The sour reception of "Diablo Immortal" at BlizzCon 2018 was not a surprise to most fans of the franchise as Blizzard's new mobile game was seen as a step down from the "Diablo's" roots. Fans were concerned that both support for "Diablo 3's" future, as well as the possibility of ever getting a proper "Diablo 4" in the near future, was sacrificed to focus on what most saw as a secondary product.
But it seems that the issue about the absence of "Diablo 4" news at BlizzCon 2018 goes far deeper than fans expect. Kotaku recently went in-depth with a number of anonymous Blizzard employees to get to the bottom of the video game company's future plans for the "Diablo" franchise.
Kotaku's investigation unveiled the news that a second expansion for "Diablo 3" was actually planned but it was canceled due to unspecified reasons. Some of the developers point out that the cancellation of Diablo 3 was an executive decision and may have been influenced by the game's lackluster performance until it's "Reaper of Souls" expansion was released to critical acclaim. While "Diablo 3" may have been a dead end for Blizzard and Activision bosses, it meant that the team behind the "Diablo 3" expansion "Reaper of Souls" would be free to work on "Diablo 4."
Unfortunately, "Diablo 4" was already in development under the project name "Hades," but progress was restarted around 2016. The development reboot for "Diablo 4" also came with the departure of "Diablo 4" lead developer, Josh Mosquiera. Still, Blizzard did not fully give up on developing "Diablo 4" which apparently is currently in development under the project name "Fenris."
Fans looking forward to "Diablo 4" can expect a significant number of changes to the franchise that some of the developers interviewed by Kotaku have dubbed "light MMO elements." According to the publications soures, developers are currently looking into how "Diablo 4" hub locations can become multiplayer locations for players to meet and interact with each other. But even with what appears to be fleshed out details for a potential "Diablo 4" it seems Blizzard did not see fit to officially announce the development of the game during BlizzCon 2018.
Despite the backlash during BlizzCon 2018, Blizzard continues to keep silent about "Diablo 4." The company has only officially responded to the fan backlash by reiterating that multiple projeccts for the "Diablo" franchise are in development. But Blizzard is still holding out that despite their official silence about "Diablo 4" and the franchise's other projects, fans will hopefully come to enjoy "Diablo Immortal" once the mobile game has been released.
The key takeaway from Kotaku's "Diablo 4" investigation is that Blizzard and Activision may have been significantly changed by their experience with the cancelled "Project Titan" game - which interestingly may have birthed the highly successful shooter, "Overwatch." The premature discussion of a game in development that would eventually end up cancelled may have Blizzard's internal committee hesitant to have another public cancellation happen to a games as highly anticipated as "Diablo 4."
