Blizzard is hiring more Diablo devs to work on 'several projects'
Could Diablo 4 be coming next year?
Blizzard isn't talking about Diablo 4, but the game sure seems to exist. The latest indication that a new Diablo is in the works came form Activision Blizzard's quarterly earnings call today, when COO Coddy Johnson spoke about Blizzard's growing development resources, despite Activision also laying off eight percent of its total headcount.
"Diablo's development headcount will grow substantially as the teams work on several projects underway for the franchise, as well as the global launch for Diablo Immortal," said Johnson.
Diablo Immortal, Blizzard's upcoming mobile game developed in partnership with Netease, is the one confirmed Diablo project we know about. "Several" could mean Diablo 4 and perhaps a Diablo 2 remaster.
Johnson cited growth in other development areas for Blizzard, saying that it is "investing in other Warcraft games" and that "overall, Blizzard's management is reinforcing its pipeline with more resources than ever before to support planned mobile titles, several PC and console releases, and WoW's continued cadence of content."
"Other Warcraft games" could simply be referencing Warcraft 3 Reforged and WoW Classic, or could mean something more. Judging by what Activision said earlier in the earnings call, though, don't expect any big new Blizzard games to be released in 2019, even if they are announced.
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Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.
When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).