Development

1:54 Diablo 4 was developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment, which has belonged to Microsoft since Microsoft completed its purchase of Activision Blizzard on Oct 13, 2023. Blizzard revealed the game at BlizzCon on Nov 1, 2019, delayed it out of 2022 after its first director left, and launched it on Jun 6, 2023 under game director Joe Shely and Diablo franchise head Rod Fergusson; two expansions followed, Vessel of Hatred (Oct 8, 2024) and Lord of Hatred (Apr 28, 2026). Brent Gibson, now senior game director, said at BlizzCon 2026 that no more expansions are currently planned and that the team is "all focused on [Diablo 4] seasons and getting to Diablo 5". On the Diablo 5 panel that weekend, Diablo's senior art director John Mueller recalled that the last time he shared a BlizzCon stage with production director Tiffany Wat was "way back in 2019 when we announced Diablo 4", and said the team is now "hard at work on Diablo 5". How the launch and each release went is on Release History.

Quick facts

Before the reveal

Diablo 4 is the fourth main game of the series, following Diablo 3 and its expansion Reaper of Souls. Its story is set fifty years after Reaper of Souls (Story). An earlier Diablo 4 concept, codenamed "Hades" and led by Josh Mosqueira, was canceled after he left Blizzard in 2016, according to Jason Schreier's book Play Nice (Oct 2024); Blizzard has not confirmed the details, and this viki has not read the book.

The 2019 reveal and the delay

Blizzard announced Diablo 4 at the BlizzCon 2019 opening ceremony on Nov 1, 2019, with the cinematic "By Three They Come" and a gameplay trailer. Two years later the project lost its leader: game director Luis Barriga and lead level designer Jesse McCree left Blizzard in Aug 2021, after California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued Activision Blizzard (Polygon, Aug 11, 2021). Design lead Joe Shely was promoted to game director (Game Informer, Oct 8, 2021), and on Nov 3, 2021 Blizzard said Diablo 4 would not come out in 2022 (Ars Technica). At the Xbox Games Showcase on Jun 12, 2022, Blizzard gave a 2023 window and revealed the Necromancer as the fifth class, with cross-play and cross-progression. The Jun 6, 2023 date was announced at The Game Awards on Dec 8, 2022. Before launch, the Washington Post reported fears of crunch to meet that date (as summarized by Polygon, Dec 9, 2022).

Launch and the live service plan

Diablo 4 launched on Jun 6, 2023, after two beta weekends in Mar 2023 and a "Server Slam" in May, on PC, PlayStation 5 and 4, and Xbox Series X|S and One; Steam followed on Oct 17, 2023 and Nintendo Switch 2 on Sep 15, 2026. Rod Fergusson, who had joined Blizzard in early 2020 to run the Diablo franchise, described the plan as "quarterly seasons" and "annual expansions" (Kotaku, Sep 13, 2026). Seasons came roughly every three months from Jul 20, 2023 (Seasons), but the expansions came two years apart. The first season taught the team a lesson: patch 1.1.0, released two days before Season 1, cut player power broadly, and Blizzard's Campfire Chat of Jul 21, 2023 admitted "it feels bad to take away power" and promised "a more surgical approach" (Reception).

6:48 The team kept rebuilding the game's systems around player complaints. Season 4: Loot Reborn (May 14, 2024) overhauled items; Vessel of Hatred replaced World Tiers with Torment difficulties and raised the level cap to 60; Lord of Hatred raised it to 70 and rebuilt every class's skill tree for all players. "We've seen the joke that they're more like skill twigs. That ends here," Blizzard said when it presented the new trees at the Feb 11, 2026 Spotlight, shown in GameSpot's gameplay overview.

24:03 On the What's Next panel at BlizzCon 2026, the host praised how responsive the team had been since Lord of Hatred's launch, with changes to Mythic items "week after week", and the developers answered that "it's really important for us to listen to the community and be responsive", thanking players for their feedback.

