Kotaku: Blizzard pulled Diablo 4 announcement from Blizzcon (UPDATE: Blizzard disputes)

FSmallhands said:

This isnt news btw, this is a press release dressed as news.

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I know, don't you love it when press releases talk about how the hot new game has been through multiple iterations and multiple directors?

carlsojo said:

Diablo 4 must be an absolute mess to not show anything.

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The article says they've been working on Diablo 4 for 4 years, which means development started at some point in 2014. Apparently though it has "changed drastically" multiple times under different directors.

It sounds like Blizzard has no idea what type of game they want Diablo 4 to be.

Figured something went off-kilter with D4 for them to can it altogether, but this coming in a few days 'after' the 'we underestimated the controversy' comment about Immortal makes me wonder how much of this is damage control.

Though it's not surprising that D4 is having developmental issues - D3 went through a similarly painful process, IIRC.

carlsojo said:

Diablo 4 must be an absolute mess to not show anything.

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Or it's years away from being put out.

People analyzed fucking puddles in pre-release material for Spider-Man and bitched about a downgrade. Games don't have to be a 'mess' for developers to feel antsy about showing things. People will jump on anything to try and paint something as bullshots or to bitch about how janky a game looks now. That's the biggest reason we don't see more transparency as to where games are early in development. Because even great games are fucking messes sometimes until a month before release.

chrominance said:

It's still so weird to me that apparently all it would've taken to mollify Diablo fans was someone going "and oh by the way we're making Diablo IV but it's not ready to show." As if you don't already know that's happening. Like, I get that it would've been such a small thing for Blizzard to do so why not do it. But on the flipside, it changes essentially nothing about the current situation but people raging about Diablo Immortal would suddenly be happy? Why?

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yup.

Why couldn't they give what their fans wanted? What's so hard about it? Even just a logo teaser would have been better than what they have to endure now.

Who needs Diablo 4? We all have phones, don't we?

carlsojo said:

Diablo 4 must be an absolute mess to not show anything.

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Knowing how things seem to be going at Blizzard if D4 is a thing they probably discovered it didn't have appropriate predatory mtx so they had to scrap it OR the opposite and after the BF2 fiasco they realized their D4 was also filled with terrible mtx and had to scrap it and find a new reasonable way to monetize it. In the mean time to cover the costs they farm out a mobile game for some quick low effort cash. This is all just spit-balling though we don't know shit.

carlsojo said:

Diablo 4 must be an absolute mess to not show anything.

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Considering Blizzard started the year with boldly saying they were going to announce multiple diablo projects this year, to cancelling a comic series & telling fans D4 wouldn't be announced mere weeks from Blizzcon, basically points to "This game is likely in the worst of development hells".

carlsojo said:

Diablo 4 must be an absolute mess to not show anything.

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I wouldn't say mess. I would say it's just unfinished with nothing worth showing. But a proper teaser made with CGI would be fine.

Seik said:

More like game company teases many project for series in the pipe.

Only to announces a mobile F2P game during the event when the core fans gather and are paying hundreds of dollars (No Refund) to attend to. Event where there's a specific schedule for that series.

Ah fuck sorry, I meant, what an entitled bunch to have expected anything of substance! Manbabies, etc etc etc.

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Evidently we're trump supporting incels

Smh

Scuffed said:

Knowing how things seem to be going at Blizzard if D4 is a thing they probably discovered it didn't have appropriate predatory mtx so they had to scrap it OR the opposite and after the BF2 fiasco they realized their D4 was also filled with terrible mtx and had to scrap it and find a new reasonable way to monetize it. In the mean time to cover the costs they farm out a mobile game for some quick low effort cash. This is all just spit-balling though we don't know shit.

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I doubt it had anything to do with microtransactions.

CountAntonius said:

Yeah it was revealed at E3. They said it's a VERY long way off and in preproduction but they wanted fans to know it was being worked on.

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BizzyBum said:

Yeah, was shown during their E3 conference after Fallout 76 and Starfield simply so fans stopped bugging them about it which is exactly what Blizzard should have done, pulling the teaser is just a baffling decision.

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Oh shitttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt I'm hyped hahaha. Not loving the return to regular geography, but that's off-topic!

On-topic:

Yea a teaser would have completely side-stepped this whole issue. People just wanna know if it's happening so they can theorycraft.

