It’s been just over a month since the massive release of Blizzard’s dungeon-crawling blockbusterDiablo 4and some fans have taken issue with a recent Diablo Developer stream which spent a lot of time on theDiablo Immortalmobile game. With Season 1 ofDiablo 4around the corner and a new class coming toDiablo Immortal, theDiabloteam held a 90-minute livestream with the purpose of talking about all that’s about to happen with both games.
Game showcases and developer livestreams have been nearly perfected at this point. Nintendo and PlayStation have both found a lot of success with Nintendo Directs and State of Plays, and Xbox has been experimenting with a lot of different formats with its Extended Showcase,StarfieldDirect, and Developer Direct all having positive reactions this year. With the effective replacement of E3 by Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest, game companies no longer need to hold their information for third-party shows or interviews like E3 Colosseum and can instead create their own carefully curated streams internally.
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Blizzard’s own livestream effort withDiabloseems to have missed the mark for some fans. The stream, featuring Franchise General Manager Rod Fergusson alongside several developers, aimed to dole out information about Season 1 ofDiablo 4,named Season of the Malignant, as well as provide details regarding the new Blood Knight class arriving inDiablo Immortal. While it did accomplish that, some fans were displeased about the structure of the stream. Reddit user redosabe voiced their disappointment, citing the opening 20 minutes spent onDiablo Immortaland speculating that it was a move to getDiablo 4fans' eyes on the mobile title.
Another commenter under the post criticized the stream for a lack of clarity when differentiating betweenDiablo 4andImmortal, joking about being excited for thenew Blood Knight classcoming toDiablo 4, which is actually coming toDiablo Immortal. While the stream did have a distinct break when switching over to itsDiablo 4segment, there was still a small amount of inevitable pre-existing confusion regarding the Blood Knight prior to the stream. It’s clear thatDiablo 4is the more popular title, and there were likely many fans who showed up to watch the stream that don’t have any interest inDiablo’s mobile offering.
It’s hard to say whetherDiablowill hold separate streams forDiablo 4andImmortalin the future. While doing so would help squash confusion and streamline the flow of information to fans, there is an appeal to having everythingDiabloall in one place. Nevertheless, with theBlood Knight arriving inDiablo Immortalon July 13 and Season of the Malignant coming toDiablo 4on July 20, fans of the franchise should be able to put this stream behind them as they look ahead to the newDiablocontent.
Diablo 4is out now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
