Ahead of BlizzCon 2018, Blizzard published a blog in which they attempted to temper the expectations of fans who had speculated that a Diablo 4 announcement could be part of the event. However a report from Kotaku later suggested that Blizzard apparently had planned Diablo 4 to be announced, but pulled it at the last minute.
Heading into BlizzCon 2018, there were rumors that Diablo 4 could finally be announced, but a couple of weeks ahead of the event, Blizzard issued a statement that pretty much squashed all hope of Diablo 4 being one of the possible announcements at the event. Instead what we got was Diablo Immortal, a mobile MMORPG version of the franchise.
Whenever Blizzard releases a new World of Warcraft expansion, the content within that expansion is typically staggered. This means that for the most part, the core of the expansion will be released such as all the new quests, zones, races, classes, and so on, but in terms of end-game content like raids, those are usually released in phases.
During BlizzCon 2018, Blizzard officially announced that Overwatch would be getting a new hero in the form of Ashe. They also released an animated short called Reunion in which at the end of the short, it revealed a second hero that had yet to be officially announced. That has since been confirmed to be Echo.
One of the ways that many companies use to try and attract gamers to their games is by removing as many restrictions/hurdles as possible, such as an upfront fee where they are hoping that a free game will make the game more attractive for gamers to pick up. This has worked extremely well for various titles over the years.
Diablo Immortal was officially announced at BlizzCon 2018 over the weekend. For those who missed the news, it is basically an MMORPG designed for mobile devices which would pretty much bring the Diablo hack and slash experience onto our smartphones and tablets. For those wondering about its gameplay, it seems that there will not be an offline mode.
Fans of Blizzard’s Hearthstone might be pleased to learn that during BlizzCon 2018, the company officially announced the next expansion in the game in the form of Rastakhan’s Rumble (for those unfamiliar, Rastakhan is the current ruler of the Zandalari Empire and had a key role in the World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth expansion as far as the Horde side was concerned.
Back in August, Blizzard revealed that they had multiple Diablo projects in the works, which many had anticipated could include the much-awaited Diablo 4. However during BlizzCon 2018, the company pretty much only revealed Diablo Immortal which was a mobile MMORPG that would be launching for iOS and Android devices.
During BlizzCon 2018 over the weekend, Blizzard officially announced Diablo Immortal. This is a mobile MMORPG that basically brings the hack and slash game onto our smartphones and tablets, and while it sounds really good in concept, the reaction that Blizzard faced when the game was unveiled was surprising.
Earlier in the week, it was speculated that there could be an Amiibo in the works for Diablo 3 on the Nintendo Switch. It looks like the datamine was accurate because Blizzard and NIntendo have since officially announced the Diablo 3 Amiibo in the form of a “loot goblin” which is expected to be exclusive to GameStop.
Back in 2017 during BlizzCon 2017, the company officially announced that they will be launching servers dedicated to hosting the vanilla version of World of Warcraft, also known as World of Warcraft Classic. However Blizzard did caution that the game could take a while to be launched, and it looks like players will still need to wait a bit.
During BlizzCon 2018, Blizzard launched a brand new animated short for its Overwatch franchise. Dubbed “Reunion”, this seems to be a short focused around McCree, one of Overwatch’s original heroes, and also Ashe, who is one of the new playable heroes that Blizzard announced that would be coming to the game.
It has been previously reported that Blizzard might have a new Overwatch hero in the works. Given that the company has been slowly expanding the roster of heroes in the game, this news did not come as a surprise. In fact at BlizzCon 2018, Blizzard took the wraps off the new hero in the form of Ashe.
Blizzard has been steadily releasing various cinematics for World of Warcraft, in which it pieces together parts of the ongoing story. For those who are curious and want to see where this story leads, Blizzard has since released a new cinematic trailer dubbed “Lost Honor” that features Varok Saurfang and King Anduin Wrynn.