Tomas Hernandez is owner of Blizzplanet.com since 2003. I post news about World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, Hearthstone, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard Careers, and the Warcraft film.
Blizzplanet is a leading fansite covering news about upcoming Blizzard Entertainment licensed products. I also post previews and reviews. I have interviewed book writers and Blizzard game developers.
I was previously an employee of the OGaming Network (2003), and IncGamers (2008-2010). I was a guest newsposter for GosuGamers (World of Warcraft) a few years ago and for Diablofans.com (formerly Diablo3.com)
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Blizzard Entertainment posted today the Diablo 4 Quarterly Update. They have more or less completed a team playtest of the Dry Steppes zone internally, from home. The best highlight is the mention of a PvP subzone.
This is a very comprehensive update covering several aspects of the game:
Team Playtest
A word about Blockout
Storytelling
Open World
Multiplayer
Items and Progression
The press newsletter fleshes it out much better:
A new look at one of the five regions of Sanctuary: The Dry Steppes!
Open World will play a big role in Diablo IV and Camps are no exception. The team shares a look at how these important locations that are overrun by enemies can be conquered by players. Once cleansed, camps become outposts with friendly NPCs and a waypoint location.
A new peek at some in-game cinematics for Dry Steppes experience.
The team’s philosophy on Multiplayer in the Open World and how to ensure that the world of Sanctuary in Diablo IV always feels dangerous.
While there are no plans to announce Alpha or Beta testing, it is absolutely incredible to have this amount of transparency from the Diablo 4 team discussing pre-Alpha playtest and current development so early.
Better yet, wanting feedback as they move from milestone to milestone. This tops the Heroes of the Storm early development transparency and feedback harvesting of years ago. Me like that.
It is not yet official — at least at the moment of this posting — whether Diablo II: Resurrected is being developed by Vicarious Visions, but the leak and rumors are certainly catching attention from fans.
Whatever Blizzard Entertainment is doing with Diablo II it cannot be classified as a Diablo II: Remastered game.
That there cannot exist a Diablo II: Remastered is interpreted from what the founders of Diablo revealed at the ExileCon 2019. The panel moderator asked about any nightmarish stories they could recall during development of Diablo.
Just a few hours ago, Destiny 2 developers revealed there won’t be a Destiny 3. They laid out a 3-year plan for Destiny 2.
“We don’t believe a sequel is the right direction for the game.”
Current owners of Destiny 2 (PC/Mac/PS4/Xbox One) will be able to download the game free on PS5 and Xbox Series X. This means Destiny 2 is a defacto cross-platform one-time-purchase. You only need to buy one copy and you get access to the game in any platform.
Blizzard Entertainment deployed a new Diablo III PTR 2.6.9 build with changes based off feedback. Players complained it was difficult to read when Seasonal effects happen. The developers have decreased its effects from every 120 seconds to 90 seconds, and added a buff icon to provide better readability.
The new Demon Hunter set (Gears of Dreadlands) has been tweaked too. Thanks, Corey.
Diablo II: Resurrected is not a confirmed game in development, but we have seen a few breadcrumbs pointing toward it.
There is a new job opening that feels different in terms of the wording used to describe the tasks or requirements.
The Classic Games team encompasses all these games:
StarCraft: Remastered
Warcraft III: Reforged
StarCraft II
Heroes of the Storm
The new job opening for a Senior Technical Artist, Characters was posted somewhere around May 27, 2020 (6 days ago).
UPDATE (June 29): This speculation has been proven incorrect. As of June 29 (or earlier), this job opening has been placed under the Diablo III category. Read more.
Blizzard Careers had removed the DIABLO IMMORTAL jobs category and most of the Diablo Immortal job openings a few months ago, except for the Senior Product Manager postion that was listed under the MOBILE category.
Today, the DIABLO IMMORTAL jobs category appeared out of the blue again. There is a Senior UX Designer job opening posted there without text — which means it might be work in progress.
I’ll updated as soon as anything changes either way. Follow @blizzplanetcom for updates.
Note: To understand what a User Experience Designer does, I usually refer people who ask me what that is to this article written by an EA DICE Senior UX designer.
