[Gamescom Speculation] Diablo "4" Reveal

[Coldkil]

Not really convinced at that, it's still sold 12 million copies on the PC alone, Reaper of souls sold 30 million globally on all platforms - people will still buy it because it's Blizzard and because of the name, even those who claim to be die-hard PoE fanboys. We're still playing it 5 years after it came out.

It's a commercial success, I don't really think they care about a minority who are stuck on Diablo 2, a few 100k weebs (being generous) isn't exactly much in the grand scheme of things.

Well, kinda agree also with that. Honestly i'm one of the die-hard fans that doesn't like the game anymore and criticizes many development choices but still has played 1k+ hours. I just think the game really devolved in its structure to a point that's offensive to players. Commercial success unfortunately means that while the game has objectively a lot of core flaws that should set a standard on what they shouldn't do in the next Diablo game, it still nets them a good revenue so they can just churn out games like this with a very short player retention over and over with no real improvement.

It's not about being stuck on D2 (which i think has better stuff but gameplay now feels stale) or being PoE diehards (that turned the D2 concept up to 11 and it's an awesome game, with its issues). It's (for me) just being worried about the Diablo franchise future.

[Strawberry]

Diablo 3 is the best Blizzard game imo. I'm still enjoying the crap out of D3 and did it even back when it was released.
The only game that comes close to it is Torchlight. But it's way more cartoony. Diablo is very dark.
Everything else is crap, Path of Exile, Grim Dawn, etc... those games don't have the same feel. GD is actually ok, but lacks the feel. It's too damn gothic. Path of Exile lol, people probably play it because it has a very good F2P model, but the controls are abyssmal.

[Konteil]

MMOs are kinda dead atm - first person fantasy rpg like Skyrim or the Witcher would be better imo.

i could see that happening. but i also dont see mmo being dead. after all were all here'

[Sorshen]

Hahaha, absolutely nothing about Diablo in the preview. Don't get your hopes up for the main event.

[RoutinelyWorgen]

Have a quick look at Gamescom schedule / Stream stage.

http://gamescom.blizzard.com/en-gb/schedule

If you take a close look, all games are represented but the Diablo franchise on the Stream Stage.
Then we got this: https://gyazo.com/8566b2c665a039075d45558e27d35bf5

Diablo 4 / Diablo MMO? Or at the very least a Diablo 3 expansion (I personaly find this very unlikely).

Let the speculations and hype fly.. what are your thoughts?

That link doesn't work buddy.

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Whatever the new Diablo product is I think we can say with a reasonable degree of certainty it's not a MMO. MMOs are extremely expensive and rarely have a good return of investment, and that's without them worrying about cannibalizing their own market. We also know that Blizzard is aware of how profitable Overwatch, Heroes and Hearthstone are, in no small part due to their usage of Gachapon style gambling systems. It's not presumptuous to believe that every Blizzard game from now on will try and find a system to monetize microtransactions (as seriously only Diablo doesn't have them) and ARPGs by design are incompatible with microtransactions.

What this suggests to me is either a Diablo spin off or a second expansion (which is so much cheaper than making a new game, so it can be profitable easier).

MMOs actually have a pretty good return on investment, especially when it's done properly. As for the 'cannibalizing' part, keep in mind Blizzard had Warcraft 3 and Starcraft running together for a good while and even intended on releasing another MMO (Titan) while WoW was at its peak.

With how quickly the story in WoW is advancing now and the fact its game engine doesn't allow for much innovative game mechanics, it's more likely that the supposed Diablo MMO will come in to replace it rather than living beside it. :/

[Vertigo X]

That link doesn't work buddy.

Both links work for me. Something on your end.

[RoutinelyWorgen]

Both links work for me. Something on your end.

Mhm, works on Chrome so fault lies with Firefox.

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Not gonna happen.

I'd say D4 is at least 4 years away. If it happens.

Wouldn't be surprising if they honored Diablo's 25th anniversary in 2021 with an announcement, in which case we could receive info about it as "early" as 2019.

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MMOs are kinda dead atm - first person fantasy rpg like Skyrim or the Witcher would be better imo.

If there's any genre that's dead out there then it's the ARPG, and they have literally no reason to try to imitate Witcher when people can just play the actual Witcher instead. Not that Blizzard has any interest in making singleplayer games to begin with

[Real2016]

She said there is a lot coming when talking about Diablo...

[RoutinelyWorgen]

She said there is a lot coming when talking about Diablo...

She did mention something about Diablo but it was barely audible, though if she did in fact say that then most of us are in for quite the surprise since we didn't hear it but again if she diiiid, there might actually be an announcement from them at the ceremony.

[Real2016]

As I said, it is impending.

[Zyky]

It's not happening, Necromancer is too new. They aren't going to announce something so soon after something new came out, its bad business.

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MMOs are kinda dead atm - first person fantasy rpg like Skyrim or the Witcher would be better imo.

I mean if you consider around 7 million active accounts across all mmo's "dead" then sure, far far more if you want to count private servers.

[Jdance]

diablo 4 is never going to happen

[Real2016]

failed troll

[Notshauna]

MMOs actually have a pretty good return on investment, especially when it's done properly. As for the 'cannibalizing' part, keep in mind Blizzard had Warcraft 3 and Starcraft running together for a good while and even intended on releasing another MMO (Titan) while WoW was at its peak.

With how quickly the story in WoW is advancing now and the fact its game engine doesn't allow for much innovative game mechanics, it's more likely that the supposed Diablo MMO will come in to replace it rather than living beside it. :/

MMOs make money but they don't make anywhere near as much as they should for the time investment. A full featured MMO costs an obscene amount of money, around 100M in development costs alone. WoW still makes a killing, but MMOs in general struggle to make a profit, with most of them reaching the overall break even point ~2 years after launch (if they haven't collapsed by then). Compare and contrast that to the average development costs of Heathstone, Heroes and Overwatch and their respective profit margins and you'll see why I don't think Blizzard is interested in making another MMO.

As for the cannibalization, there is a big difference between two MMOs and two RTSes. It's relatively easy to pick up and play multiple different RTSes but, MMOs demand almost your complete attention (it's why they are the only genre that still gets away with subscription fees). Even with that considered Titan wasn't a MMO intended to compete with WoW, it was meant to fit the niche of Destiny, which is now filled by Destiny. Titan is also the biggest failure in Blizzard's history, costing 70M with nothing to show from it (Overwatch is entirely different from Titan, they just reused some minor assets).

[Coldkil]

I don't think there will be anything Diablo related at Gamescom - hell i don't think we will have anything cool even at Blizzcon given the focus on esports and excluding the very likley to be announced WoW expansion.

I wouldn't keep my hopes higher than the absolute minimum. However i could be wrong - not a problem since everything that comes will be more than what i expect.

[Dorfadin]

Considering the next big ARPG's are Lost Ark and Lineage Eternal which makes me think D4 is gonna be the reveal to compete against these, in a year or so time.

[Orwell7]

Even if it's Diablo related, it will be a _MASSIVE_ mobile/tablet game. Maybe a completely new universe, who knows. (or the past/future of an existing one)

[JBM]

Not a single word about Diablo in new video about Blizz games changes - seems like DIABLO 4 confirmed!

[kharuweshalkuri]

i wish we have a feel like d2 at new diablo game. But i dont think we will hear anything about d4 soon

[Sorshen]

Blizzard? Diablo? Gamescon? rofl