World of Warcraft: Legion just released to critical acclaim and Overwatch continues to be the best competitive game of 2016, but Blizzard’s loyalists are hoping that another popular franchise, Diablo, will also be getting some love this year. For a few hopeful fans, this could mean a full-fledged fourth game.
The rumor mill and speculation came after Blizzard North co-founder David Brevik tweeted that he was “proud to be the adviser for the game that pushes this genre [dungeon crawlers] to new heights.”
As Eurogamer points out, Brevik had also recently visited Blizzard’s headquarters along with former Blizzard North vice president Bill Roper earlier in October. Roper was also involved in development of Diablo and Diablo II before moving on to Disney Interactive to work on Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two and Disney Infinity.
So, just what do these posts mean for the future of Diablo? According to Brevik, absolutely nothing. About a day after his previous tweet was posted, he released an update.
“There has been a lot of speculation (and hope), but I’m not working on the Diablo franchise currently or in the near future,” Brevik says.
Roper clarified on his account, as well, writing that it would “be an honor” to come back to Blizzard to develop a fourth game but that the stories were just rumors.
The other bit of information that is sure to have Diablo fans holding out their last ounce of hope, however, is a gift included in the BlizzCon 2016 goodie bag. A Diablo-themed set of dice are among the gifts, and if a die is set on a particular side, it appears to offer up 11-4, or November 4, which is the first day of the convention.
Would a fourth Diablo game be announced this year, it would be a shortened turnaround for a series that has seen periods of dormancy. Four years separated the first and second games in the series, but there was a 12-year gap between Diablo II and Diablo III. In July, game director Josh Mosqueira left Blizzard, and the company posted a job opening looking for someone to lead “the Diablo series into the future.”
