Diablo 4 might have just been confirmed by an ad in a German magazine.
The news comes from the Diablo subreddit courtesy of a post by user eskay2001. An ad in German game magazine GameStar is for an official Blizzard art book with “over 500 artworks from Diablo, Diablo 2, Diablo 3, and Diablo 4.” At least, according to their translation.
So, Diablo 4 confirmed? Not so fast. We know that Blizzard was working on Diablo 4 as early as the Reaper of Souls expansion for Diablo 3. That game was made to be sort of like Dark Souls in presentation but was eventually scrapped when Diablo 3 didn’t blow the proverbial socks off of Activision’s corporate overlords. Reaper of Souls came out and all future Diablo work was given the kibosh.
That art is most likely from the canceled version of Diablo 4. However, a real Diablo 4 is rumored to be in development. As early as last BlizzCon, whispers on the wind said that instead of showcasing Diablo Immortals, the reviled mobile game, Blizzard had planned to introduce the world to preliminary work on Diablo 4. That rumor was eventually debunked, but an intro video was said to actually exist.
And then last summer we heard that Blizzard had actually shown French employees an early version of Diablo 4. A French magazine was mostly focused on how awful it was that Blizzard had suddenly cut 30% of its staff and how that might affect future development plans, but the words “Diablo 4” still caused some excitement.
We’ll certainly find out more at this year’s BlizzCon, where Blizzard needs a big win to get ahead of the ongoing Hearthstone scandal that has painted the company in an increasingly negative light. By banning Hearthstone players from competing in official tournaments for expressing support for Hong Kong independence, Blizzard has taken the unpopular path of choosing money and an authoritarian regime over free speech and democracy, which is never a good look.
Even if Blizzard were to announce Diablo 4 in time for the holidays, it’s hard to believe it’ll be enough to regain their audience’s favor.