Diablo 4 Director Shares Letter to Fans, Promises Quarterly Updates

Diablo 4's reveal at BlizzCon was met with waves of approval from Diablo fans who saw it as the type of Diablo game they'd been waiting for, but a release timeframe was noticeably absent from the presentation. We still don't know when the game will be out, but we do at least know now that the community will receive continuous updates to show off more of the game while it's worked on. Luis Barriga, the game director for Diablo 4, confirmed this in a letter published on Wednesday on the Diablo site.

Barriga began his letter by thanking the Diablo community for the reception that Diablo 4 received during the BlizzCon announcement. Judging from the reactions to the reveal of a substantial trailer and gameplay that followed afterwards, Diablo 4 certainly seemed like the type of game the Diablo community was looking forward to after being let down by last year's BlizzCon reveals. Barriga said the lines to play the game were "packed all weekend long" and that the team was "floored by the overall reception."

With BlizzCon over though, Barriga reassured Diablo fans that the status and development updates on the game won't be drying up. There's a big update planned for February 2020, and beyond that, we'll see quarterly updates on the game.

"We've been taking this week to assess and discuss our takeaways from BlizzCon, and we love all the deep discussions happening around the art, features, systems, and world of Diablo IV," Barriga said in the letter to Diablo fans. "We're also excited about a cool update we're planning for you in February of next year. It will be the first in a series of quarterly updates where we'll share behind-the-scenes looks at our progress going forward."

Following the reveal of the game and subsequent spotlights on different features such as classes like the Druid, players did have some questions on different parts of the game. Some of those pertained to items and stats among other topics, and Barriga said those will be addressed in a Q&A session before the February update.

"We also know that one topic is burning hotter than the rest," Barriga continued. "We want you to know that we are having the same conversations about items and stats that you are having—whether on the official discussion threads or external sites, we read it all! Getting this right is at the top of our minds, and in the coming weeks our lead systems designer David Kim will provide a few clarifications, share some of his thoughts, and address some of your open questions."

Diablo 4 is currently in development for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC platforms and does not yet have a release date.