The one part in this story that makes no sense is why they would pull it if the nature of the game would change. Wouldn't the announcement literally have been "We're making Diablo 4?" Unless you're literally renaming the game, I don't see how the announcement of Diablo 4 in development would "lock them in" to anything.

jschreier

Did you hear anything about NetEase just ripping and using all the Diablo assets on their own and making the game then coming to Blizzard and asking if they want to partner up or if they do it alone since IP laws in China don't count for shit?

TheRulingRing said:

Blizzard desperately "leaking" this info now trying to save face I guess.

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I am not at all endorsing this line of thought, but I would be lying if it didn't at all crossed my mind when I read the article. :/

carlsojo said:

I doubt it had anything to do with microtransactions.

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Monetisation is everything.

they couldnt get an intern to literally make a 10 second video that says DIABLO IV (now in development)

SweetNicole said:

The one part in this story that makes no sense is why they would pull it if the nature of the game would change. Wouldn't the announcement literally have been "We're making Diablo 4?"

Unless you're literally renaming the game, I don't see how the announcement of Diablo 4 in development would "lock them in" to anything.

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Probably the development of the game still has this looming chance it will be going through a 3rd iteration, and thus doesn't feel like it's a good time to announce Diablo 4 is in development.

SweetNicole said:

The one part in this story that makes no sense is why they would pull it if the nature of the game would change. Wouldn't the announcement literally have been "We're making Diablo 4?" Unless you're literally renaming the game, I don't see how the announcement of Diablo 4 in development would "lock them in" to anything.

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Like a literal logo teaser is fine with the crowd there. That's all they wanted to hear.

So it was pretty much what I thought they would do.
But why pull it, so weird,

SweetNicole said:

The one part in this story that makes no sense is why they would pull it if the nature of the game would change. Wouldn't the announcement literally have been "We're making Diablo 4?" Unless you're literally renaming the game, I don't see how the announcement of Diablo 4 in development would "lock them in" to anything.

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I wouldn't be surprised if they are doing a complete reboot of the game and therefore have no idea when it would ever come out. So they had to make a choice. Take a massive hit at Blizzcon this year and hope people forget or have a Diablo 4 teaser and have to suffer for the next 6-7 years of people saying "hey any update on Diablo 4????"

This is some telenovela stuff.

Scuffed said:

Monetisation is everything.

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Okay sure, keep trying to spin it that way.

I think the core game is currently a mess.

RDreamer said:

So now people want vague title card announcements years and years before there's literally a single thing to show them?

Ok...

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Yeah, people have clearly been okay with that.

After Metroid Prime Federation Force, Tanabe did hint at Prime 4 coming. Sure enough, it was at E3 2017 as a title teaser. That same E3 we also got Samus Returns (honestly if they just had that and not Prime 4, I think people would have been okay with that).

People were really excited about Bayonetta 3.

Bethesda talked about an Elder Scrolls mobile game this year, and said they were working on ESVI right after that, but it won't be ready for years.

If they had to announced a Diablo mobile game, people would be okay with them showing a title card for Diablo 4.

chrominance said:

It's still so weird to me that apparently all it would've taken to mollify Diablo fans was someone going "and oh by the way we're making Diablo IV but it's not ready to show." As if you don't already know that's happening. Like, I get that it would've been such a small thing for Blizzard to do so why not do it. But on the flipside, it changes essentially nothing about the current situation but people raging about Diablo Immortal would suddenly be happy? Why?

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It's very weird.

Essentially fans are demanding they confuse the shit out of casual fans by announcing something ridiculously far away (and probably get themselves worked up earlier) all to confirm something they already know. The hardcore fans know there are job postings and shit. They've seen them. They know Blizzard is of course working on something. And as hardcore fans we should know that a logo doesn't make it any more or less likely that the project doesn't get cancelled or changed or delayed or something. It's literally just a logo that exists.

SweetNicole said:

The one part in this story that makes no sense is why they would pull it if the nature of the game would change. Wouldn't the announcement literally have been "We're making Diablo 4?" Unless you're literally renaming the game, I don't see how the announcement of Diablo 4 in development would "lock them in" to anything.

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My only thought would be that after the (2nd?) re-design from the ground up, they're not confident they can get it to a release date in less than 5+ years, so they don't want to over-promise a product that (seemingly) may not actually see the light of day as 'Diablo 4'.

They could've just done like Nintendo with Metroid Prime, and Bethesda with Elders Scrolls, and just show a logo and say "We'll show more when we're ready". Going by those, I guarantee the crowd still would've gone wild.

