I cannot believe cost cutting is non-developmental. Issues with all their games lately are largely developmental issues. BFA sucks, because of dev issues: class design is managed by a single intern, story is a mess, systems are a mess. BFA seems to have no institutional memory or learning from the successes and failures of past expansions.
They also cut the dev team for HotS. Overwatch has lost tempo. Diablo 3 was 7 years ago and they haven't announced a sequel yet (apart from a 2 paragraph mention in response to Immortals backlash, which doesn't count IMO because they were obviously desperate). StarCraft 2 was 9 years ago with no sequel planned.
I don't know what Blizzard is doing lately, but there is clearly nobody developing games there anymore.
If Blizzard is really hard-up for cash they're doing something very wrong. They're still a golden goose - but golden geese aren't cheap - you have to feed it gold if you want it to shit gold.Where would you want them to go to get more money? Try to sell to another Vivendi-size corporation and hope to regain golden-goose status and not be strip-mined for their IPs (which is something Vivendi looked into, though probably more to give an idea of Acti-Blizz's potential value rather than as a real threat?)
You go to a VC or bank and say,
"Hey, we're Blizzard-f--king-Entertainment, and we shit gold.
In our heyday we have had no equal in PC gaming. Pick any genre, and we're the best at it (except MOBA's but that's a long story and we gave birth to that accidentally, too).
We want to make this new game called XXXXXX, and it's in this genre, and this is why it's better than anything else before. Please review our track record, look upon our works ye mighty, and despair! Then tell us what ROI you want, and then give us infinite money. Thanks!"
What bunch of horse shit. Conveniently after Blizzcon, so many of the things were already known.
The first Diablo was inspired by The Gauntlet.
Monster Hunter is one of my favourite series, and its history and influences owe a lot to the original Diablo. While there existed ARPGs in Japan before Diablo (Secret of Mana etc), Diablo was a direct influence on Sega's first online ARPG, Phantasy Star Online. PSO was modelled si closely that it featured the same 3-class system, 4-levels of dungeon and town-hub system, not to mention the items, armor and loot system. The big difference was in the gameplay and boss fights, which were designed around 3rd person console action games. It was with the big voss fights and multiplay co-op that then inspired the Monster Hunter series.
I want to see it come full circle with a Diablo Monster Hunter game. Its got the Dark Souls-esque control scheme, giant Demons to hunt, and you could tailor the item drops to a crafting system with the Horadric cube, letting you create your own armor out of scraps, gems and relics. Have it set during the Sin War, playing as the Horadrim travelling the world hunting demons and tracking down the cults of the Prime Evils. More focus on artifacts and alchemy with a touch of magic thrown in.
blizzard doesnt make dark games. target audience isnt profitable enough for activi$ion