General Gaming Diablo IV - Information Thread, update - Quarterly Update for June 2020

[Brian]

4 hours ago, Nokt said:

I guess my real question here is what has the Diablo team been doing for 5 years?

According to the wikia (which I take with a grain of salt) Diablo has its own dev team that isn't apart of the other dev teams. They probably assist with other launches, but its been 5 years since Reaper of Souls. So we are 7+ years out since the last major release of Diablo.

 

Jason Schreier wrote a great article about it.

[XxEvil AshxX]

12 hours ago, Remarkableriots said:

As far as i know Path of Exile doesn't have an offline mode.

 

 

That's what I was getting at. If Diablo IV is going to have an online "shared open world," I'm assuming it's going to be very similar to Path of Exile in structure. To be fair, PoE is way better than any F2P game has a right to be, and they've been pretty successful with their setup, despite their mtx shop being probably one of the most passive and unintrusive ones on the market.

 

The question is, will Diablo IV do it well enough to charge $60+ for a game that will inevitably be compared to one that is free?

[fuckle85]

Hopefully this means there's a console version of the next Starcraft game coming at some point.

[Moa]

Any Starcraft game playable on a controller would be a huge slap in the face to Starcraft fans.

[fuckle85]

29 minutes ago, Moa said:

Any Starcraft game playable on a controller would be a huge slap in the face to Starcraft fans.

 

I've played Starcraft 2 on a controller. Mapped out a control scheme that works pretty well so far.  Also wasn't Starcraft already released on consoles once before?  The main challenge in porting it would be designing an intuitive UI, no? 

[Moa]

23 minutes ago, fuckle85 said:

 

I've played Starcraft 2 on a controller. Mapped out a control scheme that works pretty well so far.  Also wasn't Starcraft already released on consoles once before?  The main challenge in porting it would be designing an intuitive UI, no? 

 

Allow me to amend my post, any Starcraft game designed to be playable on a controller would be a huge slap in the face to Starcraft fans. I'm sure its possible to have fun in the campaign with a controller scheme, but having a full console release would likely necessitate the kinds of gameplay concessions that would ruin the game for core players.

[fuckle85]

6 minutes ago, Moa said:

 

Allow me to amend my post, any Starcraft game designed to be playable on a controller would be a huge slap in the face to Starcraft fans. I'm sure its possible to have fun in the campaign with a controller scheme, but having a full console release would likely necessitate the kinds of gameplay concessions that would ruin the game for core players.

 

The same was said of Diablo 3 before it was ported, but it turned out well. If content was removed or scaled back, sure, but how would it ruin the gameplay if everything's intact but remixed to be more comfortable playing w/ a controller?   A console port could still allow compatibility with keyboards too.  I'm not seeing a downside to having the game playable on more platforms.

[Mercury33]

23 hours ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

 

That's what I was getting at. If Diablo IV is going to have an online "shared open world," I'm assuming it's going to be very similar to Path of Exile in structure. To be fair, PoE is way better than any F2P game has a right to be, and they've been pretty successful with their setup, despite their mtx shop being probably one of the most passive and unintrusive ones on the market.

 

The question is, will Diablo IV do it well enough to charge $60+ for a game that will inevitably be compared to one that is free?

It will be. It’s Blizzard. 

[Commodore D]

On 11/4/2019 at 5:02 PM, Moa said:

Any Starcraft game playable on a controller would be a huge slap in the face to Starcraft fans.

Starcraft fan here, and I played mad hours of Starcraft 64. My buddy and I did plenty of 20 hour sessions as kids. Yes, we played on PC at that time as well.

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

 

 

 

[Bloodporne]

I haven't played, nor really looked at, a Diablo game since Diablo II back in the day and I do not like this. 

[XxEvil AshxX]

On 11/3/2019 at 7:00 PM, XxEvil AshxX said:

 

That's what I was getting at. If Diablo IV is going to have an online "shared open world," I'm assuming it's going to be very similar to Path of Exile in structure. To be fair, PoE is way better than any F2P game has a right to be, and they've been pretty successful with their setup, despite their mtx shop being probably one of the most passive and unintrusive ones on the market.

 

The question is, will Diablo IV do it well enough to charge $60+ for a game that will inevitably be compared to one that is free?

 

On 11/4/2019 at 6:05 PM, Mercury33 said:

It will be. It’s Blizzard. 

 

Nevermind, it just looks like Blizzard is gonna take Path of Exile's cosmetic microtransactions and still make us pay for expansions.

 

"Let's see... how do we make people believe Diablo IV is better than Path of Exile? I know! We'll do everything Path of Exile does, but make people pay for it! And when the expansions come out, we'll make them pay for those too! It's perfect!"

 

I'm not saying PoE is perfect, but it's pretty good. And Blizzard doesn't seem to be the least bit concerned with garnishing some goodwill for themselves. They could easily make expansions free, in exchange for cosmetic mtx and ya know, paying for the game in the first place. 

[Nokt]

15 hours ago, XxEvil AshxX said:

Nevermind, it just looks like Blizzard is gonna take Path of Exile's cosmetic microtransactions and still make us pay for expansions.

 

"Let's see... how do we make people believe Diablo IV is better than Path of Exile? I know! We'll do everything Path of Exile does, but make people pay for it! And when the expansions come out, we'll make them pay for those too! It's perfect!"

 

I'm not saying PoE is perfect, but it's pretty good. And Blizzard doesn't seem to be the least bit concerned with garnishing some goodwill for themselves. They could easily make expansions free, in exchange for cosmetic mtx and ya know, paying for the game in the first place. 

Considering that Diablo is the least successful series that blizzard currently has (from a profit point of view) it would make sense that they would introduce microtransactions and well as still paying for expansions. 

Not saying its right, but in order for Diablo to be a relevant series to Blizzard they need to bring in more cash.

[Mercury33]

If the micro transactions are purely cosmetic then who cares. I also have zero problem paying for expansions. Imo games have stayed a flatline price for 15 years and have only gone up $10 over the course of like 30 years. If the quality of the product is good, I have no problem paying for it. 

[Remarkableriots]

23 hours ago, Nokt said:

Considering that Diablo is the least successful series that blizzard currently has (from a profit point of view) it would make sense that they would introduce microtransactions and well as still paying for expansions. 

Not saying its right, but in order for Diablo to be a relevant series to Blizzard they need to bring in more cash.

do you have a link showing how the Diablo series is the least profitable series for Blizzard? Diablo 3 outsold Starcraft 1&2 including every expansion combined. 

Quote

Top selling Blizzard games

1. Overwatch (35 million*) 

2. Diablo III (30 million)

3. Diablo II (17 million)

 Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion pack (17.5 million)

4. World of Warcraft (12 million subscribers peak) 

5. StarCraft (11 million)

6. Starcraft II (6 million)

._Heart of the Swarm (1.1 million)

Legacy of the Void (1 million) 

7. Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos (3 million) 

8. Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne [expansion pack] (3 million)

9. Diablo (2.5 million)

10. Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness (2 million)

 

[Nokt]

1 hour ago, Remarkableriots said:

do you have a link showing how the Diablo series is the least profitable series for Blizzard? Diablo 3 outsold Starcraft 1&2 including every expansion combined.

 It was more conjecture than anything. However, game sales are just the tip of the iceberg. Especially when competing with micro-transactions and concurrent subs.
I also don't count Starcraft as current because its been rather quiet in recent years. I wouldn't even count Diablo as current if Immortal and IV hadn't been announced.

 

Overwatch: base game sales + micro-transactions

WoW: base game sales + monthly subs + micro-transactions + expansions + WoW classic subs now too

Diablo: base game sales + a single expansion

 

EDIT: apparently Diablo 3 has microtransactions, just not in EU/US

[TwinIon]

On 11/10/2019 at 4:34 AM, Mercury33 said:

If the micro transactions are purely cosmetic then who cares. I also have zero problem paying for expansions. Imo games have stayed a flatline price for 15 years and have only gone up $10 over the course of like 30 years. If the quality of the product is good, I have no problem paying for it. 

I agree. Micro transactions are bad if they're locking content behind them. Cosmetics, I couldn't care less about.

 

 

 

Historically, Diablo expansions have been pretty well worth their price. There's been a ton of content and new character classes. If I enjoy the game, I don't have any problem paying more money for more game.

 

 

[JPDunks4]

Haven't they been releasing Free Diablo 3 updates pretty much since release.  I stopped playing awhile ago, but everytime I get on there's new stuff to do.  They released 1 or 2 paid expansions for it, but they've also been updating it with the Seasons or whatever which I think each introduce new things.  

 

If they need to implement MX Cosmetics to keep supporting these games, that's okay by me.

