The BlizzCon 2026 brought a lot of joy with tons of strong announcements, even for MeinMMO editor and Blizzard fan Benedict Grothaus. One piece of information, however, the developers of Diablo 4 only added in an interview – and it causes a lot of frustration.
Seriously, the BlizzCon was absolutely fantastic. From the revival of StarCraft as a shooter to the announcement of Diablo 5 to my absolute highlight, two new heroes for Heroes of the Storm, I was almost speechless watching throughout the entire evening.
After the opening ceremony, more information about the announcements gradually trickled through, first from the “Deep Dive” and “What’s Next” panels by the devs themselves, and then from interviews from various sources.
In one of them, deducted by our colleague Julius Busch, the developers of Diablo announced some bad news that initially left me staring blankly at the screen, then just shaking my head in disbelief. Haven’t you learned anything from Diablo 3, Blizzard?
Three years after release, Diablo 4 is almost done
Diablo 4 will not receive any expansions anymore. Lord of Hatred is the end of the story of the game, from now on everything leads to Diablo 5. Why? I have absolutely no idea, and it makes no sense to me:
- Diablo 5 takes place 100 years after Diablo 4, but we still have no idea what the end of Lord of Hatred even means. With Reaper of Souls, we at least knew, that 90% of humanity was wiped out before Diablo 4 even begins.
- In Diablo 5, Diablo himself has “won” – but what exactly did he win? Allegedly there was a Golden Age for humans, who then… once again get wiped out. Will we ever see all of this?
- The current state is that Mephisto has really messed things up and we are currently trying to tidy up the world somehow. Not a really satisfying end to such an important storyline.
Rod Fergusson promised a ton of expansions back then and we got… two. Yes, Fergusson is gone and Blizzard has since been bought by Microsoft, which completely changes the circumstances.
Still a downer, and when you look at what is coming in Diablo 5, it raises the suspicion that much of it was actually planned for Diablo 4. Diablo’s return, the Demon Hunter as a class, whose iconic weapon was already found in the data of Diablo 4 – all of this indicates that planned content has simply been pushed to the upcoming game.
However, the story of Diablo 4 is not supposed to be completely over, it is said in the interview by PCGamer. It is supposed to be continued within the upcoming seasons, but looking at the story of the seasons so far, I can’t imagine any groundbreaking insights coming from it.
Two years of drought with… what exactly?
Blizzard made the same mistake back then with Diablo 3 and sent the game into maintenance mode after the release of the Necromancer as a standalone class without story content – even though it was still absolutely alive. Why? Ask Kotick.
Admittedly, after Diablo 3, we had to wait a staggering 9 years (7, if you consider the Necromancer pack as a real DLC) to be able to play more Diablo. Now it’s “only” two and a half years, if Blizzard adheres to the release in early 2029.
But how is Diablo 4 supposed to remain alive for so long? Yes, next year the Amazon is coming as a new class, which everyone actually expected with Lord of Hatred. Possibly more class packs will come, although I doubt that. Otherwise? Just seasons.
Blizzard wants to support Diablo 4 as long as players keep playing it, and yes, I have to give them credit: they surely do, just like they did with Diablo 3 (and even Diablo 2!). But whether there are still many players interested in Diablo 4, that’s a different story.
Lord of Hatred was incredibly well received, thrilled me like nothing else in a long time and was considered by me and many other fans as possibly the best Diablo campaign of all time. Cutting it off right after that game seems strange.
A glimpse of hope: The Diablo show on Netflix
Maybe the copium is speaking out of me, maybe I see the whole development around Diablo 4 too negatively as a hurt fan, but Blizzard has promised even more content for Diablo, specifically: a show on Netflix – of which we have known since 2020.
However, there are still not many details about it, neither regarding the story, the release, nor the implementation, but it could bridge the gap between Diablo 4 and 5. That would be more of a consolation prize, but a Diablo series has long been on my wishlist and that of other fans.
I don’t want to speak too ill of BlizzCon, especially not considering the absolutely excellent announcements and cinematics that we were able to see. Just the trailer for Diablo 5 is pure goosebumps material.
However, a bad message like the one from Diablo 4 hits even harder for that very reason, like a pebble in pudding… or whatever the saying is. Additionally, I had firmly assumed that Blizzard would announce the last Diablo 4 expansion at BlizzCon 2027, perhaps even shadow-drop it. I guess that won’t happen.
One can only hope that it’s just the angry nerd speaking out of me, who will calm down soon as soon as he can slash through Sanctuary with the Amazon, waiting for the world to go to hell. Because we already know where the journey is headed.
Now that all the frustration about this one piece of information regarding Diablo 4 is finally out, I can look forward to what lies ahead: Heroes of the Storm, the Warcraft 3 campaign, and especially WoW Forever. The long-suspected Classic+ is exactly what will shorten my waiting time for Diablo 5: WoW Forever: This is the new Classic Plus of World of Warcraft
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