So here’s some fuel on the raging dumpster fire that is the Diablo scene right now: Kotaku has sources claiming that Blizzard did indeed intend to reveal Diablo 4 at BlizzCon this past weekend but yanked it 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,” Kotaku’s Jason Schreier reports. Of course, what actually happened was that Blizzard revealed Diablo Immortal, to the stunned disbelief of the attendees, then ended on that down note before moving on to the Diablo What’s Next panel, where Wyatt Cheng made his now-infamous “do you guys not have phones?” remark and April Fools Guy got in his snarky question to the hoots and cheers of the audience.
According to Kotaku’s sources, Blizzard changed up Diablo’s BlizzCon plans “at some point in the last couple of weeks,” deciding it “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.”
The last-minute change in plans would certainly explain Blizzard’s big tease and sudden downplay of that tease in the lead-up to the con. It might also explain some of the serious technical snafus during the opening ceremonies and why the con overall felt like a bit of a dud with no major announcement to buoy it.
Blizzard apparently no-commented Kotaku on its scoop.
“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.
