RUMOR: Blizzard Pulled Diablo 4 BlizzCon Tease at the Last Minute - MMORPG.com News

SBFord · November 2018

RUMOR: Blizzard Pulled Diablo 4 BlizzCon Tease at the Last Minute - MMORPG.com News

According to "two people familiar with Blizzard's plans", co-founder Allen Adhem was going to announce that Diablo 4 was in the works, but not ready to show during last weekend's BlizzCon. However, it was pulled at the last minute. The rumor comes by way of Kotaku that managed to get off-the-record information from the pair. According to the two, Adham was to make his brief statement at the conclusion of the Diablo Immortal announcement, though no reason why it was removed was revealed.

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Blackboa · November 2018

They should have said something. Maybe people wouldn't of been that mad with them that it was only a mobile game announcement.

uriel_mafess · November 2018

There was no announcement cause there was no annoucement. This are just leaks to try to save face after the PR blunder they have caused for themselves.

Scorchien · November 2018

Been saying this for 2 days now , they should of showed something , would have eased the PR blow .. very puzzling still that they did not ..

bbates024 · November 2018

I mean even a Diablo 4 announcement would have done it. A simple we've started work on the next big thing, but while your waiting we also made this really cool thing if you're into mobile games.

Gutlard · November 2018

Well too late now.... the sardines are already out of the can...

Gut Out!

SBFord · November 2018

Xodic said:

Maybe I'm not understanding this right, but by saying that it wasn't ready to be announced that it's in the works is the same thing as announcing that it's in the works...

It means that it is in development but they perhaps couldn't get adequate footage or that gameplay is far too early in development to show. What's nebulous about that? o.0 Knowing Blizz's ostensible quality control, they obviously didn't believe that it was ready to be presented.

That said, I still think they could have ended with, "You know, Immortal sounds great but...wait...what's this slide?" The screen blooms with "DIABLO 4: RETURN TO SANCTUARY" before fading to black.

k61977 · November 2018

This is nothing but a PR damage control thing. If they were going to announce it they would have. Hell look at what the elder scroll PR did they put up a screen that just said Elder Scrolls an that was it. No info or anything but their fan base was happy. Let that sink in they could have just shown a Diablo 4 splash screen with no info and most would have left happy most likely. Just call it what it is, they are scrambling for damage control now. They upset their actual fan base, then poked jokes at them, then deleted post after post and down votes. Everyone in that PR department should be looking for new jobs now in reality.

Sovrath · November 2018

Blackboa said:

They should have said something. Maybe people wouldn't of been that mad with them that it was only a mobile game announcement.

Part of the problem is with certain players.

example: They make the announcement. However, after much development and testing they decide they want to go another way. Except, at this point, several years have passed. The players then rush to the forums that "it's too little too late" and "they had their chance" and "Doesn't matter, I'm over it and moving on to other games" and all sorts of player drama.

Game companies should only ever announce things when they are ready.

FlyByKnight · November 2018

System said:

RUMOR: Blizzard Pulled Diablo 4 BlizzCon Tease at the Last Minute - MMORPG.com News

RUMOR: Yeaaah OK

MadFrenchie · November 2018

Sovrath said:

Blackboa said:

They should have said something. Maybe people wouldn't of been that mad with them that it was only a mobile game announcement.

Part of the problem is with certain players.

example: They make the announcement. However, after much development and testing they decide they want to go another way. Except, at this point, several years have passed. The players then rush to the forums that "it's too little too late" and "they had their chance" and "Doesn't matter, I'm over it and moving on to other games" and all sorts of player drama.

Game companies should only ever announce things when they are ready.

If fear of negative feedback is that paralyzing for Blizzard, they wouldn't have made the Immortal announcement in the first place.

SBFord · November 2018

Honestly, it makes sense. This is not a typical BlizzCon with big, popular announcements. It feels like something was not said, but I don't know about the "last minute" thing, especially given the lowering of expectations post they made about 2 weeks prior. I think that, if true, the D4 game was so woefully early in development or whatever that they just couldn't show it. Blizz has never shown "work in progress", preferring to go with a polished, nearly-finished product instead.

Seelinnikoi · November 2018

That rumour is just to save face. We are talking about Blizzard here, not some indie game company.

If they had anything, they would have shown.

Panserbjorne39 · November 2018

Kotaku off the record= bullshit

Aeander · November 2018

My speculation is simply that the industry seems to be moving away from years-long hype trains and towards 3-12 month hype trains when possible. Diablo 4 may simply not be in that 3-12 month release window.

Still, it's an idiotic decision.

Pemmin · November 2018

I call bullshit...they would have said something in the day 2 Diablo immortal Q and A instead of the generic statement they put out. it would have greatly reduced the backlash.

SlyLoK · November 2018

I called this days ago. It was obvious with the hype that was building and then at the last second they try to kill the hype. Obvious.

Aeander · November 2018

Torval said:

Aeander said:

My speculation is simply that the industry seems to be moving away from years-long hype trains and towards 3-12 month hype trains when possible. Diablo 4 may simply not be in that 3-12 month release window.

