A report citing multiple in-house sources and former employees details that Blizzard is having trouble meeting another deadline for the upcoming Diablo 4. The company has been working on the newest iteration of the legendary action game for years and hopes to release it to the public in 2023. However, it seems that the company might struggle to finish Diablo 4 in time for the current launch schedule.
Diablo 4 is Blizzard's upcoming action-adventure game that continues the dark saga in the world of Sanctuary. The predecessor and the series' most popular title, Diablo 3, was released in 2012. After working on the title for years, Blizzard announced Diablo 4 at BlizzCon 2019. Since the disappointment of the mobile game Diablo Immortal from the perspective of PC and console gamers, a lot is at stake when Diablo 4 releases and is seemingly raising the pressure on the company.
Company employees have come forwards, anonymously, and reported to The Washington Post that the leaked release date is going to require a "crunch" from the Diablo 4 teams. Blizzard has asked employees to work overtime leading up to the launch. According to the sources, a timely launch is either going to require a lot of extra hours from the workforce or cutting off certain features. Some estimated that even with the crunch a launch in early June might not be attainable. The interviewed employees also told The Washington Post that the payment for overtime was not adequate, although no actual figures were revealed.
Blizzard responded that Diablo 4 development is going well, although during the iterative process things are bound to change. There's no game-wide crunch either, at least not yet. According to Blizzard Entertainment spokesperson Andrew Reynolds, specific teams have been offered overtime, and it is entirely voluntary. The company offers benefits to employees that take on a harsher schedule. The employees that work more than 10 hours receive a daily $25 DoorDash credit, and the company has also offered double-performance stocks.
Blizzard hasn't officially announced the release date, so the alleged early June launch might still change. This wouldn't be the first time Blizzard has had to postpone the Diablo 4 launch. Roughly a year ago, Blizzard had to announce the inevitable delay for Diablo 4. This moved the release window from 2022 to 2023. To make it more stressful for Blizzard, the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft is estimated to conclude around the same time. That is if it goes through with the antitrust regulators.
Diablo 4 will launch in 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Washington Post