Lots of Protests That Even the Inevitable Diablo 4 Announcement Won’t Quell
The one sure thing that will happen at Blizzcon 2019, if nothing else, is that Diablo 4 will be revealed. Hell, I thought it was a sure thing last year, but Blizzard first wanted to see if we all had phones apparently.
I don’t even know if it’s ready to be shown or what kind of state it’s in. There’s absolutely no way though, after everything that happened in this crappy year for Blizzard, that they would elect not to show off Diablo 4 in some capacity.
I could totally envision a scenario where they actually have more to show of Overwatch (more on that below) and Diablo 4 gets regulated to a teaser that caps off the main presentation, but it will get announced. It’s important that it does.
Whatever is shown for Overwatch is no guarantee to go over well with fans. The one potential layup of good will that Blizzard has in its back pocket is the Diablo franchise.
While Diablo 3 had a rough start, it ended up in a pretty good place; even if it’s not as beloved as Diablo 2. Blizzard had a lot of time to gain feedback from fans with the development of Diablo 3 and there’s no good reason for Blizzard not to show up with something great for Diablo fans at Blizzcon 2019.
Still even with Diablo 4 and maybe even a Diablo 2 Remastered, both of which have been rumored (and requested) for what feels like forever, it’s probably not going to be enough to stop both legitimate heartfelt protests in support of Hong Kong and trolling from disgruntled fans both live at Blizzcon 2019 and in Twitch chats.
Blizzard is in a tricky spot because if they actively try to ban or cover up the protests it will likely only upset fans even more, and probably prolong the controversy even past Blizzcon 2019.
What will probably happen is that they will address and acknowledge it live on stage at some point, and go as far with an apology as they think they can get away with without going too far and upsetting China.
