Diablo is returning: At BlizzCon today, Blizzard announced that Diablo 5 will be set a century after Diablo 4 in a Sanctuary that has succumbed to the Lord of Terror, Diablo himself.
That's not until 2029, though. In the meantime, Blizzard will continue the story of Diablo 4 with seasons, but no more expansions are currently planned for the game.
"We're all focused on [Diablo 4] seasons and getting to Diablo 5," said Diablo game director Brent Gibson in an interview with PC Gamer at BlizzCon. "We feel like we told the Story of Hatred. We had a great conclusion with Lord of Hatred with what we have with Mephisto, and we are moving towards telling the Story of Terror."
Even if no more expansions are currently planned, the Diablo 4 story isn't over. Given the premise of Diablo 5, Blizzard now has to bring about the apocalypse, and it sounds like we'll see how that plays out in the upcoming seasons. Nothing's set in stone, though.
"The events of Diablo 5 happen 100 years after everything that's happening with Diablo 4, and so that gives us a lot of room to kind of still ride the wave with all the fans on where the story can go as we make our way there," said Gibson. "So continuity is something that we're really excited about, but we don't necessarily have a perfect picture on exactly where that's going to go because we want to see how fans are reacting season to season."
I also asked whether we can expect a Path of Exile/Path of Exile 2 situation, where a live service game and its sequel end up running concurrently, or if we should expect dev resources to fully switch over to Diablo 5 after it launches.
Gibson indicated that support for Diablo 4 isn't going away so long as people are playing it, pointing to the continued support for Diablo 2 Resurrected, which got a new class earlier this year, as evidence of Blizzard's commitment to the whole Diablo "universe."
"I think you can expect that—you know, Diablo 4 players, they love the game, there's tons of them out there," said Gibson. "We're continuing to support the game for a very long time."
It's unclear what that support will look like, but Diablo 5 is a ways off yet and it sounds like plans are expected to evolve with feedback. Diablo 3 won't necessarily be the template followed, but it's currently in a kind of time loop, cycling through its biggest seasons.
You can catch up on more BlizzCon announcements in our recap of the Opening Ceremony.
