Diablo 4 is the absolute market leader in the ARGP genre, not least thanks to the decades-long history of the franchise. It all started back then with David Brevik, who had the idea for the first Diablo. Today, Brevik says that the success forces Blizzard into a certain stagnation.
Who is the man?
- David Brevik co-founded Blizzard North in 1993. The first pitch for Diablo came from him in 1995, which was still heavily oriented towards Rogue and was actually supposed to be turn-based.
- Only through Brevik was permadeath later removed and Diablo became the action game with the addictive loot that later had such great success.
- Until 2003, Brevik was with Blizzard and has since established his own studio, Skystone Games. He has also worked as a consultant for the competition of Diablo 4.
This is what Brevik says now: In an interview with PCGamesN, Brevik talks among other things about the current state of Diablo 4. One of the biggest criticisms from the community about the game is that particularly seasons don’t feel fresh anymore.
The current Season 10 has set a new record, but there are repeated accusations that seasonal mechanics and features are merely reheated old content. Diablo 4 remains fundamentally the same. According to Brevik, Blizzard cannot afford any major changes:
I think whenever you have a big game and change something, you will have people who are not happy, but very vocal about it. It’s hard when you’re super popular and have a big game. The expectations just go through the roof.
It’s stressful to do anything at all. So you have to put that aside and say: “Hey, I believe in the direction we’re heading. I believe in what we’re doing and maybe not everyone understands that, I recognize that, but we believe it’s the best for the future of our product.”
Since so many new games are released every year, many gamers would stick with their favorite game because you simply can’t play everything, Brevik thinks. This is one of the reasons why people stay with Diablo 4.
“It is very different than it was 20 years ago”
Especially in the AA sector, the competition is enormous, says the father of Diablo. Games are being canceled, it’s an unstable environment, high-risk. Innovations come today from indie studios and the AA sector, games that are inspired by big titles like Diablo.
This is in a way ironic, as Diablo itself was inspired by Rogue back then. Modern roguelikes and roguelites, on the other hand, are influenced by Diablo. This mixture of genres has coined the term “action RPG” in the first place.
Although Brevik said during the sexism scandal in 2022 that Blizzard was dead to him, he praises the studio for its handling of his work: Diablo 2, the favorite part of the series for many veterans.
Diablo 2 was remade with Resurrected and provided for some time with updates and even new content. Currently, there are still new ladders, but no major developments – which is good, as Brevik thinks:
You could change the story of the [game] in a certain way; [Blizzard] does not want to stray too far from it. I think the more you add, the more you change something, the further it strays from its core. […]
I think they have found a good balance that satisfies many players. […] They did a great job. And they said roughly: “That’s enough now, we are now going to continue on our path.” That felt like a respectful decision to me, that was really nice.”
With Diablo 4, the biggest competitor Path of Exile 2, and the entire ARPG genre, Brevik harshly criticized around the beginning of 2025. They have lost a bit of what originally made them what they were: The father of Diablo says: Modern action RPGs like Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2 feel trivial
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