Diablo 4 Executive producer Gavian Whishaw has revealed that Blizzard would like future games in the series to be released more quickly in the future. The Diablo the series has been around for almost 30 years, and in that time Blizzard has only released five new games, plus a remake of the second in the series. Of these titles, only four are mainline releases, and there have often been significant gaps between them Diablo titles.
Over the past three decades, Diablo the series has enjoyed incredible longevity and become a staple franchise for Blizzard. Diablo 4 is the latest game in the series, released in 2023 to critical and commercial success. Part of what does Diablo so special is its extensive post-launch support. Blizzard has mastered the seasonal content model, adding new seasons to the game every two months with unique gameplay mechanics that keep players coming back for more. Over two and a half years after its launch, Diablo 4 Season 11 is underway and with a new expansion coming in April, the game is arguably in its best state ever.
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Blizzard wants future Diablo games to be released faster
Talking to Variety about the possibility of something new Diablo game announcement at BlizzCon later this year, Diablo 4 executive producer Gavian Whishaw had a lot to say. “It's a bit complicated when you're talking about titles that have been around for 20 years and people are still dedicated to and still playing and will still get excited about new content,” Whishaw explained. “I'll say at a high level, I'm thinking over 30 years Diablowe have made five titles. So I hope in the next 30 years we'll do a few more than that, maybe we'll get some out faster.” While Whishaw won't confirm anything either way regarding BlizzCon, his comments indicate the studio has a desire to speed up Diablo future development. Previous Diablo Boss Rod Fergusson spoke of a 10-year road map for the franchise last year, but it is possible it is now looking even beyond that.
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Realistically, it makes sense that Blizzard might be hoping to increase its Diablo output compared to the series' past. In 29 years from the original Diablothere have been four mainline games, as well as the mobile title Diablo Immortal. The first two games were only three years apart, between 1997 and 2000. That's not too bad. But in between Diablo 2 and 3that the wait was extended to 12 years, with the latter emerging from development hell in 2012. Diablo 3 to 4 wasn't much better – players had to wait another 11 years and finally launched in 2024. That means Diablo fans have twice had to wait over a decade for a new main game in the series, which is far from ideal.
I think over 30 years Diablowe have made five titles. So I hope in the next 30 years we do a few more than that.
While becoming new Diablo games more often have obvious advantages, there are arguments against this approach worth considering. Some might argue that the new releases would be smaller as a result of being launched more frequently. Post-launch support may also be affected by this. Diablo games are often at their best a few years after release, as a result of the time and effort put into refining the experience. With more regular releases, there is no guarantee that they would be supported with so many resources for so long. And if all this led to more aggressive monetization Diablothen it's unlikely that players would be too happy no matter how quickly the games come out.
Right now, there's no indication of when Blizzard plans to talk about a new one Diablo game, and it's not clear if the studio will actually heed Whishaw's comments about the speed of future development. For now, at least publicly, Blizzard is focused on the development of Diablo 4pp Lord of Hate DLC, which will add two new classes to the popular action RPG.
- Released
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June 5, 2023
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language, In-Game Purchases, User Interaction
