After the demise of D2R Items its director who was in place prior to 2021, following numerous lawsuits and investigations claiming allegations of a "frat boy" workplace culture in Activision Blizzard, Diablo IV is set to launch in 2023. It will feature crossing-progression and crossplay between PC as well as consoles. Blizzard recently revealed more details regarding Diablo IV's five and final class of launch, the Necromancer.
We talked to Diablo 4 Director Joe Shely and general manager of the Diablo franchise Rod Fergusson about the current situation of Diablo as well as what their hopes would be Diablo 4. in addition to the way in which the game was made to accomplish them.
It's a big moment for Diablo. We've seen the release of Immortal and recently you've revealed the first part from Diablo 4. Rod as the director over the Diablo franchise, can you provide us a temperature report on the franchise? Where is it at and where do you think it is required to be?
Rod Fergusson: I think there's never been such a great time to be an Diablo player and Diablo player. There's Diablo still out there--it's been on the market for 10 years however even during its most recent season, Season 26. We've got 150 million hours played.
In actuality, we just reached over 65 million players who played Diablo. As of the month September we had Diablo 2: Resurrected come back, and we had more than five and a half million players returned to play D2:R. It's a PC game from the 21st century that has now been remastered and available on console too.
Immortal just launched, which is our most exciting free-to play mobile game. It has the potential to reach a number of players, reaching the 3 billion players who might only play on mobile. This is why it's free to buy D2R Ladder Items play mobile game available wherever they are.
