It's hilarious how desperate they were for any scrap of product to announce. 18 months+ later and still not a hint of a go live date. I'd not be surprised if Blizzcon stops being annual
That may have something to do with just how much time it takes to develop new AAA games these days, but you would hope with more live service games that they could do more regular, smaller content drops
As far as I understand the mobile Diablo was supposed to be contracted out to another company (Netease). Said company also has a - let's put it this way - very similar game already on the market.
So I guess it's even more surprising there haven't been any further news since then.
Unless of course, they pivoted the project, to provide a PC version or a different game altogether.
There's been a ton of talk around virtual convention start-ups and software, but part of me worries what's going to happen to traditional "cons" like BlizzCon.
Much of the innovation is around business/networking, with the exception of organized Discord activities (which dont scale well), its tough for me to imagine an alternative to attending a BlizzCon or PAX in person.
I don't think they're permanently gone. Assuming it becomes safe to have large gatherings sometime, they'll come back. You're right that there isn't a way to duplicate that environment online.
Although there are some independent conferences that I'm concerned might simply not survive a disruption of a year or two. If SXSW doesn't happen in 2021, they'll surely go bankrupt, and I don't know how easy it'll be to just spin back up in 2022.
The fact that tickets to traditional cons are often limited which creates exclusivity which expands upon the hype of any announcements demos.
The costs involved with a con are obviously a couple orders of magnitude higher than a virtual con, but I don't think the marketing impact is the same at all. Traditional cons are certainly not going away by any means.
Unsurprising but still sad to see it be officially cancelled. Having gone the last few years and growing up on Blizzard's games it does feel slowly like Blizzard is losing their way and this kind of throws salt in the wound, not that anyone is to blame for this particular situation.
>it does feel slowly like Blizzard is losing their way
Blizzard lost their way on the day they were purchased by Activision. They've been a hollow shell of their former selves since then. The quality and passion of their older games is gone and everything they pump out is a way to milk money from customers. Everything from releasing individual campaigns for StarCraft 2 as standalone titles, to diablo 3's launch nonsense, to the ridiculous phone diablo nonsense. Not to mention just milking the utter fuck out of WoW for well over a decade.
I was just talking about this with a friend earlier today. It's interesting to have witnessed Blizzard go from indie maker to #1 PC game studio to whatever you would describe them now. But the reasons for their downfall shouldn't be surprising, since you see similar in tech often:
Step 1: Lose core talent that made your company what it was (Blizzard North, Chris Metzen)
Step 2: Misalign incentives between shareholders and users (Arguably: Destroying the SCBW pro scene, Diablo mobile, RMAH, WarCraft Reforged's journey so far, etc.)
Step 3: Add time
For the younger generations, Riot Games is now to them what Blizzard Entertainment was to me when I was growing up. Hopefully Riot doesn't fall victim to the same issues, or perhaps these issues are inevitable for any company after a certain growth stage.
Overwatch was a great post-Activision game. Overwatch 2 on the other hand...seems like a blatant cash grab.
We don't know much about it, but it seems like it's introducing new heroes, maps, and new abilities for existing heroes. Maybe that's enough to warrant a "2" in the title, but it sure doesn't feel like it at the moment.
I have to be honest, i've never tried overwatch and kind of forget it exists, but i just looked it up and it does look pretty fun.
I dunno I grew up with blizzard. One of the earliest PC games I remember playing was Warcraft, I still remember being blown away when I seen that box in the computer store. I just devoured the manual the whole way home. I've been addicted to most of their games up through Warcraft 3, I sort of skipped the wow phase. But, all of the sequels i've tried and just the press stuff with blizzard i've kept up with has just left me feeling meh towards them.
OW2 is supposed to add PvE-Content, as OW1 is purely PvP. If they add significant amount of content, then the "2" would be more than justified. Most games are blatant cash grabs, you don't invest millions just for fun. Delivering something good or something bad for the player makes the difference.
To be honest, I think that Diablo 3 was a pretty good game. The auction house certainly was a failure and the mechanics were a bit shallow compared to the previous well established hack and slashes. But otherwise, beautiful game, responsive controls, very enjoyable overall. The kind of game we love to hate as much as we love playing it.
The problem with the auction house wasn't really the real money part, it wasn't that much used. The problem was that the best way to get good items was to trade in the not-real-money action house, creating all sorts of unblalance. In the end, they completely killed the game economy, probably for the best.
The lack of depth is to put into perspective. Such things only matter at high level, and many people didn't get that far. Also, many of the people who (rightfully) complained about that came from late Diablo 2, or even Median, and probably don't realize how much has been done since the original game. Like its predecessor, Diablo 3 endgame improved a lot since launch.
Now everyone is on Path of Exile, great game, but way too complex for casual players like myself. Basically Median's brainchild.
My main problem with diablo 3 was that it felt more like playing a slightly more complicated version of gauntlet than actual sequel to diablo 2. After having played a bit of path of exile, i feel they definitely got closer to an actual diablo 2 sequel than diablo 3 did. Though that game's got some aggravating issues itself.
Blizzard was an amazing storyteller with their Warcraft and Diablo games, and combining it with the social aspect in WoW had me staying up countless nights adventuring with people all over the world.
It was good times, and I sadly doubt I'll ever find a similar experience ever again.
