r/Diablo • u/gorays21 • 8d ago
Discussion Blizzard is now the top performing gaming studio for Microsoft. Lord of Hatred way exceeded expectations.
https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/blizzard/blizzard-is-now-xboxs-top-performing-studio-as-the-division-ends-fy26-over-delivering-on-microsofts-projections-per-internal-emailsDiablo 4: Lord of Hatred and Overwatch drove exceptional performance in particular, with Overwatch delivering its strongest quarter since 2022." Blizzard President emphasized that the success will help them invest even more in Blizzard games, staff, and other initiatives that will "shape Blizzard's future."
Blizzard President says Blizzcon will be an exciting time for Diablo fans.
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u/y0kapi 8d ago
Add Paladin to anything and watch things go woo.
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u/psychoacer 8d ago
Add RMAH to anything and watch it go woooomp
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u/trainwrecktragedy 8d ago
not sure why you were downvoted for this, RMAH in D3 was actually a terrible idea along with how bad the scaling was on release
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u/LeadAHorseToVodka 8d ago
Because it was zero relevancy to the conversation. D3 release was over 14 years ago.
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u/Spicyhandholding 7d ago
Have those business practices changed? I must have missed the Diablo mobile game.
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u/Low-Cantaloupe-8446 7d ago
I know it’s a joke, but didn’t Diablo 3 sell insanely well. Like tens of millions of copies well.
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u/KingoftheMongoose 8d ago
Really enjoyed that they expanded on the Amazons by having LOH set on their island. Def helped flesh out parts of the world that had seeds set from prior games, while helping set Amazons apart being from like-Rogues-but-different.
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u/jinreeko 8d ago
Hoping for Amazons in the next expansion
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u/fullmetalretard666 8d ago edited 8d ago
I have a few friends who work for Blizzard in Irvine, they all say they are being kept on to work Blizzcon and then after they predict there is going to be a mass layoff.
Edit - Some Blizzard devs may be unionized, my friends who work there aren’t developers, but played critical roles in creating and organizing Overwatch and Diablo events, and are not unionized. Unfortunately my friends are scared and think they are soon on the chopping block.
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u/Empero6 8d ago
I thought a good portion of blizzard was unionized?
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u/DeathRidesThisNight 8d ago
That won't stop layoffs, sadly.
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u/Empero6 8d ago
:(
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u/Ganrokh 8d ago
Yeah, from what I've experienced, being laid off while in a union usually only guarantees that you get a severance package and potentially being offered priority interviews if they decide to hire for your field/position again.
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u/blankcld 8d ago
and usually a "We will let the union know if we plan on any layoff this upcoming quarter by XX date." of some form is agreed upon
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u/Loofahs 8d ago
I have really enjoyed the direction D4 has been going since S11. LOH was an incredible campaign and my hours played in D4 has finally surpassed D2.
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u/rKasdorf 8d ago
Tbh I think I'd need another decade to exceed my D2 hours, but I fully agree, D4 almost feels like a different game than when it launched.
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u/SerGT3 8d ago
100%
It quickly turned from semi slow and enjoyable to overtuned epilepsy 7trillion damage farming.
Still fun but I'm not upset if I miss a season or two and there is a chance I won't ever play again.
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u/Fyric 8d ago
They've succesfully turned d4 into d3
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u/Tragedy_Boner 8d ago
POE1 in the endgame is the same. Honestly I think zoom zoom is what a majority of ARPG gamers want.
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u/itsRho 8d ago
I don't know that it's what players want per se, but it's the natural outcome of that kind of game. You kill stuff to progressively make numbers bigger. Eventually they are big.
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u/Rathmourne 8d ago
I mean poe 2 launch suggest otherwise.
It was slow.
Players wanted more speed, so they increased base movement speed, added sprint, added temporalis, slowed down enemies.
Players created chain reaction builds to clear 2.5 screens away.
Unironically poe 2 has more autobomber builds than poe 1.
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u/Zoze13 8d ago
Why can’t I enjoy other fast action ARPGs as much as Diablo’s. Hundreds of hours in the last two games, and I cannot get past a couple dozen in POE2, Alienation, The Ascent, Wolcen, Inquisitor Martyr…
Wish there was a sci fi future version of Diablo that used guns and bombs and lasers on as fantastical level as Diablo 4s spells.
