BlizzCon 2018 Diablo Immortal Panel Transcript

Wyatt: Well, we are planning on adding additional classes over time. So, you know, Matthew got a vote, Chris got a vote, you have a vote. It’s kind of a three-way tie. We’ll see what happens next.

Kris: My World of Warcraft’s main is a Druid. So…

Wyatt: Oh! I see, I see why.

Wyatt: Well, you may or may not have heard.

Matthew: You want to take that one, or do you want me to take it?

Wyatt: It’s almost kind of unmovable(sp?) at one point, right? That we have multiple Diablo projects in the works. Diablo Immortal has been an idea we’ve talked about for a long time. We’ve been working with NetEase for almost 10 years. They work with Blizzard for all of our games, and we’re super excited about it.

Kris: When it’s ready. When it’s done.

Matthew: The usual answer.

Kris: Yeah! Sorry.

Wyatt: Caleb, do we have a question on the side as well? Sorry about that.

Wyatt: The trailer, actually those are in-game models, and they’re rendered cinematically, using a cinematic camera; and that is the game running on a mobile device.

Wyatt: Those particular sequences that you saw are character selection, and actually if you go play the demo, you can see them running. We have the demo running here and those same sequences are available to watch.

Wyatt: You’re welcome.

Matthew: Monk.

Wyatt: Oh, Yeah! Monk.

Wyatt: This is one for you guys.

Kris: So, definitely our plan is that all kinds of different legendary items will have their own unique look and not be part of a set. So, it’s going to depend on what legendary items you’re wearing that ultimately determines what the character looks like.

Wyatt: Yeah! Yeah! We’re still working out all of the systems. Unfortunately, we’re still too far out to be able to say for sure; but we do want there to be some nitty-gritty to dig into. Yeah! I wish I had more to say at this time.

Kris: We love customizing away, so we’ll find it somehow.

Wyatt: Yeah!

Wyatt: Yeah! The current plan is to be on mobile, both Android and iOS. We don’t have any plans at the moment to do a PC.

Wyatt: Do you guys not have a phone? Yeah! Do you guys all have phones?

Kris: You can play it on your tablet, too. Yes. It’s also on the Nintendo Switch. You’re right.

Matthew: I think it’s a little early for us to give a definite answer, but I think the best way to look at it is… this is a true Diablo experience. And we want to make sure that that’s the case. So do you have anything else you want to add on top of that?

Wyatt: No, I think that’s accurate. I mean, I think… We are looking to make sure that the game is challenging. And I think one of the nice things about Diablo is that, in many regards, there are portions of the game that are a little bit easier, and then there are portions of the game that are harder.

And I think when you look at many action RPGs, depending on your mood, you want to be able to engage with content that fits the mood that you’re in for at that time when you sit down to play. My hope would be that Diablo Immortal would reflect that flexibility and play session as well.

Matthew: Now one thing to keep in mind is, when you go play the demo, we always make sure the demo is accessible to the widest audience possible. And sometimes, it’s the first time you play this game. So it won’t represent the challenge you’re expecting, but that’s not representative of the final game in terms of the difficulty.

Wyatt: Hardcore. So… We’re excited about bringing Diablo to mobile. The reality is that, we’re not sure that mobile platform is ready for the sort of a Hardcore situation where a disconnect, or something could cause you to lose your character.

That said, we do like the high stakes nature of Hardcore. If there’s something on the line, or there’s something you can be excited about, if it’s not just… “Oh! I lost 30 seconds, or something, because I died.”

I think finding ways to make the play sessions meaningful for you to care about dying or not dying, I think we’ll look at those types of mechanics to make sure that, there’s stakes; but Hardcore itself, I think, it’s still an open question for us; but we’re not sure. It’s great that we can be on mobile and provide like a top-tier Diablo experience; but Hardcore, we’d have to wait and see.

Matthew: No, it’s a fully-fledged Diablo experience on mobile, which everybody will get to play; and hopefully, which will bring new heroes to Sanctuary, as well as welcoming our community back into it; and something we’re very excited about.

Wyatt: I should say, we’re super excited about Diablo Immortal. We brought Diablo to Consoles, PC, Xbox, PlayStation. We’re gamers. Everyone at Blizzard has gamers, we play games on all platforms, and we’re really excited about making a new Diablo game for mobile.

Matthew: And the other thing is… the other thing to keep in mind is that every time we’ve launched a new Diablo game, especially on a new, sort of on a new format, on a console– every time we’ve improved the experience, and we brought that back to all the other versions of Diablo. So when we went on console, we brought things back on PC, we then improve both of them.

The world of Diablo is vibrant. This is one of the best times to be part of this community, and I think the future is… while not bright, because Sanctuary is bleak, the future for you is going to be awesome.

Wyatt: Alright. We have time for about one or two more questions.

Matthew: No, we have time for one question. One that will be fast.

Matthew: We’re always trying to reach a new audience. We always want more people to join the Blizzard community. We want more people to come to BlizzCon. More people to play Diablo, and this is a great opportunity for that. And we’re very excited about it.

Kris: Play Diablo anytime, anywhere, with anyone. Sounds pretty awesome to me.

Wyatt: I would say that our mobile phones are actually super powerful supercomputers. I think we treat them for social media and text messaging, but they can do so much more than that. If you look at the technical specs on a mobile phone today, and compare it to supercomputers from just five years ago, like we’re walking around with full-fledged gaming devices in our pocket; and we want to make a full-fledged game for mobile.

Matthew: Alright. So, unfortunately, we are running out of time; but we have another panel tomorrow. When is it Wyatt?

Matthew: It’s at 5:45 tomorrow. You can join Matthew and I here on the Mythic Stage. We’ll talk more about Diablo Immortal, the world, the story, the history leading up to the events — since this game does take place in between Diablo II and Diablo III.

Matthew: Okay. But this is deceptive, because it’s missing something. What else are you going to be talking about during that panel?

Wyatt: Is it the characters?

Matthew: Yeah!

Wyatt: Oh, and some skills.

Matthew: And some skills, and some new skills, right?

Wyatt: Okay, alright, alright, yeah! More, you’ll have more.

Kris: You’ve promised the Countess. Yea!

Wyatt: Alright, thank you very much everybody, and have an epic BlizzCon.