Blizzard Prioritizes Inclusivity Over Diablo Franchise Ranking

With the release of Diablo 4's first expansion, key developers give insight into what they desire to do with the series' latest entry, as well as their larger goal with the Diablo franchise.

Blizzard Discusses Goals with Diablo 4Devs Aim to Prioritize Content that Players Will Enjoy

Blizzard revealed that it plans on keeping Diablo IV up and running for a long time, especially considering that the game has become the company's fastest-selling game to date. Speaking in a recently published interview with VGC, Diablo series head Rod Fergusson and Diablo IV executive producer Gavian Whishaw shared how longevity and sustained interest across all installments in Blizzard's acclaimed action RPG dungeon crawler series is a win-win situation for them—whether that's Diablo IV, 3, 2, or even the first release.

"I mean, one of the things you’ll notice about Blizzard is that we tend not to turn any games off, it’s very rare. So you can still go play Diablo and Diablo II, Diablo II: Resurrected and Diablo III, right?" Fergusson told VGC, "And so just people playing Blizzard games is awesome."

When asked whether or not it's a problem for Blizzard if Diablo 4 is neck-to-neck in player count against previous Diablo entries, Fergusson said that "it’s not a problem that people are playing whatever version." He continued, "That’s one of the things that’s been really exciting about Diablo 2: Resurrected, is that there’s a very large fan base for that game, which is a remaster of a 21-year-old game. So just having people in our sort of ecosystem, playing and loving Blizzard games, is a huge positive."

Fergusson further went on to say that Blizzard wants players to "play what they want to play." While there are financial benefits for the company if more players moved from Diablo 3 to Diablo 4, he remarked that the company is "not trying to actively be like 'how do we move them off?'"

"And whether they’re playing Diablo 4 today, or tomorrow, or whenever, the goal for us is to make the content and the features that are so desirable that people want to come and play Diablo 4," Fergusson said. "And that’s why we continue to support things like Diablo 3 and Diablo 2, and so for us, it’s really a goal of 'let’s just make stuff that’s so appealing that people want to come play'."

Diablo 4 Gears Up for Vessel of Hatred Release

Speaking of more "stuff," lots of exciting stuff is in store for Diablo 4 players! With the upcoming release of Vessel of Hatred, Diablo 4's upcoming first expansion launching soon on October 8, the Diablo team shared a video going into detail about what to expect as the expansion rolls out.

The expansion will introduce a new region, Nahantu, where new towns, dungeons, and ancient civilizations await to be discovered. Moreover, it puts front-and-center a continuation of the game's campaign, where players' search for Neyrelle, a major hero in the game, takes them deep into an ancient jungle to uncover and put an end to a malicious agenda orchestrated by evil overlord Mephisto.