[D4] Did you see this, why so early if the game is years away?

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Simple, because people will buy it.

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They need to sell the merchandize before the product arrives and is terrible :partying_face:
Isn’t that what movies do these days as well.

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So you do not want me to send you a free copy of D4 when it comes out, okay I understand.

Wasn’t that only for people who believe the game will be out in 2021? :smiley:

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Yes, but I was going to send you one because I like you.
If you think it will be terrible I can give it to someone else, in your name. :kiss: :kiss: :kiss:

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I didn’t say it would be terrible. The idea of selling your merchandize long before release might be that you expect your product to be terrible.

But of course, yes, D4 might very well be terrible.

Give it to Kilometer then! Seems like he will love D4 no matter what happens :stuck_out_tongue:

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The pandemic didn’t slow Blizzard at all (HS is right on schedule). D4 public test starts Q2 2021 (after Blizzconline), and D4 releases late 2021. Delaying the game to 2022 would be a suicide for them and they know it.

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:point_up_2: :point_up_2: :point_up_2: :point_up_2: :point_up_2: :kiss: :kiss: :kiss: :kiss: :kiss: Bring it on.

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Releasing an unfinished product would also be suicide.

Blizzard used to be known for delaying a game until it was finished. If you really want them to return to their roots, then you can’t hold them to a projected deadline.

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Have they not been working on D4 for several years now? Some of the people who are with D4 also worked on D3, they said that they learned a lot. How many years should it take to make a game? I am not in the profession so I do not know. Plus they are already making marketing materials.

Shadowlands got delayed.
D4 technically cant be delayed into 2022, because that would assume it was targeting 2021, which seems quite unlikely.

For Blizzard?
5+ years.
Current Diablo 4 supposedly began development in 2016. So 2021 would be 5 years. Based on when it was announced and what they have shown, it surely doesn’t seem far along.
Then add covid-19 on top of everything.
Q2 of 2022 is the earliest I would expect the game.
One issue with second half of 2022 would be that it might collide with the next WoW expansion then. I bet they would prefer to avoid that. Might even push the game to 2023 for that reason alone.

But of course, we dont know. Blizzard can rush it, or release the game with fewer zones, without all the planned end-game etc. and make it a “Early Access” game which are seemingly popular these days. I think that would be a huge mistake though.

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Immortal was announced at Blizzcon 2018, and today is 2020 and yet we know nothing about Immortal, let’s alone release it, and Immortal is just a smartphone game that reusing the existing D3 assets.

So I don’t know why people think D4 will be released in 2021 when they can’t even release a smartphone game this year. It had been 2 years since their last announcement.

You guys not going to tell me that making a smartphone game is more difficult than making an AAA game for PC, right?

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Of course it was. The leak already revealed it.

Paladin and Amazon are next 2 classes - wait for Blizzconline to see these.

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You guys not going to tell me that making a smartphone game is more difficult than making an AAA game for PC, right?

In some ways yes it can be much more challenging considering the memory and processing capability differences.

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Mists of Pandaria released in the same year as Diablo 3… like 3 months apart. Diablo 3 expansion and Warlords released in the same year but 7 or 8 months apart. I see absolutely no reason for them to worry about it this time around. In fact I expect them to do a collectors bundle for both games like they have done giving cosmetic stuff for the other game.

Even with D4 going the MMO route - they are still totally different games that I don’t think are competing with each other.

They manage to release D3 in Switch though. I think it shouldn’t be that tough considering that the D3 graphic is kinda old and outdated. Not to mention that nowadays mid-range smartphones are powerful as well.

Immortal supposedly also started in 2016-7.

To be fair, having it developed at an external company, is likely adding lots of additional complexity and longer development time.

The same leak that had this:

Combat system will have combos. You will be able to use a combination of skills in succession to do more damage or create larger area of effect attacks. As a Barbarian you can chain pull into an enemy and then jump over them and then you have a choice of either throwing them into another demon or grabbing them and then pummeling them into the ground with your bare hands or simply stunning the target and then use an execution move to chop their head off. You can ONLY do execution moves when the enemy is near death.

and yes stat allocations are back as well.

Parts of that “leak” was correct, and I am willing to believe they had good sources. But like all such “leaks”, they end up mixing truth with made-up stuff. That release timeframe is nonsense, and was also nonsense in 2019.

4 months apart actually. That is a good timeframe. Hence why I said Q2 2022, with a WoW expansion in Q3-4. That would be similar to D3 and Pandaria.
What I dont see is D4 and WoW expansion releasing like 1-3 months apart, in the same quarter.
If they could release D4 in August and WoW in November, that is of course workable, it just drastically limits the available release window in H2 2022.

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I don’t know about that. Look at the difference between D3 vanilla when it first came out and now. No game is finished until it goes live and gets real user feedback.

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I am open to bets for D4 release date. The game comes Q1 2022 at latest.