In an interview uploaded on the Future Games Show YouTube channel, the developers of Diablo 4 answered alleged questions from the community. However, the quite harmless and specific questions never existed in that form.
What is the Future Games Show? The Future Games Show is a digital show for video game presentations, held annually by the online magazine GamesRadar+.
On the FGS YouTube channel, an interview with Diablo 4 developers John Müller and Joseph Piepora was published on May 25, which was obviously supposed to promote the show but also the game (via Kotaku).
The expert assessment of Diablo 4 after the test can be found here:
What kind of interview was it? On May 13, the Future Games Show tweeted from their Twitter account. They stated that they would sit down with the Diablo 4 developers in the following week. Twitter users were asked to write their questions for the developers in the comments.
The team probably hoped for much more interaction, as at the time of the tweet the server slam was running, which excited the fans.
However, when you open the tweet, you see that not a single question was commented on.
What you do see, however, are several replies from the past days linking to the YouTube video with the interview, referring to the questions posed there as “fake”.
Here you see the tweet that we summarized:
Where did the questions come from then? Twitter user Philtacular also wondered that. He took it upon himself to investigate. On May 26, he tweeted:
So @Blizzard_Ent and @FutureGamesShow have released a video titled “Diablo 4 Devs Answer YOUR Questions,” but the questions seem … strange. Fortunately, they provided the usernames of the “people” who asked these questions, so we can easily verify them! THERE’S surely nothing strange going on.
Philtacular via Twitter
He filled the thread with numerous screenshots from the YouTube video and photos of the profiles mentioned there. It quickly becomes clear: the profiles do not exist, have only existed for a short time, or are inactive.
He also searched for the Reddit profiles mentioned in the video as questioners. And it also becomes clear there: the accounts were created only a day before the interview or have never commented anywhere in Reddit threads.
Future Games Show admits mistakes
Kotaku asked both Blizzard and the Future Games Show for a statement. Blizzard responded that they were not involved in the questioning process.
A community representative wrote in a Diablo subreddit that the interview had been conducted on a press tour. The media editorial office passed the interview questions along, and the developers answered them.
What does the Future Games Show say about it? On May 30, the Future Games Show also commented on the incident. In a comment under the YouTube video, they write: “We made a mistake.” The intention of the video was that the developers answer questions from the community.
Here you see the interview on YouTube:
Ultimately, however, it turned out to be a mix of fan questions and questions from the FGS editorial team. Because some users and team members wanted to remain anonymous, the names were changed and randomly generated.
It has now become clear that some names correspond to real accounts. “This was not made clear in the video, and we apologize for any confusion this has caused,” FGS writes in the comment.
“Activision Blizzard and the Diablo 4 developers did NOT approve these questions in advance and were only made aware of them during the interview,” FGS notes. The title and thumbnail were updated for transparency purposes.
Editor Benedict Grothaus from MeinMMO was also able to grill the two developers – guaranteed with real questions. Here is a preview of the interview:
The head of Diablo 4 would play the formerly worst class if he could no longer switch
