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Additional Diablo Immortal Update

In case you missed it with all the Diablo IV excitement over the last couple of days, Blizzard posted a Diablo Immortal update on Friday, giving some insight into their progress and answering common questions. Today, Lead Game Designer Wyatt Cheng posted a follow-up on Reddit, further detailing how Ultimates work in Diablo Immortal, and clearing up a couple of other questions:

Originally Posted by u/wyattcheng

 

A lot of people have been asking me why we didn’t talk about Immortal on the main stage. Quite simply, we want to make sure we give Diablo 4 the space for a clear announcement. I am personally super happy for all my friends on the D4 team who worked so long towards this day. As a company, we didn’t want to risk any confusion regarding features, storylines, etc between D4 and Immortal.

 

We had an updated demo for Diablo Immortal playable on the show floor that was played by thousands of people. The demo had a playable Demon Hunter to join the Monk, Barb and Wizard from last year. Hopefully a few people who had a chance to play the game at BlizzCon will be able to share their game experience.

 

Our dev update mentions ultimates, so how do ultimates work? As you use your basic attack you charge up a meter that sits around the rim of your basic attack button. When the meter is full a new ultimate button becomes available. You can activate that button at any time of your choosing to activate an ultimate mode that transforms your basic attack into a new upgraded version. The exact details of your ultimate state change based on which basic attack you have assigned. Every class has two basic attacks each with a corresponding ultimate. We observed that some players did not notice their ultimate when it became available - something we’ll have to iterate on more.

 

One of the top questions from the weekend was “When is it coming out? I heard the game was done and I was hoping to install it this weekend!” Regarding rumors, the rumor that the game is basically done was false. We are currently in full production and working hard on the game and we’re looking forward to sharing more information in the coming months. I know the rumors are fueled by excitement for the game and I assure you that when we are ready to talk about the next phase of development there will be clear messaging from Blizzard. Thank you for your patience as we take the time to get the game right.

 

Another question I heard was, predictably, if I had a phone. Joking aside, last year’s announcement was rough, but it was nice to see people on this subreddit showing genuine support and interest in the game. The whole Diablo Immortal team loves to game on PC, console and mobile. We all want to make an authentic Diablo game for both the core Diablo audience as well as new players, and we are glad to have you on that journey with us.

He also responded to a comment clarifying device support:

Originally Posted by u/wyattcheng

Switch is not currently planned but you're not alone in wanting that. This weekend I got a lot of requests for a Switch version. BlizzCon attendees also asked about iPad (Yes, definitely - and we actually had ~25 iPads on the show floor where people could try it out), controller support (we'll look into it but no promises), and support for casting the visual to a TV (we'll look into it).