Blizzard To Double Down on Warcraft and Diablo IPs

AlphaAtlas

AlphaAtlas

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Yesterday, Activision-Blizzard confirmed previous layoff rumors, and warned investors not to expect "a major front-line release for Blizzard in 2019." But, even though the company is losing about 8% of their workforce, some snippets VentureBeat spotted in the report suggest that Blizzard are accelerating development of their biggest franchises, not slowing them down. COO Cody Johnson said "Blizzard is also investing in other Warcraft games and working on more ways for the community to engage with its enduring and beloved franchise." The company confirmed that they're working on several projects for the Diablo franchise as well, while a report from Kotaku suggests that Blizzard's layoffs "appear to only have affected non-game-development departments."

Finally, the publisher heard the cries of fans, and it's adding more people to the Diablo team. "Diablo's development headcount will grow substantially," said Johnson. "The teams are working on several projects for the franchise as well as the global launch of Diablo Immortal."
 
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Dr. Righteous said:
I would love to see "HD version" of the original Diablo. Same music, same dialog but modded to be compatible with modern displays and PCs.
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We're getting Warcraft 4 Warcraft 3 Reforged. Assuming it hits whatever arbitrary sales number that defines "success", then I think it could happen for Diablo
 
It's all an illusion. For such a massive gaming company one would think they would be capable of sharing development of their games with their massive communities. If Indy developers can showcase reasons to be excited about the development of their small titles through diaries, and other play by play milestones, and large developer should have it all mathed the shit out of to exploit. This is why so many large releases are falling short, they fail to engage with their own communities and in the end when the product is far from expectations, they blame that same community for poor sales.
 
I wouldn't mind a warcarft 4......if they continue the same lore and gameplay as the previous warcrafts.....
 
Dr. Righteous said:
I would love to see "HD version" of the original Diablo. Same music, same dialog but modded to be compatible with modern displays and PCs.
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This is already on their agenda, at least for Dialblo II and D2: LoD. Similar job postings prior to WC3; Reforged being announced that eventually went toward that.
 
Space_Ranger said:
Activision is going all-in on Mobile Gaming... Sad to see but that's where the $$ is at these days..
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At this point I'd stop buying Blizzard games and just wait for them to collapse so that maybe another company will buy their IPs and make proper games. Going mobile isn't guaranteed success, much like putting in a battle royal mode in a game doesn't mean instant success. Just cause it's trendy doesn't mean you should do it.
 
I don't know.. The Diablo Immortal fiasco completely destroyed what faith I had in expecting anything good in the Diablo series.
The fact that they were completely caught off guard by the reaction makes me think that they either don't know what the Diablo fans want or simply don't care and just want to follow what will make them $$$.
I suppose a hd remake of the old games would get me a bit excited but I'd have to see D4 in action before getting excited.
 
The problem with this statement is it is against the old blizzard mission statement of something such as "Game play first" and "It will be released when it is ready" thus 10 years to develop a game. Not "accelerate development" and "Working on several projects". Were going for quantity over quality now, their future games will not be as good as the ones of old.
 
gosh I hope these "new" things don't just mean remaster textures... oh who am I kidding. 20 years hasn't passed since d3 yet. there's no new installment coming.
 
Devastadus said:
The problem with this statement is it is against the old blizzard mission statement of something such as "Game play first" and "It will be released when it is ready" thus 10 years to develop a game. Not "accelerate development" and "Working on several projects". Were going for quantity over quality now, their future games will not be as good as the ones of old.
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Well, you have to pay the bills somehow.
 
kirbyrj said:
Well, you have to pay the bills somehow.
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Of course, WoW doesn't have 10 million plus subs printing billions of dollars annually anymore. Since the only thing blizzard has done that hasn't flopped in 12 months or less other than Overwatch, that means they've basically managed to get one hit out the door since 2004(WoW). That's not sustainable for any company unless the previous big hit(WoW) continues to be a money printing machine(it's still bleeding subs after the last expansion). SC2 almost counts, except it took 5 years for them to actually finish the thing(legacy of the void) after the launch of the first chapter and hype had died way down during that gap.
 
A game developer and publisher decides to invest in a new profitable gaming platform? Oh the Humanity......

TBH while I still enjoy D3 casually I don't expect the franchise to be continued on PC forever. There also are enough ARPG titles out there IMHO.

If they publish a Diablo game on a platform I don't care about....well I dont care about it...
 
Blizzard to shareholders: "The teams are working on several projects for the franchise..."

Actual gamers: How about you release even one game?
 
Auer said:
A game developer and publisher decides to invest in a new profitable gaming platform? Oh the Humanity......

TBH while I still enjoy D3 casually I don't expect the franchise to be continued on PC forever. There also are enough ARPG titles out there IMHO.

