Diablo: Immortal was met with all the rage and fury of its fans when it was announced recently, and lot of that had to do with Blizzard simply not reading the room right. After teasing fans with the prospect of a Diablo 4 all year long (even though they did eventually try to temper those expectations), all they had to show was a mobile game outsourced to a company known for making poor Diablo knock-offs. It’s no wonder fans were so angry about it.
That said, Blizzard apparently did try to have something related to Diablo 4, or really, any mainline Diablo game, at BlizzCon this year. Speaking to GameDaily, and responding to a lamentation about the lack of any new news about a new mainline Diablo game at the event this year, Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham simply had this to say: “We tried.”
Which at first glance is contradictory to Blizzard’s insistence that Diablo 4 was never meant to be a BlizzCon announcement, but not necessarily so when you think about it—it is entirely possible that the intention had been to have Diablo 4 for the event, but when it became clear that that would not be possible well in advance, it was never officially planned for the show to begin with
That said, while the intensity of the reaction to its announcement may have been unexpected, Blizzard doesn’t begrudge how angry fans got at Diablo: Immortal, or its status as the show closer for BlizzCon. “[Fans are] letting us know what they want us to be working on. Loudly,” he said.
Hopefully, what fans want Blizzard to be working on is what Blizzard is working on, and hopefully, we get to see more of it some time soon. Diablo 3 is available now on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC, while Diablo: Immortal will launch on iOS and Android at some point in the future.