In the world of massively multiplayer online games, there are two games that stand out among the rest: World Of Warcraft and Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. These are the titans of MMOs, so one might think there could be some bad blood between the teams behind them.
However, the director of Final Fantasy XIV not only feels no ill will towards his biggest competitor, he's actually a full-on Blizzard fan. In fact, he loves Blizzard's games so much that he desperately wants a Diablo and WOW crossover event.
Final Fantasy XIV's director and producer, Naoki Yoshida, professed his love for Blizzard's properties in an interview with Playstation magazine. He made it clear that Diablo and World Of Warcraft are the top games he wants to show up in FFXIV, but that's not all. Even though he's the head of arguably the #2 MMO in the world, he would apparently throw that all away for a chance to work on Diablo 4.
On the possibility of getting to develop the next Diablo, Yoshida declared, "if Blizzard ever approached [me], you know, saying 'Oh, hey, we want you to take the reins to develop Diablo 4,' oh, I'm gonna drop everything I'm doing and I'm gonna go for it." It's bold for a developer to freely admit that they'd be completely open to being poached by another company, but such is Yoshida's love for Blizzard. However, he also made it clear that he's not planning on leaving the FFXIV team anytime soon.
This is good, because it may not be the best time to leave a high ranking position with Square Enix for Blizzard, especially considering the tumultuous state of the Overwatch developer these days. With issues like tenured employees departing due to low morale, and some staff still seemingly working crunch time hours, developing Diablo 4 probably wouldn't be the dream job that Yoshida hoped for.
As for the crossover, while it's not outside the realm of possibility, it's probably unlikely to happen. Final Fantasy XIV has had multiple crossover events in the past, however they've mostly been with Square Enix properties, like Monster Hunter World, or Nier: Automata. FFXIV is WOW's biggest competitor, and the chances of Blizzard wanting to do anything that gives them any kind of positive press are unfortunately very low.
Still, stranger things have happened, and since Yoshida has put it out into the world, maybe the cold, icy hearts of Activision Blizzard will melt just enough to throw The Butcher, or Jaina Proudmoore into FFXIV for a spell. For now, the game has just released its Shadowbringers expansion, so if you've been looking around for a story based MMO experience where you can play as a bunny lady, now might be the time to jump into Final Fantasy XIV.