With the release of Diablo 4's first expansion, key developers provide insights into their vision for the series' latest entry and their overarching goals for the Diablo franchise.
Blizzard Talks Goals with Diablo 4
Devs Want to Focus on Content that Players Will Enjoy
Blizzard has expressed a strong commitment to maintaining Diablo 4's longevity, particularly since it has become their fastest-selling game to date. In an interview with VGC, Diablo series head Rod Fergusson and Diablo 4 executive producer Gavian Whishaw discussed how fostering sustained interest across all installments of Blizzard's acclaimed action RPG dungeon crawler series benefits the company—whether it's Diablo 4, 3, 2, or even the original game.
Rod Fergusson highlighted Blizzard's approach, stating, "One of the things you’ll notice about Blizzard is that we tend not to turn any games off, it’s very rare. So you can still go play Diablo and Diablo 2, Diablo 2: Resurrected, and Diablo 3, right? And so just people playing Blizzard games is awesome."
When questioned about the potential issue of Diablo 4 competing in player numbers with previous Diablo entries, Fergusson responded, "It’s not a problem that people are playing whatever version. That’s one of the things that’s been really exciting about Diablo 2: Resurrected, is that there’s a very large fan base for that game, which is a remaster of a 21-year-old game. So just having people in our sort of ecosystem, playing and loving Blizzard games, is a huge positive."
Fergusson emphasized that Blizzard encourages players to "play what they want to play." Although there are financial benefits if more players transition from Diablo 3 to Diablo 4, he clarified that the company is not focused on actively shifting players from one game to another.
"And whether they’re playing Diablo 4 today, or tomorrow, or whenever, the goal for us is to make the content and the features that are so desirable that people want to come and play Diablo 4," Fergusson explained. "And that’s why we continue to support things like Diablo 3 and Diablo 2, and so for us, it’s really a goal of 'let’s just make stuff that’s so appealing that people want to come play'."
Diablo 4 Gears Up for Vessel of Hatred Release
Exciting developments are on the horizon for Diablo 4 players with the upcoming release of the first expansion, Vessel of Hatred, set to launch on October 8. The Diablo team has released a video detailing what players can expect from this expansion.
Vessel of Hatred will introduce a new region, Nahantu, featuring new towns, dungeons, and ancient civilizations waiting to be explored. The expansion will also continue the game's campaign, with players delving deeper into an ancient jungle in search of Neyrelle, a major hero, to thwart the sinister plans of the evil overlord Mephisto.