RDreamer said:

Or it's years away from being put out.

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And it was years away when they decided to show a video about it on the floor until they pulled it last minute. What is your point?

SweetNicole said:

The one part in this story that makes no sense is why they would pull it if the nature of the game would change. Wouldn't the announcement literally have been "We're making Diablo 4?" Unless you're literally renaming the game, I don't see how the announcement of Diablo 4 in development would "lock them in" to anything.

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If it came with a small CGI trailer showing some character or a building or whatever, and the game is a mess and they actually have to start "from scratch" maybe than can explain it. BUT i would still have use the teaser, things change in development and if the final porduct is a better idea than the cgi teaser people will not complain (some will still complain, im sure of that though, but it will not have been the mess they have right now in their hands).

Is...is this the Diablo 4 announcement


lmao

Denryu said:

This gotta be the dumbest thing Blizzard ever did.

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Definitely up there, but I'd also give them failing to capitalize on eSports sooner as a good contender. Namely, letting Dota slip through their fingers to Valve.

There's others blunders too, it's kinda shocking the amount of errors you can get away with and still lumber along for years or decades in business if you ever got sufficiently wealthy/influential. Most businesses don't ever get that luxury.

Kayo Police said:

they couldnt get an intern to literally make a 10 second video that says DIABLO IV (now in development)

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I'm sure they have had someone hard at work at doing just that since last week.

D4 must be really fucked if they couldn't even have some SC2 style teaser trailer, how influx could it be that they really thought ending on Immortal was the better alternative? Blizzard does love to iterating and polishing their games to a mirror sheen but every game they've shown has significantly changed since their announcement. It's even more of the norm now with games never really being finished, look at something like Overwatch at launch much less announcement to where it is now.

SneakersSO said:

Considering Blizzard started the year with boldly saying they were going to announce multiple diablo projects this year, to cancelling a comic series & telling fans D4 wouldn't be announced mere weeks from Blizzcon, basically points to "This game is likely in the worst of development hells".

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That's what it sounds like.

Nirolak said:

One thing I do wonder about, how do you think fans will react if we have 4 or 5 Bethesda E3 events in a row without TES6 showing up?

Because that's a very real possibility.

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Same way as ffxv lol

Ichi said:

that's the teaser

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Sure, I got that, though I'm still not following your post, as a reply to my previous statement. That said, just wanted to be courteous and at least reply back.

Nirolak said:

One thing I do wonder about, how do you think fans will react if we have 4 or 5 Bethesda E3 events in a row without TES6 showing up?

Because that's a very real possibility.

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Fans are getting Starfield between now and then so I think that will help greatly.

carlsojo said:

Okay sure, keep trying to spin it that way.

I think the core game is currently a mess.

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The entire gameplay loop of GaaS are built around the monetization model. If the model is bad or has to be gutted the game just dies on a vine and stops getting updates. Look at Bf2 and D3 auction house. Once they had to remove the money generator in those games the support virtually dries up. They build the games from the ground up with the monetisaton in mind it is the only way to weave it into the gameplay loop.

A logo goes a long way. Literally a PNG image would've done. Or a JPEG if they don't have enough room on their usb flash drive.

Wh they didn't announce the game after the meltdown ? They could have turned things around.

I wonder if they're considering reworking the unannounced "Diablo 4" into a spin-off or something. And then making an actual Diablo 4 as the traditional ARPG.

Nirolak said:

One thing I do wonder about, how do you think fans will react if we have 4 or 5 Bethesda E3 events in a row without TES6 showing up?

Because that's a very real possibility.

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Showing repeatedly would not be ideal. Show a logo now, go dark, share a cinematic trailer when they can guarantee the game is about a year out, gameplay trailers & demonstrations when a date is cemented.

So is Diablo 1 or 2 remaster not a thing either?

Scuffed said:

The entire gameplay loop of GaaS are built around the monetization model. If the model is bad or has to be gutted the game just dies on a vine and stops getting updates. Look at Bf2 and D3 auction house. Once they had to remove the money generator in those games the support virtually dries up. They build the games from the ground up with the monetisaton in mind it is the only way to weave it into the gameplay loop.

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Saying the support for Diablo 3 dried up after the auction house was removed is blatant nonsense. Since then we've had an expansion, Necro content pack, seasons of content and patches.