Kotaku: Diablo 4: Hades and Fenris, Titans, Activision and mobile gaming

[KainneAbsolute]

Kotaku asked anonymous Blizzard employees about Diablo 4 and Diablo 3. Here is the link:

https://kotaku.com/the-past-present-...blo-1830593195

I will share some interesting highlights of the article:

Project Hades: Diablo IV

- Team 3 (Diablo team) was going to start the development of the second expansion of Diablo 3 after the release of Reaper of Souls, but they received the order to stop. It really surprised them because RoS recovered some of the lost faith of the players in the franchise and they have a few things planned.
- Seems weird because after all, D3 and ROS are successful games.
- Team 3 was scattered. Some people went ot other franchises.
- Project Hades: They were asked to start Diablo IV development immediately. They didnt understood the reasons: they didnt wait to look the performance of RoS in the following months. Maybe they considered that Diablo III was already a failure and RoS was a good moment to leave everything in a well manner.
- Diablo 4 has some development. The idea was a third person Dark Souls Style game.
- The change in style was so big, they started to think if it was ok to call it Diablo 4
- However it was cancelled and rebooted in 2016. They dont know if it was because Mosqueira left the company in the same year. Mosqueira denied to declare for this article.
- The Rise of the Necromancer was a way to appease the fans.
- ‘Man, if we had just done that second expansion instead of losing half the team as a result of the cancellation, and then all of the personnel changes, management changes, then this walk down the road of Hades… If we hadn’t done any of that and had just focused on doing a solid third act for Diablo, it’d be out by now.’”

Project Fenris: Diablo IV reboot

- Really early in development.
-"They want to make this gross, make it dark, [get rid of] anything that was considered cartoony in Diablo III… Make what people were afraid of in Diablo II, but modern."
- Principles: embrace the Darkness and More social.
- More social? Hub cities and instanced dungeons.
- Team feels enthusiastic and optimistic for the new concept, however it wont see some light until 2020. They want to announce it with a playable demo.
-Isometric camera angle game...for now. They are not sure.
- The team expected and announcement and teaser this year or during Blizzcon. Blizzard heads changed their minds. Blizzards other department and Blizzcon planner said there wasnt going to be a Diablo 4 announcement. Lack of communication.
- They didnt talk about how to monetize it. Blizzard looks to the example of HS and OW

Diablo Immortal
- Diablo is a success in China
- At the start, Diablo Immortal was going to be developed just for China. After some months, they wanted to release it to the west.
- Blizzard changed their mind about this: they wanted to global announcement and maintain the quality of the game for all regions. His new principle is to make Blizzard Worldwide.
- Codevelopmnet by Blizzard and NetEase.

The shadows of SC: Ghost and Titan

- The shadows of StarCraft Ghost and project Titan haunts Blizzard. They invest lots of time and money and they cant risk to take so long to cancel games.
- Many of the older developers want to try new things and shorter games. Many of them spent 10 continuous years in the same projects (WoW, Diablo 3 and Sc 3) and they were tired.

Incubation department: mobile games
- HS was a successful experiment.
- New incubation departmens is there to cultivate new opportunities. Headed by Allen Adham
- Many Blizzard employees are fan of Pokemon GO.
- Iconic orc statue in Blizzard´s campus is a Pokestop.
- They want to release more games for phones. There are many smartphones players.
- Mobile games seems to be the opportunity for some developers who want shorter projects.
- Tom Chilton in WoW mobile game. Warcraft version of Pokemon GO?????
- Mobile games to enter easily new markets and please Activision investors?

Activision and Blizzard
- Blizzard was really proud of being a separated entity from Activision. Having their own Headquarters and own time development cycle.
- Times changed, Activision and Blizzard are mixing more each year. Activision influence is growing.
- For the first time Blizzard´s priority is to cut costs and trying to spend better to improve the product output. Amrita Ahuja is the new chief financial officer and she came from Activision HQ in Santa Monica.
- Investors arent happy. Activision´s Destiny performance makes them unhappy. HS and OW numbers are stagnant and even in decline and Blizzard isnt releasing new games
- Blizzard must show growth
- OW sets the bar so high of Blizzards potential. “We are being told to spend less at every corner because we have no new IP”
- Co-founder Mike Morhaime was a massive shake. He was the ANTI CEO: he didnt care about profits, he only wanted the employees and community to be happy and make good games.
- The are concerns. How this new policy will affect decisions?