Microsoft, Fergusson and the union

Microsoft completed its purchase of Activision Blizzard, about $69 billion, on Oct 13, 2023. Microsoft's cuts of Jan 2024, about 1,900 gaming jobs, fell mostly on Activision Blizzard; no direct cuts to the Diablo 4 team were reported. Under Microsoft the game reached Xbox Game Pass on Mar 28, 2024, the first Battle.net game there (Game Pass). Rod Fergusson announced on Aug 8, 2025 that he was leaving: "After five years of driving the Diablo franchise forward with four big launches, it's time for me to step away from Blizzard/Microsoft, sword in hand, and see what's next" (TechRadar, Aug 12, 2025). No successor had been announced as of Oct 21, 2026. The same month, over 450 Diablo team workers unionized with the Communications Workers of America and Microsoft recognized the union; producer Kelly Yeo said "no amount of hard work is enough to protect us" (Shacknews, Aug 28, 2025).

The people

Blizzard's own credits over time:

0:12 Joe Shely moved on with the series: in IGN's interview at BlizzCon 2026 he introduces himself as "the senior game director" on Diablo 5, alongside narrative director Jennifer Hepler and senior production director Tiffany Wat, and says Diablo 4 remains "fully supported by the team". Diablo 5 has its own viki (Diablo 5).

44:31 It was still Shely who announced the Switch 2 port at the BlizzCon 2026 opening ceremony: "the Age of Hatred Collection is coming to Nintendo Switch 2 on September 15th alongside the Season of Hell's Legacy" (Platforms and Crossplay).

Engine and technology

Diablo 4 runs on Blizzard's own in-house engine; Blizzard has not published a name for it, so this viki names none. The game is always online on every platform, with a shared open world, cross-play and cross-progression. Ray-traced shadows and reflections came in patch 1.3.5 (Mar 2024) and native DLSS 4 with Multi Frame Generation in patch 2.3.0 (Jul 1, 2025). Hardware needs are on PC Requirements.

Roadmaps and collaborations

Blizzard's 2025 roadmap (Apr 8, 2025) listed Belial's Return, Sins of the Horadrim and Season of Infernal Chaos, console keyboard and mouse support, two IP collaborations and the second expansion in 2026; no separate 2026 roadmap post was published, and plans came instead at the Feb 11, 2026 Spotlight, the Lord of Hatred streams and BlizzCon. Collaborations so far: World of Warcraft (Dec 17, 2024 to Jan 7, 2025), Berserk (from May 6, 2025), StarCraft (from Sep 26, 2025), DOOM: The Dark Ages (from Mar 12, 2026), Overwatch (from Jun 30, 2026) and The Witcher 3 (a Geralt skin tied to its Battle.net release on Sep 29, 2026).

No more expansions, and the road to Diablo 5

28:33 Lord of Hatred is planned as the last expansion. At BlizzCon 2026 Brent Gibson told PC Gamer: "We're all focused on [Diablo 4] seasons and getting to Diablo 5", "We feel like we told the Story of Hatred ... and we are moving towards telling the Story of Terror", and "We're continuing to support the game for a very long time." No more expansions are "currently planned" (PC Gamer, Sep 12, 2026), and GameSpot noted that Diablo 4 is already the only Diablo game with more than one expansion. Asked about the future on the What's Next panel, the team named its priorities "moving forward": "build novelty" through seasonal itemization such as new equipment modifiers and Horadric Cube recipes, then the endgame, with War Plans playlist customization and more seasonal variety. The Amazon follows as a paid Class Pack in the first half of 2027 (Amazon).

29:55 The last priority is a "season arc", a story told across seasons now that Lord of Hatred is done: a death cult found in Season of Death Awakening opens ruptures to Pandemonium, the dead come back to life in Season of Hell's Legacy, and over "the next year leading up to the release of the Amazon" players will confront the cult "and ultimately confront the aspect of death". Season 16 is confirmed but has no date (Season 16).

