Blizzard Entertainment may have just recently started the latest season of "Diablo III," but it looks like new seasons and the occasional update may be all we're getting, as reports have surfaced that suggest the company is looking to move on to "Diablo IV" rather than release substantial new content for "Diablo III."
As you may remember, the last time a high number of gameplay-related content was added was back in 2014 when Blizzard released "Reaper of Souls." Since then, Blizzard only added new content in patches such as Patch 2.4.0, which introduced Greyhallow Island, set dungeons, empowered rifts and expanded two existing zones, or 2.3.0 before that, which added new difficulty levels, season journeys, the Ruins of Sescheron and the Kanai's Cube that can be found within.
It's been more than two years since "Reaper of Souls" came out and now it looks like we may never get anything quite like it. Instead, some fingers seem to point at Blizzard settling for minor content additions instead of a major expansion while they work on a new entry in the series - the hypothetical "Diablo IV."
One thing these reports seem to point out is the amount of people that are left to work on "Diablo III." There are apparently less people now than when they started, and some key members of the original development team are gone entirely.
For example, Leonard Boyarsky, one of the co-founders of Troika Games and lead designer of "Diablo III," left Blizzard Entertainment last month and is currently employed at Obsidian Entertainment. In a similar vein, John Yang and Don Vu, part of D3's development team, are now working on "World of Warcraft: Legion."
With some of its most influential members gone, "Diablo III" isn't in a place where it can launch a new expansion. However, if there's nothing more than a skeleton crew to work on simple patches, then how could a new "Diablo" game be in the works?
The answer to that can be seen on the Blizzard Entertainment job board. Upon scrolling down, you can see that Team 3 ("Diablo's" development team) is looking for new hires for an "Unannounced Project." A new art director and various other positions have already been filled, but the team still needs a Senior Character Artist, Senior Concept Artist and Senior VFX Artist.
Under normal circumstances, the listing would suggest that a new expansion would be in the works, but that would have been something Blizzard would have announced at BlizzCon 2015, which instead had small developments about "Diablo" that weren't even live-streamed.
Furthermore, the listings explicitly state "unannounced project," and the listings ask for things that wouldn't make any sense if the positions were for a D3 expansion. For example, the artist positions ask for proficiency with current surfacing techniques and PBR work flows. PBR stands for Physically Based Rendering, which is the technology many modern game companies are using to make photo realistic objects in their titles. "Diablo III" doesn't make use of this technology, nor does it need to, so why start doing so with a game that has already been out for roughly four years?
All in all, fans should expect to keep receiving more of these patches with a major one on occasion. Of course, this doesn't rule out the possibility of a "Diablo III" expansion, but this all points to a sequel rather than the still-absent expansion. Even if "Diablo IV" is actually what this "unannounced project" alludes to, the fact that Team 3 is still looking for members suggests that the game is still in its infancy at best.
Hopefully, Blizzard has more information for fans, whether its during this year's BlizzCon or the next.