[XDurionX]

Sounds like a lot of bullshit tbh.

[Radaney]

'Scramble the random propaganda machine to restore faith!' - Blizzard

[KainneAbsolute]

'Scramble the random propaganda machine to restore faith!' - Blizzard

I think it doesnt restore any faith. They take resources from a team, they ask for new game, they cancel the idea and now they have a policy of "spend less because you dont develop new IPs and lets do mobile games

[jackofwind]

Throw enough spaghetti at the masses and some noodles will end up in mouths.

[Coombs]

Amazing how this in depth leak has come a few weeks after the apocalypse by "validated" sources. Pure and utter fucking bullshit. Diablo 4 will not be dark.

[Thelxi]

Everything aside, I would have loved to see Blizzard's version of Dark Souls.

This is very juicy information if it is legit though. Hades and Fenris..

[Yunaqt]

I do enjoy reading these, even if they are fake.

[The Stormbringer]

'Scramble the random propaganda machine to restore faith!' - Blizzard

- Co-founder Mike Morhaime was a massive shake. He was the ANTI CEO: he didnt care about profits, he only wanted the employees and community to be happy and make good games.

This is the opposite of 'restoring faith'. This is a kick to the knee and a punch to the gut. If Mike was trying to improve quality for employees and the community and he's gone now, that's a Very Bad Thing™.

[RobertMugabe]

I do enjoy reading these, even if they are fake.

Why do you think that's fake? Everything I've read seemed legit and relatable. And the source is kotaku at least (all those fake leaks are usually unrealistic and they're made by forum users). They do have to be legit, because otherwise they're gonna loose all their credibility.

[micwini]

- Co-founder Mike Morhaime was a massive shake. He was the ANTI CEO: he didnt care about profits, he only wanted the employees and community to be happy and make good games.

This line genuinly shocked me and made me really, really sad.

[Skildar]

so we have reached the point where people make fanfiction about their favorite video company instead of the franchise they produce...

[Yunaqt]

Why do you think that's fake? Everything I've read seemed legit and relatable. And the source is kotaku at least (all those fake leaks are usually unrealistic and they're made by forum users). They do have to be legit, because otherwise they're gonna loose all their credibility.

Not saying that I think it is.
Just saying I enjoy reading these leaks, this or others. Even if they turn out to be fake.

[Vakir]

'Scramble the random propaganda machine to restore faith!' - Blizzard

A lot of this is bad news for them, though...?

Did you read it? It seems pretty heavy on the negatives in the latter half.

[Dakhath]

Another garbage article by Jason "Games Journalism" Schreier

[TriHard]

Rule of thumb, anything that comes from Kotaku is usually fake.
Their entire website is one big fraud.

[Sentynel]

- Times changed, Activision and Blizzard are mixing more each year. Activision influence is growing.

So this should also mean more Blizzard influence in Activision games. Where's my bad boy Arthas skin from CoD?

See how bullshit this is? Stop spreading this fucking nonsense folks.

[korijenkins]

Why do you think that's fake? Everything I've read seemed legit and relatable. And the source is kotaku at least (all those fake leaks are usually unrealistic and they're made by forum users). They do have to be legit, because otherwise they're gonna loose all their credibility.

He says its fake because hes one of the Blizzboi white knights who defends their each and every action.

I would bet if you check his post history, he spends most of his time doing just that.

[dope_danny]

I'll shit on Kotaku any day of the week but its well known Shcrier has a number of connections inside activision and blizzard and is the go to guy for disgruntled employees to spill details. I get the brand die hards dont like the idea of blizzard not being on the up and up but its a business and this is how partnerships with companies like activision and ea work. The only real surprise here is trying to make diablo darker.

[arandomuser]

has a company ever rebounded from austerity? if a company is struggling you cant just tell them to spend less and less and less and expect them to give good returns.