We may be seeing the resurrection of an iconic franchise soon. A leak in German magazine Game Star may have just spilled the existence of Diablo IV, the latest entry in the dungeon crawler series.
The telltale reveal was in an ad for a Diablo art book. It claims the book (which you can pre-order on Amazon) contains “over 500 artworks from Diablo, Diablo II, Diablo III and Diablo IV.”
BlizzCon 2019 new Diablo 4 leaks in Germany.
If this is true, information about previously leaked Overwatch 2 may be correct. pic.twitter.com/J3cmfciGNt
— Naeri x 나에리 (@OverwatchNaeri) October 20, 2019
It’s not much to go on, but it’s enough to make my little ears perk up. Rumors about Diablo IV have been percolating for a while — the most recent being from Kotaku in June, when it reported that Diablo IV (codenamed Fenris) and Overwatch 2 were taking up the lion’s share of the development resources. Blizzard supposedly axed a first-person shooter set in the Starcraft universe in order to put more time into the former two titles. Supposedly Diablo II Remastered is also on the docket.
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Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if this was the game Blizzard revealed at the end of BlizzCon. Goodness knows the company needs a win right now if it wants to get back in everyone’s good graces.
Last year, Blizzard chose the big moment to unveil their new mobile game Diablo Immortal. Needless to say, the reaction was lukewarm, as many felt the game was not appropriately big enough for such a momentous reveal. One fan even asked during the follow-up Q&A if it was an April Fools joke (in November) — it wasn’t. Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham implied in his response (via Polygon) to the controversy that something Diablo was in the works: “We still have multiple Diablo teams working on multiple unannounced Diablo projects. Diablo is a tentpole franchise for us. And it always will be. We love it.”
Not to mention Blizzard is still dealing with the aftermath of the Hong Kong controversy. While it’s nominally cleaned up the mess by shortening the ban on Blitzchung, the player who voiced his support of the protests, and reinstating the winnings he’d been stripped of, its initial reaction still hangs like a cloud over the proceedings. The company cancelled an event celebrating Overwatch‘s launch on the Switch shortly after everything went down.
A new game — and not just a mobile game, but a proper entry in one of its so-called tentpole series would be enough to give the company a bit of a boost out of the mire. BlizzCon runs from November 1-3.
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