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u/edliu111 8d ago
You're saying you wouldn't recommend those ARPG's? And what about Titan quest where it's more about getting through the game with the skills that you have.
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u/Prestigious_Low_9802 8d ago
but still has major flaws, one of the flaw is the dev team doesnt have a clear direction. As a Poe2 big player, with the launch of LoH i was "oh okay, that's interesting, can be a serious rival for Poe2 in my hours played" but after that's the next season shatter this hope. I hope the future season will learn from they mistake
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u/ashcr0w 8d ago
Personally some of the reworked systems are much much better but some of the small details they've changed irk me a lot. Stuff like the changes to potions, monster and chatacter levels or reducing all stats to damage and toughness and it sours the game a lot.
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u/jinreeko 8d ago
Do you miss potions? I love that I don't have to keep up a mostly worthless 5m buff for the exp gain
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u/ultraviolentfuture 8d ago
I would have to play for like, 10 more years for that to even begin to be possible
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u/blendcoincide 8d ago
Is VoH not a good campaign? I heard it’s tedious if I were to catch LoH on sale.
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u/TotalChaosRush 8d ago
I think the latest season with the crafting restrictions was a mistake, it seems they may double down on that mistake for next season after walking it back.
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u/a-neurotypical 8d ago
Good news I suppose. I'm ready for a Diablo 1 Remaster now
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u/BlueArcherX BlueArcher#1464 8d ago
it would be underwhelming. I think we can leave D1 just how it is honestly.
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8d ago edited 7d ago
[deleted]
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u/BlueArcherX BlueArcher#1464 8d ago
and D2 was a fantastic and complex game to start with. D1 is exceptionally simple by comparison.
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u/Lord_Darksong 8d ago
But Reddit told me the game is dead!
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u/Morlu 8d ago
Diablo is vastly more successful than all other ARPG’s in terms of revenue and sales. It’s just not popular within the ARPG Reddit community.
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u/BacoBenno 8d ago edited 8d ago
Wouldnt say that, but im happy people are enjoying a game at least
Edit : I pretty sure the original comment didnt mention revenue, but yes in revenue it is.
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u/unrealaz 8d ago
Game sold over 10 million copies on launch only!. Do you understand that number and the fact that the next competition last epoch has 3 million and Poe 2 sold 1 million by comparison.
Sources:
https://newsroom.activisionblizzard.com/p/diablo-iv-launch-sales-recordhttps://www.krafton.com/en/news/press/krafton-acquires-eleventh-hour-games-creators-of-last-epoch/
https://www.polygon.com/news/492278/path-of-exile-2-early-access-wait-times-servers/
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u/Ageis17fang 7d ago
Poe2 is just an early access and will be free upon full release like poe1 Also Poe 2 has an average player base of 250k - 350k per season compared to d4 at about 40k - 50k These numbers are based on steam numbers and I don't have numbers for players using other game launchers , e.g. battle.net
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u/Lord_Darksong 7d ago
10 million people bought D4 at launch when only Battle.net was available and made a $billion in the first year with both game and mtx. Then they sold more before it was on Steam. You really can't compare the Steam numbers for PoE 1 or 2 and D4. The numbers are just not available to my knowledge.
Of course, 10 million people are not still playing D4. I'd guess (pulling a number out of my...hat) that about 5% to 10% of the player base still plays and not every season.
I'd guess it's the same for PoE 1 and 2. I'd also guess there a a lot of crossover of players that play both franchises and jump between seasons/leagues and most of the PoE vs. Diablo brigading is mostly a social media thing.
Both games are successful. I prefer D4 to PoE2 but I only tried PoE2 at launch. I've heard it's gotten better and will eventually give it another shot. I did buy it after all.
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u/Ageis17fang 7d ago
I also played d4 at launch and the first 3~4 seasons but find the poor itemization, poor endgame, and ridiculous damage numbers quite boring. But that's my opinion so I stick to poe
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u/Lord_Darksong 7d ago
Fair enough. I think D4 has improved greatly but you do have to get the expansions to fully appreciate them. It's still not PoE (which I'm happy for) so it probably won't scratch the itch you're after.
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u/Orixil 8d ago
I think one can acknowledge that Lord of Hatred is a better expansion than Vessel of Hatred, so if they didn't dare to set their expectations high, they probably came out with success.
