has been done with D3 for a while now.