If they publish a Diablo game on a platform I don't care about....well I dont care about it...
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A bestselling PC game franchise from a PC-centric developer: "I don't expect the franchise to be continued on PC forever." Lolwut.
 
Burticus said:
Want Diablo 4 on PC, not stupid mobile games, dammit.
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The mobile game was originally targeted at China where mobile games are huge. They are using a Chinese company to re-skin their game with Diablo assets (which has already been done to make a Kung Fu Panda mobile game).

Pretty sure Blizzard knows Diablo 4 would make them a bucket of money and they are still working on that in house. They just fucked up at Blizzcon by not saying "And yes, we are still working on Diablo 4" Which would have stopped the uproar before it happened. This is why you have your PR guy on stage with you when you do big announcements.
 
Troz said:
The mobile game was originally targeted at China where mobile games are huge. They are using a Chinese company to re-skin their game with Diablo assets (which has already been done to make a Kung Fu Panda mobile game).

Pretty sure Blizzard knows Diablo 4 would make them a bucket of money and they are still working on that in house. They just fucked up at Blizzcon by not saying "And yes, we are still working on Diablo 4" Which would have stopped the uproar before it happened. This is why you have your PR guy on stage with you when you do big announcements.
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Or less they were going to show Diablo 4 or really any true PC game that isnt a remake, hd remaster, etc....Blizzcon 2018 was always going to happen the way it did. I believe people are over mobile games, micro transactions, pay to win, etc. Blizzcon attendees pay a good amount of money to go to Blizzcon...to sit thru the main keynote and only see what...a mobile game (yeah there was the hd remake of warcraft 3 and wow original).
 
Aix. said:
A bestselling PC game franchise from a PC-centric developer: "I don't expect the franchise to be continued on PC forever." Lolwut.
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When Diablo 1 and 2 were released, PC Gaming was head and shoulders above any other platform. Console Gaming was a distant second at the time.

Now Consoles are a completely viable alternative to PC, in connectivity and performance (at least as far as most users are concerned), and have good online support, too.

Mobile is currently where development is going because it's the biggest market in terms of both users, money, and accessibility. Any developer who ignores that is dumb.
 
If beloved franchises become mobile-only, it may be that the best solution is to purchase a phone which has the ability to dock or otherwise connect to a larger display, and a compatible bluetooth controller.
 
I have all but given up on 9/10 new games.

Would love if remasters like serious sam would catch on. Require zero creativity from game studios. Remasters I would buy right now at full price:

*morrowind
*kotor 1& 2
*mass effect Trilogy
*diablo 1 and 2
*republic commando
*Kyle kataran star wars series
 
Blizzcon was a rip off. Cost 60 dollars, and it sucked, nothing new. Except the diablo mobile
Blizzcon hasn't been exciting for years
 
horskh said:
If beloved franchises become mobile-only, it may be that the best solution is to purchase a phone which has the ability to dock or otherwise connect to a larger display, and a compatible bluetooth controller.
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That seems like the inevitable endgame. Maybe all the "convergence" talk over the last few decades wasn't wrong -- just mistaken about the eventual point of convergence (the phone instead of a set-top box).
 
horskh said:
If beloved franchises become mobile-only, it may be that the best solution is to purchase a phone which has the ability to dock or otherwise connect to a larger display, and a compatible bluetooth controller.
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So you mean a windows phone? Everyone already ruined that option.
 
Exavior said:
So you mean a windows phone? Microsoft already ruined that option.
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FTFY ;)

The question is what will D4 even look like? Will we get stats and skill levels back? I enjoyed D3 but it was 100% loot base which I did not like. The last "DLC" was also ridiculous and I refused to buy it - $15 for a new character class and zero new content? Hard pass Blizz.
 
Icehawk said:
FTFY ;)

The question is what will D4 even look like? Will we get stats and skill levels back? I enjoyed D3 but it was 100% loot base which I did not like. The last "DLC" was also ridiculous and I refused to buy it - $15 for a new character class and zero new content? Hard pass Blizz.
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Easily one of the best $15 I spent in a game.
 
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I don't understand the long development time. Wow and D3 were both f'd up on release and took years before they listened to users and fix issues (still ongoing) Point is, they still haven't learned who they're customers are or have the common sense to ask.
HD packs for previous games? Shit, let the community do it. They'll have it done 1/4th 1/8th 1/16th yesterday, compared to blizzard taking 5 years.
 
Eh, I loved Diablo 1+2, but if all they are going to do is make another crappy mindless arcade button masher like 3 they need to let Diablo as a franchise die, it was just a bad game with issues and drama day 1.

This guy basically sums it up perfectly.

 
New IPs.. Sorry but there is a huge chance those are mostly going to be mobile shit. Because like it or not, mobile shit collects more money for less effort because people are stupid.
 
Yeah, beating a dead horse will revive it, everyone knows that!
 
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