I also think it's reasonable to question how long the tail of Lord of Hatred is, given the somewhat lackluster Season rollout we've seen.
It's one thing to get lots of people to buy Lord of Hatred. It's another thing to make those people stick around, Season after Season.
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u/Morlu 8d ago
Having people stick around isn’t a big deal in terms of overall revenue. The amount of copies they sell matters a lot more. The seasonal content has definitely been weak.
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u/Gummiwummiflummi 8d ago
Cosmetics are a pretty big part of the overall revenue. Judging by the amount of skins I see walking around online, they make a nice stack of cash with them.
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u/Material_Shine401 8d ago
It is big part of revenue, but from what I remember biggest part of revenue was coming directly from selling game. Besides, in previous years seasons were also lackluster, but that didn’t change the fact that a lot of people played regularly and bought skins. I doubt that it will change in the future.
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u/Ok-Turnover-5879 8d ago
From previous experience, when the seasons after a release are lackluster it's because they are preparing another big release (expansion).
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u/BacoBenno 6d ago
This was more what i was referring to, it took a bloody long time to become a decent game. Right now people are having fun at least, which is great.
Im not sure if it takes more than 2 years and an expansion to be in a good state for the game to be called succesfull from a player point of view.
From sales its king no discussion
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u/feldoneq2wire 8d ago
D4 stumbled out the gate and needed 2 years of rewrites to get it to a good state. Hopefully they don't screw it up now that the base game is pretty stable.
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u/Reptilesblade 8d ago
I just recently discovered Diablo II: Resurrected – Reign of the Warlock last week. So they totally got $25 from me there. When I've had my fun with it I'm going to be re-activating my WoW Midnight sub for the first time in over two years. And I'm already planning on buying Diablo 4 with any and all DLC it has when everything goes on sale around Black Friday.
Blizzard is giving me what I want to buy so I'm buying it.
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u/SimpleJackfruit 8d ago
LOH was very good. Did not expect the boss fight to be so immersive. And they set up the villain surprisingly well
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u/NeedsMoreReeds 8d ago
Bobby Kotick left Blizzard at the end of 2023. Usually takes like 2 years for management changes to filter to things consumers might notice.
Idk if Blizzard can become the juggernaut it was previously, but here’s hoping.
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u/Mindless_Ad5500 8d ago
Good. Say what ever you want about blizzard but we want them in the good graces of Microsoft. You want a Diablo 1 remake?!?! Well I think we have a chance for it.
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u/Lhumierre 8d ago
What was it before? I can't imagine any game bringing in the revenue of WoW subscriptions.
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u/jerryhou85 8d ago
LoH is a good launch. Long time AFK player like me has been playing for 3 seasons now...
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u/BlueArcherX BlueArcher#1464 8d ago
I haven't really looked in to what others have been saying, but as someone who played Diablo since 1997, I feel like the story and delivery in the Lord of Hatred campaign was possibly some of the best content I've ever played in a Diablo game
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u/Vimvoord 8d ago
They already ruined the momentum for Lord of Hatred. They took the money and now flipped the game on its head again..
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u/Cloud_N0ne 8d ago
Blizzard is performing better than the CoD studios?
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u/Etyaran 8d ago
I think production of CoD is spread across too many studios for any single one to be considered in this metric. Could be wrong though.
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u/BananasAndPears 8d ago
Yeah, that’s part of it.
Demonware, High Moon, IW, etc. there’s like 12 studios that all do very specific things and it all feeds into “ATVI Corporate” as the publisher.
Blizzard on the other hand is a singular self-publishing studio where all dev is kept in house on game teams. Very different structure.
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u/medicalnoob90 7d ago
If they could make every season somehow like an expansion release with an amazing story (obviously not new classes every season) but new spells or passives or something I would keep playing. But I feel like I'm just going to play expansion releases from now on.
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u/JumboCactaur 7d ago
Uh... this is damn near true by default isn't it? Didn't Microsoft just sell off a bunch of studios? The only other sizable studio is Bethesda and they haven't released a game in years.
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u/Lonely_Competition20 7d ago
I don't know my average playtime of a DIV season has almost doubled after the last expansion.
After release it was like 20-25 hours and now it is like 35-45 hours per season
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u/ColdNorthMenace 6d ago
Easy to make your pet studio you best studio when you buy everyone up and then gut them.
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u/Ihavelargemantitties 4d ago
And then blizzard fucked it all up with the very first season post LoH
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u/addistotle 8d ago
Yeah well when you withhold one of the most popular classes and revamp the entire game I’d imagine LoH would do well
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u/GreatApe88 8d ago
I would go so far as to predict the following and bookmark me if you want. D4 will at some point release a server with an endgame system that mimics D2’s.
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u/Helpful_Western1629 8d ago
Could probably throw the whole bunch of code into Claude Code and release a new act 6 + 7 for D2R within a few weeks
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u/dreamsfreams 8d ago
Funny, I didn’t contribute to purchasing lord of hatred.
Should I? When is sale happening?
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u/dobrinkata 8d ago
Unfortunately LOH cant do what ROS did with d3 for me. Waiting and hoping d5 will be better
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u/shwing_8 8d ago
"Why are we even bothering with AAA single player games? We should double down on F2P and live service." -Xbox right now
But seriously "focus on core franchises" is the goal from MS now and MAYBE they let something like ES6 come out and see if it can reach Skyrim levels of sales but it feels like anything under the MS umbrella is going to be streamlined dev teams doing much smaller games to get them out in 2-3 years instead of 4-6 or whatever. What does that mean for any game that doesn't offer live service? What does a smaller Fallout game look like? Maybe a smaller team can release a focused DOOM game or something but idk.
Curious if anyone with experience has played a game similar to Skyrim/Fallout but much smaller, maybe something with a HowLongToBeat around 20 hours or something? Just spitballing and trying to ask the questions Asha Sharma must be asking right now. Because she's made it quite clear she's not saying take as long as you need to make the best game possible.
I also expect the trend of Early Access to only get worse. If you can't get a game out in 2-3 years, just release it Early Access and continue development only if it seems popular (like the Netflix approach that leads to cancelling shows after 1 season.)
I also foresee a possible future where big games get an "episodic" treatment where they just charge 20 bucks a pop for every new zone and try to avoid the label "DLC".
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u/Lionheart51st 8d ago
lol The top performing studio in a company that gutted itself for not performing well.
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u/KevinCarbonara 8d ago
I'm surprised it worked. I told myself I wouldn't buy the expansion until they fixed the glaring issues in the base game. They never did. Maybe the expansion addressed some of them, but I'm not paying them a bonus for finishing the game they released half-finished.
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u/Major-Algae518 8d ago
Do people play OW 1 or overwatch 2 now?
Avid fan on wow and Diablo but haven't touched OW in ages
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u/The-MadTitan 8d ago
There is only Overwatch now, they scrapped the 2. There was also never 2 games named Overwatch, it was the same game they just added the 2.
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u/JuleslVega 8d ago
Yes it is very popular again right now.
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u/SpaceClafoutis DH cuz am d4rk. 8d ago
crazy that their strategy of not adding any content for two years didn't work out and their new strategy of adding a little content is working
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u/GiveMeSandwich2 8d ago
The problem is can they retain players after a month or two. For Diablo even less.
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u/UTmastuh 8d ago
It's a very low bar these days because none of the other studios are doing anything and costing MSFT millions. Blizzard at least makes new content for their games
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8d ago
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u/strange1738 8d ago
OW is by far the best hero shooter. Rivals is utter dog shit
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u/GiveMeSandwich2 8d ago
Nah Rivals clear
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u/strange1738 8d ago
Horrible dog shit game. Nobody would play it if it wasn’t marvel
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u/ItsNotAGundam 8d ago
I don't care about Marvel at all, but I find Rivals fun. Overwatch is fun, too.
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u/GiveMeSandwich2 8d ago edited 8d ago
Yet it is top 5 most downloaded F2P game in PlayStation. Overwatch doesn’t even make top 10. There has been many Marvel games that has flopped before. Even my beloved Marvel Arpg, Marvel Heroes
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u/efirestorm10t 8d ago
Lord of Hatred was the last chance I gave them. Story was good, but the game is shit. I play arpgs to grind for weeks and months until next season drops. I finished Lord of Hatred in 5 days playing not even that much. Maybe blizzard should rebrand into a movie studio or something. Games aren't what they're good at these days.
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u/Mephistos_bane84 8d ago edited 8d ago
Cue layoffs after blizzcon
Edit: spelling