It’s the 20th anniversary of Diablo II, 30th anniversary of Blizzard. Diablo III was nine years ? The community is hungry for more content, hungry to play more Diablo. Are you worried about oversaturation, or do you think these three projects are going to be able to coexist together well?įergusson: We feel like they’ll coexist well. GamesBeat: There’s a lot of Diablo coming out soon: Diablo IV, Diablo: Immortal, and Diablo II: Resurrection. When people go into the deep dives, they get to hear not only about what the rogue is doing, but what the open world has in terms of camps and PvP areas and mounts, that sort of thing. The idea of bringing PvP back to Diablo is an interesting part of this as well. But it also winks at the PvP we have in the open world now. It was nice to be part of the rogue announcement and speak about that in terms of the way the rogue is working for the priest in that trailer. The idea of being able to lean into the tonality of games like Diablo and Diablo II, like the severed ears from Diablo II. Is it fun to be able to lean into that darker, more graphic atmosphere?įergusson: One of the big pillars for Diablo IV is the return to darkness. GamesBeat: You threw a lot of severed limbs into the BlizzCon trailer. The rogue class from Diablo fits that as well. We’ve talked about some of the things around Diablo II that have inspired us, or elements of Diablo III that inspired us. Shelly: Well, Diablo is a world that has a rich history of things to draw from. GamesBeat: Was there a specific desire to bring back a class from the first Diablo? The ability to react to how battles play out is exciting, because it’s so adaptable. You have crowd control, area of effect, damage over time.
You can go into a situation, the situation can change, and as a rogue you can adapt. What’s great about the rogue is its versatility. Rod Fergusson: What’s also nice: There’s a layer of magic on top of it when you look at the things the rogue can do as well, in terms of using shadow magic, being able to imbue your weapons with poison and use poisonous attacks, or imbue your weapons with ice and frost. Or you can focus more exclusively on one of those two things. You can be shooting at range, dash in, do some quick melee damage, dash out. This decision to have both things equipped at the same time allowed players who want to play a melee rogue to live that fantasy, and players who want to play a ranged rogue to live that fantasy, but it also means that you can have a mixture of those abilities equipped at any time. With our rogue class, we wanted to speak to both of those fantasies. Some players think of themselves standing at a distance, throwing lots of arrows, keeping monsters away from them, using caltrops or other things to slow and impede enemies so they can constantly stand off from them. We did that because we wanted the rogue to appeal to players who when they think of themselves as a rogue, when they put themselves into the game, some people who play that kind of class think of themselves as getting in close, stabbing monsters in the back, moving quickly around monsters, being evasive, those kinds of things. Our rogue, for example, has at all times a bow or other ranged weapon and melee short range weapons equipped in their inventory. But it’s also a term that can encompass the breadth of things that players expect from this kind of class. Shelly: One of the things I like about using the word “rogue,” about naming a class the rogue, first, it hearkens back to the history of Diablo and the start of the adventure. Are demon hunter players going to see some abilities or aspects that they recognize in this interpretation of rogue? GamesBeat: You mentioned some of the other classes that have been similar. We’re excited to announce it today, to share it with everyone. We know that it’s something that there’s a huge audience of players who are waiting to see. Bringing a class like that to Diablo IV was so important to us. You saw it in the rogue in Diablo, the assassin in Diablo II, and the demon hunter in Diablo III.
Every Diablo game has had a character that speaks to that kind of ranged or sometimes melee damage-dealing, mobile, somewhat fragile archetype. It’s been a part of the franchise for a long time. Joe Shelly: The rogue is a very exciting class for us. GamesBeat: I assume there are multiple classes you’re working on right now. Join gaming leaders live this October 25-26 in San Francisco to examine the next big opportunities within the gaming industry.
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