Talk about a big announcement! Blizzard has officially unleashed Diablo V upon the world. Well, nearly. It won’t be out until Spring 2029.
The announcement arrived with this dramatic trailer with an equally dramatic female narrator telling us, “The Angels were supposed to save us. What survived were bleeders and rotters.”
“Diablo V takes players into a Sanctuary that has fallen. The heroes are gone, and Diablo has won,” says Blizzard.
The first three classes are the returning Demon Hunter and Monk, plus the new Plague Knight, who spreads disease across the battlefield before consuming it for power. Speaking to Esquire, senior game director Joe Shely also promised a bigger launch roster than the series has offered before, although he stopped short of giving an exact number.
Perhaps the biggest change is how you’ll explore Sanctuary. Instead of travelling between towns, you’ll gather survivors into a caravan that moves with you. These companions provide your shops and services, with their own stories to discover. One of them is a stranded Treasure Goblin, which sounds like a questionable choice of travelling companion when you’re carrying a bag full of loot.
There are some interesting ideas here, then. Blizzard says regular development updates will start in 2027, giving players a chance to influence the game while it’s still being made. Platforms haven’t been announced yet.
But what is worth discussing is how quickly Diablo V is launching after Diablo IV, which came out in June of 2023. There’s already a flurry of comments on the Diablo V trailer of people saying stuff like “I feel like Diablo 4 just came out.” And they’re right. It did.
Other people are also pointing out that Diablo 4 is also only just starting to hit its stride. Hell, most people were expecting a new expansion for it, rather than a sequel.
This feels like a reaction from Xbox, a need to get more stuff announced to get people excited, because announcing a sequel this far ahead of its launch and this close to the last game is kind of stupid. At this point, though, it feels like an Xbox tradition to announce games well before they are ever due to release, like Fable. Then again, Blizzard has been announcing games years before release forever, too.