[elbobo]

7 hours ago, Remarkableriots said:

do you have a link showing how the Diablo series is the least profitable series for Blizzard? Diablo 3 outsold Starcraft 1&2 including every expansion combined. 

 

 

3. Diablo II (17 million)

 Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion pack (17.5 million)

 

how does this work?

[Remarkableriots]

37 minutes ago, elbobo said:

 

3. Diablo II (17 million)

 Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion pack (17.5 million)

 

how does this work?

They sold expansion packs with Diablo 2 included?

[osxmatt]

Diablo III is one of the few games that I've maxed every class on. Had a blast with this.

 

I look forward to playing this in 2022.

[Nokt]

16 hours ago, Remarkableriots said:

They sold expansion packs with Diablo 2 included?

I actually only bought LOD, I bummed a code from a friend for base D2, then input my LOD code. Worked for me, perhaps .5 million people did the same too?

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Diablo IV Quarterly Update - February 2020

Quote

Table of Contents

Introduction to Quarterly Updates
Luis Barriga, Game Director

UI Design, Controller Support, and Co-Op
Angela Del Priore, Lead UI Designer

Monster Family & Design Highlight: Cannibal Tribes
Candace Thomas, Senior Encounter Designer

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Diablo IV Quarterly Update - June 2020

Quote

 

Table of Contents

Introduction

Team Playtest

A Word About Blockout

Storytelling

Open World

Multiplayer

Items and Progression

Other Thoughts

 

 

[BloodyHell]

On 11/4/2019 at 6:39 PM, fuckle85 said:

 

The same was said of Diablo 3 before it was ported, but it turned out well. If content was removed or scaled back, sure, but how would it ruin the gameplay if everything's intact but remixed to be more comfortable playing w/ a controller?   A console port could still allow compatibility with keyboards too.  I'm not seeing a downside to having the game playable on more platforms.

Comparing starcraft to Diablo is a bit ridiculous. You aren’t controlling hundreds of ynits in diablo. They aren’t even close to the same typeof games.

[BloodyHell]

On 11/11/2019 at 8:15 AM, Remarkableriots said:

do you have a link showing how the Diablo series is the least profitable series for Blizzard? Diablo 3 outsold Starcraft 1&2 including every expansion combined. 

 

Sales does not equal profitability. 
 

i just realized how old these posts are. I can’t wait for this. 

[CitizenVectron]

They are going to try and push the open-world hub and multiplayer aspects of D4...and just like D3, 99% of players are going to play solo.

[Mercury33]

On 6/27/2020 at 4:10 PM, CitizenVectron said:

They are going to try and push the open-world hub and multiplayer aspects of D4...and just like D3, 99% of players are going to play solo.

 I always play through the story once solo. After that I’ll seek out people to run through the game with. 

[heydude93]

Loved everything about 3, visually, and played for dozens of hours but couldn't get into the gameplay at all.  I want to like a diablo game, so I'll probably try this, but on a streaming service first.

[ALIEN-gunner]

Diablo 3 had co-op?

[The def star]

With Minecraft Dungeons it has gotten back into the Diablo 3. Best the story but didn't do much after that. Minecraft Dungeons has actually got one of my friends who has never played a Diablo type game really into it. Think he's already out 50+ hours into Minecraft Dungeons and looking forward to the expansion. Figure that maybe we can get into something more complex now that's he's dipped his toes in the genre. I saw that POE is on Xbox. Anyone play POE on console and how does it compare to Diablo 3? Should I stick with Diablo 3 or give POE a shot since it's free to play?

[Keyser_Soze]

30 minutes ago, The def star said:

Should I stick with Diablo 3 or give POE a shot since it's free to play?

 

Play POE right now!

[The def star]

21 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

Play POE right now!

Thinking about it 

 

Probably play a little bit before I tell my buddies to get into it. Just to make sure it isn't too much for them. I feel Diablo 3 might be easier to get into but if POE is just better overall might not be bad to start them off with that.

[Keyser_Soze]

I think you’ll all have fun figuring it out together. The sphere grid isn’t as nearly as intimidating as people think it sounds

[Remarkableriots]

17 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

I think you’ll all have fun figuring it out together. The sphere grid isn’t as nearly as intimidating as people think it sounds

What I hated about POE was that I was working through a map and returned to town to unload collected items. When I returned the map had reset in just a few minutes and I had to clear the map again.