Blizzard’s longtime CEO, Mike Morhaime, reflects on some of the pivotal moments during his time. This is what he says about BlizzCon 2018, where fans expected “Diablo 4” and received “Diablo Immortal”.
Who is speaking? Mike Morhaime is one of the three co-founders of Blizzard and led the company for a long time.
He was with Blizzard for 27 years, has since stepped down, and is looking for new projects. In a conversation with Venturebeat, he looks back on his career.
What happened at BlizzCon 2018? Blizzard unintentionally ignited hype for Diablo 4 before BlizzCon, which they could not contain:
- Prior to the event, it became known that Diablo would receive the central announcement slot
- Fans were hopeful for a Diablo 4, which they felt was long overdue
- Blizzard noticed this and tried to rein in the hype. In a forum post, they stated that they had various Diablo projects and wanted to discuss them, but that would take time
- At BlizzCon itself, the disappointment was great when Diablo 4 for PC was not presented, but the mobile game “Diablo Immortal.”
BlizzCon 2018 was considered a flop due to the situation and much speculation arose about what went wrong. Supposedly, a presentation of Diablo 4 was planned, but it was then postponed because Blizzard was not entirely satisfied with what they wanted to show.
“The message didn’t get through”
This is what Morhaime says about BlizzCon 2018: He says that there is a group that is very passionate about the “Diablo” franchise. They were very excited and full of anticipation for a product that had not yet been announced.
Morhaime says: “I think Blizzard tried to manage expectations. They would not announce Diablo 4 at BlizzCon. But I think this message did not really get through. They posted it in the forums – and in the past that would have been sufficient. But in this case, the audience apparently did not receive the message.”
How could Blizzard have prevented the anger? Blizzard rarely talks about games that are too far away.
Morhaime suggests that in this case they might have deviated a bit from the rule. He says: “Maybe in this case they should have talked more about the fact that the Diablo franchise is not giving up on PC.
If we had announced the products in a different order, everything would have probably been fine. But hopefully this lesson has been learned.”
More interesting insights from Morhaime about Diablo 3 can be found here:
