The next installment in Activision Blizzard’s Diablo series has been postponed until sometime during the first half of 2022 so that developers can have more time to tinker with the game.
First announced at BlizzCon in 2018, the free-to-play RPG Diablo Immortal was slated for release later this year, but a recent blog post on Activision’s website said that developers would be working on fine tuning certain features of the game after receiving feedback from its closed test participants.
Activison explained that in its updates, developers would be “iterating on PvP [Player vs. Player] content like the Cycle of Strife to make it more accessible” as well as “late-game PvE [Player vs. Environment] content like the Helliquary to make it more engaging.” These improvements will optimize challenges and reward mechanisms in the game via adjustments to the Bounties system when players complete challenges.
Designed for mobile devices, the second take on the game will also address adapting gameplay from a touch screen to a controller, offering support for those who opt for the latter option.
The test group also brought up the possibility of a “a system to discourage playing the game for a potentially unhealthy number of hours per week” in the form of a cap on how much XP a player can rack up weekly, which Activision is tinkering with to “make the system less harsh” on those who reach the cap early on and more generous to those trying to catch up. The game will offer bonus XP to those who play less often and, rather than a weekly cap, will have a global XP cap that increases over time.
In other gaming news, Netflix has hired a former EA executive to lead its gaming venture.
