Diablo 4 Announced At BlizzCon With Gameplay And Cinematic Trailers

Blizzard kicked off BlizzCon 2019 with a big reveal: Diablo IV. The next installment in the beloved dungeon crawler series is in development for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and it looks to embrace the franchise's darker origins. More details are expected during an ongoing panel focused on Diablo IV, but we already know quite a bit about the basics.

The reveal came by way of an extended cinematic trailer, which set the tone for the game's more horrific atmosphere. Game director Luis Barriga took the stage following the trailer to shed more light on the title. Barriga summed up Diablo IV in three words: darkness, world, and legacy.

"The first thing you will notice is we are going back to the franchise's darker roots," Barriga said. "It'll mean blood and gore. It'll mean occult symbols and rituals. More importantly, it'll mean victories are neither clean nor guaranteed."

The world of Diablo will also be more fleshed out in IV. "We've only seen glimpses into Sanctuary in previous Diablo games, but those glimpses have enthralled us and captured our imaginations," Barriga said. "With Diablo IV, we want to put the world of Sanctuary front and center. We want every character, every monster, every faction to have a sense of place."

Sanctuary is more than just a backdrop in Diablo IV. "The world is also how you'll experience most of our game. It is there you'll find enemy camps and friendly towns alike. It is also where you'll find players to interact with them, whether it's to trade with them, group with them, or--should you choose to do so--murder each other in PvP zones."

Barriga then shared the first gameplay trailer for Diablo IV. The game looks reminiscent of Diablo II, with an isometric perspective and more realistic art style than Diablo III. Three classes have been confirmed thus far: Sorceress (relies on fire, ice, and lightning magic in long-range combat); Barbarian (relies on swords, clubs, and axes in close-range combat); and Druid (relies on lightning, wind, and transformation magic in mid-range combat).

Diablo IV was actually leaked ahead of its BlizzCon 2019 announcement. German magazine GameStar published an advertisement for The Art of Diablo, a book that includes over 500 pieces of artwork from the franchise. The advertisement shows that the book includes art from Diablo, Diablo II, Diablo III, and Diablo IV--revealing the existence of the fourth game weeks ahead of Blizzard's official announcement. Then, the day before BlizzCon, Reddit user PracticalBrush12--who has a track history for reliably leaking Diablo content--released most of Diablo IV's details.

A June 2019 report stated that Blizzard cancelled a Starcraft first-person shooter in order to focus on developing Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2, the latter of which is rumored to be announced at BlizzCon 2019. Blizzard has not confirmed whether the report is true.

Last year, fans speculated Diablo IV would be announced at BlizzCon 2018. That ended up not being the case, and Blizzard instead revealed it had been working on a Diablo Immortal, a mobile game.