How long till the game releases?

[Beefhammer]

That's kinda game dev in a nutshell, it's quite rare when trying to create a new experience that it doesn't get scrapped multiple times over. Scrapped doesn't mean that everything worked on has been binned, it just means taking what assets you've made and going back to the drawing board with them.

I'm just surprised with how widespread this is in game development that people still don't seem to understand this is truly the norm. With D3, they fired a team and went with something more modern instead of basically making a slightly better rezzed D2 if you look at the screens from early D3 it looked like shit even for back in the early 2000s. We would have ended up with a Diablo version of Marvel Heroes, which was a shit game IMO. That is what D3 was supposed to be. From the Blizzard North guys who wanted the original to be turn based and had no idea why they put a stamina bar in D2.

With D4, they were originally going for a more classic 3rd person perspective, rumored to be a souls like experience in the Diablo world. Thankfully that got canned for a more traditional isometric ARPG.

[Strawberry]

Pretty sure it's coming out before 2022. 2 years for a big company like Blizzard is a lot of time. It's not like they have 5 guys working on the game.
How much of the world is completed we don't know, but we know they have the basics and the idea where they want to go with the game done.
After that, it's just adding new stuff.

[Beefhammer]

Pretty sure it's coming out before 2022. 2 years for a big company like Blizzard is a lot of time. It's not like they have 5 guys working on the game.
How much of the world is completed we don't know, but we know they have the basics and the idea where they want to go with the game done.
After that, it's just adding new stuff.

I'm pretty sure the world and main story arc is complete. I think they have tons of systems to finalize and balance.

[TestMeOk]

The game will release on the day that satan rises from the ashes and diablos all of you in the ass of grapes, you know get graped since its fate in the home of peanut butter and jam sliding like lube on the fleshlight

Infracted.

[arandomuser]

They said not even blizzard soon.. so i expect 2021 or 22

[MsJosie]

Its been like what 4 years D: please tell me its this year, not another 2 :/

[Andonais]

1.5-2 years

[MsJosie]

:'( well that sucks

[Bane-Thunder-God]

I'd be surprised if Diablo 4 is not out in 2021 especially with Activision's foot on Blizzards neck about releasing more games frequently/quicker (if ya'll remember the kotaku article)

I look forward to maining that savage Druid. World pvp and mounts. I'm so f'ing IN.

[Coldkil]

Its been like what 4 years D: please tell me its this year, not another 2 :/

It's been announced this year, we're lucky if we will see it in 2022.

[Noct]

My guess is May 2022. No way this year and if it comes out next it likely would mean it's because Activision is pushing them to do so.

[Coldkil]

I am very afraid of the game being pushed hard and crunched. Which would result in very subpar quality. What i've seen and read so far is definitely interesting and the detachment from D3 is huge, so it's just a plus. However this project needs time to be cooked properly hence i'd prefer to see it later but in a better shape. Blizzard cannot really afford to miss this shot.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Preorders will be available soon probably. If they get enough and lawyer up the agreement enough it might come out when its halfway though production as a final product so they can start the next marketing ploy to get people to pay for things that don't exsist yet.

[Coldkil]

I don't think it was needed a standlone thread, and here looked like the best place.

Apparently Rod "The Fixer" Fergusson has moved from Coalition to Blizzard to direct and manage the whole Diablo franchise. The guy is well known in the industry because he's a very good leader and many people have positive feedback about him. Also his nickname is due to the fact that multiple times he took things in his hands and fixed troublesome projects managing to have a solid release.

If anything, i see this as a promising thing. Diablo 3 was plagued by the lack of directive and actual ideas on where to bring the game. Having someone like Fergusson in charge at least denotes how the interest of the company in the franchise is high and how they realize they cannot afford to miss this shot.

Especially now that every other project has just been canned awfully.

[Edge-]

Apparently Rod "The Fixer" Fergusson has moved from Coalition to Blizzard to direct and manage the whole Diablo franchise. The guy is well known in the industry because he's a very good leader and many people have positive feedback about him. Also his nickname is due to the fact that multiple times he took things in his hands and fixed troublesome projects managing to have a solid release.

This is good and bad.

Good, because he's very good at what he does.

Bad, because given his reputation and what we know of Blizzard internal, it speaks to potential problems with development.

At the end of the day though, RIP necks in D4. Just gonna be head and shoulders. This post sponsored by Head and Shoulders anti-dandruff shampoo.

[mrgreenthump]

Tbh, this sounds totally like an "Activision-part" move from Activision-Blizzard. With the struggles Blizz games have had in the past year. The management is probably not happy and want to push out D4 faster.

So this actually might be the worst thing that could happen. Now we have a high chance to get another mess that is forced through and we go from "Blizzard polish" to "good enough" once again. And we get a year long beta after release. Not that it wouldn't end up in a better game probably, just I'd rather not pay to test games for big devs anymore when the game should be release ready already.

[Vyndion]

This is good and bad.

Good, because he's very good at what he does.

Bad, because given his reputation and what we know of Blizzard internal, it speaks to potential problems with development.

At the end of the day though, RIP necks in D4. Just gonna be head and shoulders. This post sponsored by Head and Shoulders anti-dandruff shampoo.

There are extremely real problems with D4's development. They showed a re-textured d3 at Blizzcon. Every skeleton/animation was the same, down to the chickens running on the ground.

Even with "Fixer" I'd expect a rushed game.

[Coldkil]

This is good and bad.

Good, because he's very good at what he does.

Bad, because given his reputation and what we know of Blizzard internal, it speaks to potential problems with development.

At the end of the day though, RIP necks in D4. Just gonna be head and shoulders. This post sponsored by Head and Shoulders anti-dandruff shampoo.

HAHA.

I look at the other side though. It's not a mystery Blizzard has lost many of the major people in the company and the ones left are not really good at leading the projects.

D4 is both in very early development and the company realizes that they cannot afford to miss this - so they hire the best around to make sure things are done properly this time.

The key here is that D4 hasn't been cooking for much and we will have years to wait. 2022 is the most likely window but i expect it even later. So don't see problems in development when development is still starting.
I don't see any "let's push this out of the window" thing. Anyway given latest records i'm not sure about anything anymore.

[matrix123mko]

I doubt they will post any release date after Reforged.

[Uurdz]

I doubt they will post any release date after Reforged.

Agree with this and want to reinforce it with a few points

Reforged is actually incredibly bizarre. Announcing a placeholder (31/12/19) which they then miss and launch a late & unready version (likely 2 months early).

As for Diablo 4, they will be incredibly about this IP. They've already de-prioritised anything new with Starcraft, Warcraft is basically fully utilised with WoW (both versions), HS and WC3R and OW currently looking a bit dull/unsure of its future growth.

This leaves the Diablo universe as being critical to Blizzards future growth using existing IP. They're going into the mobile area which is no surprise given how massive and profitable that market is - that transfer hurt them a lot though (see: BlizzCon '18) and they've not yet seen if that move is going to be good. It's not a given that the IP value will transfer into the mobile network who will mostly not care/know about Diablo Universe. They will want to however, be able to get players working across all platforms (Console/Mobile/PC) and critical to this would be a positive PC installation.

Otherwise Diablo might end up relegated to a console/mobile franchise and new IP developed for PC...

So long story short they will be fighting very hard against having a release date until they feel like they can confidently set one. The success of WoW: Classic (I told you so) along with the latest COD:MW game and COD mobile game leaves Activision Blizzard probably helping reduce any pressure on going toosoon.