2:23 Diablo 5, revealed for Spring 2029, was set a century later on purpose. Its developers told IGN they "jumped a hundred years ahead to tell that story" so that Diablo 4 "has lots of space to continue their story" while they work. Gibson put it the same way to PC Gamer: "The events of Diablo 5 happen 100 years after everything that's happening with Diablo 4." Blizzard and Netflix are also developing an animated Diablo series, announced Sep 12, 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Who made Diablo 4? Diablo 4 was developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment, which has been part of Microsoft since Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard on Oct 13, 2023.

Who is the director of Diablo 4? Brent Gibson is Diablo 4's senior game director, as Blizzard titled him in Sep 2026. Joe Shely was game director at the Jun 6, 2023 launch and now leads Diablo 5.

What engine does Diablo 4 use? Diablo 4 runs on Blizzard's own in-house engine; Blizzard has not published a name for it.

Will there be more Diablo 4 expansions? Blizzard says no more Diablo 4 expansions are currently planned (Brent Gibson, Sep 2026); the team is focused on seasons, the Amazon Class Pack in the first half of 2027, and Diablo 5.

When was Diablo 4 announced? Diablo 4 was announced at BlizzCon on Nov 1, 2019, with the cinematic "By Three They Come", and released on Jun 6, 2023.

Why was Diablo 4 delayed? Blizzard said on Nov 3, 2021 that Diablo 4 would not release in 2022, months after game director Luis Barriga left the company; Joe Shely took over and the game launched on Jun 6, 2023.

Is Rod Fergusson still at Blizzard? No. Rod Fergusson, who ran the Diablo franchise from early 2020, announced on Aug 8, 2025 that he was leaving Blizzard, and no successor had been named as of Oct 21, 2026.

Sources

• Microsoft seals $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, The Daily Beast, Oct 13, 2023
• Diablo IV, OpenCritic (video list with the BlizzCon 2019 reveal), read Oct 20, 2026
• Diablo 4 game director Luis Barriga, Jesse McCree leave Blizzard, Polygon, Aug 11, 2021
• Diablo 4 design lead Joe Shely promoted to game director, Game Informer, Oct 8, 2021
• Blizzard delays Diablo IV, Overwatch 2 amid exec departure, Ars Technica, Nov 3, 2021
• All Hell Breaks Loose in 2023: Diablo IV is Coming, Blizzard, Jun 12, 2022
• Diablo 4 release date, pre-order bonus and trailer, Polygon, Dec 9, 2022
• Catch Up on the Season of the Malignant Campfire Chat, Blizzard, Jul 21, 2023
• Diablo franchise boss Rod Fergusson is leaving Blizzard after 5 years, TechRadar, Aug 12, 2025
• Over 450 Diablo team employees unionize with CWA, Shacknews, Aug 28, 2025
• Microsoft lays off 1,900 Activision Blizzard and Xbox employees, MobileSyrup, Jan 25, 2024
• The Age of Hatred Persists: Diablo IV 2025 Roadmap, Blizzard, Apr 8, 2025
• See What Was Revealed at gamescom Opening Night Live, Blizzard, Aug 20, 2024
• Diablo IV: What's Next Panel Recap, Blizzard, Sep 13, 2026
• No more Diablo 4 expansions are planned, but there's a lot of room for more storytelling in the leadup to Diablo 5, PC Gamer, Sep 12, 2026
• Diablo 4 annual expansions are done as Blizzard focuses on seasonal stories leading up to Diablo 5, Kotaku, Sep 13, 2026
• Diablo 4's Expansion Days Are Over, GameSpot, Sep 13, 2026
• Everything Announced at BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony, Blizzard, Sep 12, 2026
• Purge the Sins of the Horadrim, Blizzard, Jun 2025
• Diablo V | Forging the Next Era Panel | BlizzCon 2026, Diablo, Sep 13, 2026 (video)
• Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred Gameplay Overview, GameSpot, Feb 11, 2026 (video)
• Diablo IV | What's Next Panel | BlizzCon 2026, Diablo, Sep 13, 2026 (video)
• Diablo 5 To Launch With More Classes Than Any Other in the Franchise, IGN, Sep 13, 2026 (video)
• BlizzCon 2026 | Opening Ceremony, Blizzard Entertainment, Sep 13, 2026 (video)