All Articles: Diablo Immortal

Blizzard provides an updated look at Diablo Immortal at BlizzCon 2019

Posted on November 2, 2019 by John Scalzo

It might be hard to believe, but Blizzard executives didn’t include a single mention of Diablo Immortal during BlizzCon 2019’s Opening Ceremony.

OK, it might not be that hard to believe, as the RPG franchise’s upcoming mobile spinoff received a very rough reception in 2018. But with Diablo IV taking center stage this year, that gave Blizzard the chance to quietly update fans on Immortal’s progress with a new trailer.

There’s a lot to digest in this video clip, including the introduction of Ultimate Abilities and our first look at the Demon Hunter class, and Blizzard shared a few more details on their official website:

Last year’s demo revealed the Barbarian, Monk, and Wizard, playable in a streamlined dungeon experience. This year, attendees will also be able to take the Demon Hunter for a spin (or Strafe) through a slice of open-world gameplay through the town of Wortham and the outdoor zone of Ashwold Cemetary.

We’ve added a new base game mechanic: Ultimate Abilities. All classes gain charge for their chosen Ultimate by using basic attacks. Once this charge has been built up, players can choose to augment their basic attack for a short time in a face-meltingly powerful display of strength, guile, or raw magical potential.

We’re also sharing a first look at our equipment system, including the first batch of skill-altering Legendary items. Turn your Scorch’s burning fireball into an icy Frozen Orb, change up how Exploding Palm targets foes and dishes out damage, or transform deadly arrows into grenades when using Strafe.

Though it was first unveiled more than a year ago, Blizzard still isn’t ready to talk about a release date for Diablo Immortal, but we do that it’s “currently planned” for iPhone and Android devices.

Posted in Mobile, News | Tagged

Blizzard co-founder reiterates that multiple Diablo projects are currently in the works

Posted on November 4, 2018 by John Scalzo

Diablo fans hoping to get a glimpse of Diablo IV at this year’s BlizzCon did not react well after the developer unveiled the mobile-exclusive Diablo Immortal on Friday. Angry fans pushed into BlizzCon’s Q&A sessions to vent directly to the development team, while others flooded the company’s social media channels with comments in an attempt to be heard.

Needless to say, no one from the company expected such a vitriolic response, though Blizzard co-founder Allen Adham told Kotaku that the backlash wasn’t a complete surprise:

“We know our audience here is passionately PC- and console-focused,” he said. “We’ve also seen this before. We saw a similar response when we announced that we were bringing Diablo to console, and we saw a similar response to the announcement of Hearthstone.”

[…]

“That being said, we knew our audience here desperately wants to see and hear about one thing in particular.”

Later in the interview, Adham calmly reiterated that Blizzard has multiple Diablo projects currently in development, which is something we’ve all known for a long time:

“At Blizzard, we don’t announce things until we’re ready. It’s all about game quality, less about timing, all about delivering an overwhelming experience to our players,” he said. “We tried to get ahead of that a little bit with the blog post to let that group know that we are working on multiple things and continue to work on multiple things.”

[…]

“There are actually two distinct teams,” Adham said. “That’s something we tried to communicate. I know our community here, there’s a concern that we are focused on this instead of that. The truth is that we have multiple Diablo teams working on multiple unannounced Diablo projects even after announcing [Immortal].”

So there you have it. Diablo Immortal is in development for mobile devices and Diablo IV is unofficially (though definitely) in development as well. We’ll continue to learn more about both games in the future, as soon as Blizzard is ready to talk about them.

Posted in Mobile, News, PC | Tagged ,

Blizzard announces Diablo Immortal for mobile devices at BlizzCon

Posted on November 2, 2018 by John Scalzo

It’s BlizzCon time, and Blizzard has used their annual convention to announce a rather unexpected new entry in the Diablo franchise. We all know that Diablo IV is in the works (the developer more or less confirmed the existence of a new numbered sequel back in August), but Blizzard threw us a curveball today with the announcement of Diablo Immortal for mobile devices.

In development at NetEase, Diablo Immortal is described as a “Mobile Massively Multiplayer Online Action Role-Playing Game” (or MMMOARPG for short), and players will be able to join the fight against evil as a Barbarian, Crusader, Demon Hunter, Monk, Necromancer, or Wizard. Don’t worry if your favorite isn’t listed, more playable classes will be added to the game in a future update.

Diablo Immortal takes place between the events of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction and Diablo III. The “Herald of Terror,” Skarn, is massing an army to resurrect Diablo, and players must band together to stop him. To do this, they’ll need to master the game’s new touchscreen controls:

The transition from mouse-and-keyboard or controller to mobile touchscreen device was designed to feel completely natural, intuitive, and fun in Diablo Immortal. Directional controls make it easy to move heroes around the world, and activating a skill is as easy as holding a thumb down on a skill to aim, then releasing it to unleash hell on your foes. And reinforcements are always only a tap away thanks to the native Blizzard Battle.net UI designed specifically for Diablo Immortal, which allows you to chat and form groups with ease in the middle of the most frantic battle.

Diablo Immortal is currently in development for iOS and Android devices, and prospective players can sign up for updates about special rewards and a Beta Test for the game at DiabloImmortal.com. After its release, Blizzard and NetEase plan to support the game with “new storylines, new playable character classes, new loot, and all-new challenges” on a regular basis.

Finally, you can sneak a peek at a Cinematic Trailer and a Gameplay Trailer for Diablo Immortal, both of which are available after the break. (more…)

Posted in Mobile, News | Tagged

Blizzard officially announces that “multiple” Diablo projects are currently in development

Posted on August 8, 2018 by John Scalzo

Blizzard has been hiring new employees for their “Unannounced Diablo Project” for more than two years now. While we still don’t know anything concrete about where the developer is taking the famed franchise, they did officially (and finally) announce that “multiple” Diablo projects are currently in the works.

The news was delivered this morning during a short video address from Associate Community Manager Brandy “Nevalistis” Camel. According to Camel, we might get a glimpse at what Blizzard’s working on later this year… presumably at BlizzCon in November.

What could Blizzard be working on? It seems likely that Diablo 4 is one of their long-term goals for the franchise, and we know the developer is teaming up with Titan Comics to produce a comic miniseries later this year. But the rumored Switch launch for Diablo III also remains a possibility.

For now, Camel directed current Diablo III players to the game’s 14th Season, the “Season of Greed.” Treasure Goblins will appear twice as often in Season 14, and players will be able to earn new Seasonal Items and rewards. Additional themed Seasons are planned for 2018 and 2019.

Posted in News, PC | Tagged , ,