Still, it's an idiotic decision.

A big problem with their glacial development pace and that sort of marketing window is that it disenfranchises core customers. In other words they leave the fans behind that made their IPs great. That's a recipe for disaster especially with their quality slipping so dramatically in a sea of other gaming and entertainment options. They'll probably weather it just fine, but it's very risky.

I have noticed that Blizzard games do seem to undergo slower update cycles than their competition.

If you compare Overwatch to other hero shooters or MOBAs, their rate of character/stage additions is actually pathetic. Paladins utterly demolishes them in terms of update pace and even fucking Paragon of all games had more frequent character additions until they quietly ended development and later declared the game dead.

Diablo 3 is the definition of glacial development, with entire seasons marked by only a few new items. It borders on maintenance mode.

Granted, Heroes of the Storm and World of Warcraft do seem to have competitive update cycles with their competition, though I do find that skins in Heroes of the Storm tend to be both less frequent and of lower quality than those in other MOBAs (it's why I haven't spent a single cent on HotS, despite it being my MOBA of choice).

FlyByKnight · November 2018

"Hey guys, lets pull the Diablo 4 tease and ride on the wave of Diablo Immortal. The fans will love that. There will be absolutely no backlash. We'll leak that we meant to do it, after 1:32 love/hate sentiment. Trust Me" -No Sane Human Who Gets Paid A Corporate Salary

Beezerbeez · November 2018

SBFord said:

Xodic said:

Maybe I'm not understanding this right, but by saying that it wasn't ready to be announced that it's in the works is the same thing as announcing that it's in the works...

It means that it is in development but they perhaps couldn't get adequate footage or that gameplay is far too early in development to show. What's nebulous about that? o.0 Knowing Blizz's ostensible quality control, they obviously didn't believe that it was ready to be presented.

That said, I still think they could have ended with, "You know, Immortal sounds great but...wait...what's this slide?" The screen blooms with "DIABLO 4: RETURN TO SANCTUARY" before fading to black.

Personally I suspect it's a PR move to save face but if not, I guess we can expect something tangible soon as they probably want to recover from this debacle quickly. When is the next big announcement window? Is there some expo or conference coming up that they might use? Maybe we'll get an awesome full 3D clip like the one we got with Zappy Boi? That'd be great. At this point even a title slide with nothing more would be a boon.

I totally agree with the second part of your post, SBFord. It would have turned immortal into a bonus that way.

I'm not a Diablo player, but I do love the lore and style. I'd definitely try a full fledged PC MMORPG if they ever made one.

ConstantineMerus · November 2018

If D4 announcement was pulled at the last minute then they wouldn't had dehype the Diablo announcement 2 weeks ago.

Although what do I know. Both scenarios are somewhat equally retarded.

Lobotomist · November 2018

This is exactly what I said. Diablo 4 is just preproduction. They dont even know what it will be. There was nothing to announce. Now they just trying to extinguish the fire. They will admit to making Jesus 2 the game

BobVa · November 2018

If by "Last minute" , they mean at least 2 weeks ago, then ...may be!

I don't believe in this 'rumor' since Blizzard basically said 2 weeks ago with that post that there will be no D4 announcement at Blizzcon.

This is just to "calm down" the angry fans, which I hope they will not fall for this 'rumor'.

MadFrenchie · November 2018

MisterZebub said:

SBFord said:

Honestly, it makes sense. This is not a typical BlizzCon with big, popular announcements. It feels like something was not said, but I don't know about the "last minute" thing, especially given the lowering of expectations post they made about 2 weeks prior. I think that, if true, the D4 game was so woefully early in development or whatever that they just couldn't show it. Blizz has never shown "work in progress", preferring to go with a polished, nearly-finished product instead.

I mean it does make sense but I still think they knew they were bringing a weak game this show and didn't want to steal the thunder from the stuff that was coming soon. They already announced Wow Classic so nothing really earth shaking there except the demo, I called WC3 reforged a year ago, so what was really left? A mediocre mobile game. To then jump in and say "but wait, a REAL Diablo game is in the works so don't worry", would reinforce just how weak a play Diablo Immoral really is.

Honestly, take a look at that announcement lineup... And tell me how any Blizzard fan is able to look forward to anything they have planned?

A remaster of WC3, while cool and likely something hardocore fans will buy, isn't carrying a studio. It's a remaster.

Classic WoW is an MMORPG version of a remaster.

So, you got two remasters and a mobile game. I think maybe we're focusing too closely on the Diablo name. In general, this Blizzcon debuted such little creativity within Blizzard that the fate of the Diablo franchise specifically is relatively small potatoes, though it doesn't seem like it now.

sipu · November 2018

This is a PR move. I think Diablo 4 wasn't in the works, maybe Blizzard had plans to start such project in the longer future, but not recently. Now they've realized the huge mistake they did (see stocks) and Diablo 4 has just received a green light.