Blizzard has revealed that an unannounced Diablo project of some sort is official in the works. A job posting on Blizzard’s career site has Diablo’s faithful fans in a stir — although we really have no idea what exactly the company is working on.
As you can see, the job posting is rather vague:
“The minions of Hell are growing stronger…
We’re working on a new, unannounced Diablo project. Are you a skilled Dungeon Artist? Come work with us, and together we will build something exceptional.”
Two things worth noting from the job listing that lead me to believe this is new content being worked on:
- Work directly with level design to build atmospheric dungeons with a focus on composition, detail and mood, while ensuring that the gameplay space is readable.
- 3+ years’ experience with world building and efficiently putting together in-game environments. Development experience modeling and texturing assets using Maya, ZBrush, and Substance painter/designer.
What sticks out to me here is they want someone who’s experienced with world building and level design. If we’re revamping old content or porting existing content to new consoles, it’s doubtful that they’d need someone experienced in building new worlds.
Sweet dreams. pic.twitter.com/tZvCnjjzWb
— Blizzard Entertainment (@Blizzard_Ent) February 28, 2018
A lot of fans have speculated that Blizzard will be working with Nintendo, but I think it’s extremely doubtful this is a Switch port, which was the major speculation the last time Diablo news was in the gaming headlines. A vague tweet from Blizzard in March of this year had fans speculating that the series was porting to Nintendo Switch. Blizzard squashed the rumors by stating they had nothing to announce and there was no hint of anything Blizzard related at the most recent Nintendo Direct conference.
The last major development for the game itself was about a year ago, when Diablo III: Reaper of Souls‘ “Rise of the Necromancer” DLC brought back the Necromancer as a playable class, along with new content and in-game collectibles. With no new announcements in sight, we’re quickly going to surpass a year without a single piece of new content — that’s a long time for players to stay invested in a game that’s almost entirely PVE driven.
Personally my hope is this unannounced job posting is secretly for Diablo IV. It feels like Diablo III‘s time in Blizzard fans’ hearts is already over. Yes, while the game broke a number of sales records, the initial gameplay was plagued with problems and the backlash from the community was so strong that the Game Director ended up stepping down as a result.
Maybe we’ll hear something at E3 this year, but I wouldn’t hold my breath as Blizzard is much more likely to announce major news at their own conference, Blizzcon, which takes place later this year in November.
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