blizzcon Possible Leaks: Overwatch 2, Diablo 4 and Diablo 2 Remastered to Be Announced at BlizzCon?

[Starym 3,800]

 

We have a couple of weeks left until BlizzCon and the leaks and rumors have been heating up, with today's having at least a hint of credibility. It comes from streamer Metro_ow, and he's claiming to have a source that has given him a lot of info on the announcements and some game specifics for Overwatch 2 as well.

Why should he be considered credible? He's already leaked a number of things about Ashe from last year's BlizzCon, around a week before the actual reveal, with the info coming from the same source - "someone tied directly to a Blizzard dev". Now, obviously that doesn't mean his leaks are real this time around, but it at least separates him from the pack. But what exactly is he leaking?

Overwatch 2

Early concept art for Overwatch 1. Will we see some of the unused Heroes above appear in No. 2?

The name itself will indeed be just Overwatch 2, will have a cinematic announcing it and will be a fully featured PvE and PvP game. It will also have a leveling system that will affect and change Heroes abilities (for example Tracer will be able to augment her Pulse Bomb to stick multiple enemies after a certain level), but it's unclear if this system is for PvE only or PVP as well. Here are some more details straight from the source:

The cinematic will feature alot of heroes, main ones being mei, tracer and winston with young genji appearing. Overwatch logo will appear, then the 2 is gonna be added at the very end. Crowd goes wild, Jeff gets on stage. (dont actually know about when Jeff will show up)

— Metro (@Metro_OW) October 18, 2019

Diablo 4 and Diablo 2 Remastered

The Diablo leaks are significantly less concrete, with only this pretty off-hand tweet mentioning them:

For anyone who cares, diablo 4 and diablo 2 remastered will also be announced. ? #BlizzCon2019

— Metro (@Metro_OW) October 18, 2019

We did hear rumors/leaks of a Diablo 4 announcement last year as well, and those turned out to be... complicated, as they were either untrue or Blizzard decided to pull the announcement at the last minute, depending on who you believe. It seems very plausible we do get an announcement this year though, at the very least a logo or cinematic tease, especially after last year's less-than-warm reception for Diablo: Immortal. As far as the remaster goes, it's been rumored to be in development for quite some time now, so it also wouldn't be surprising to see it pop up now, and it would certainly be very welcome. Perhaps WoW Classic's success has put it on the front burner?

 

And finally, here's Metro himself giving his "credentials":

If you are not convinced about teh twitter posts from a year back you can even go back 12 months in my twitch clips to see me talk about all of ashes abilities a week before blizzcon. I have no reason to doubt my source after last year, if I'm still wrong *filtered* me I guess. ?

— Metro (@Metro_OW) October 18, 2019

 

Source: r/Overwatch.

[durdyenglish 298]

I wouldn't doubt this being true or it being a semi-intentional leak - Blizzard probably wants to build some good will hype before Blizzcon.

[dartbodman 64]

Diablo 2 remastered? Yes please. Hope it's not a mobile game

[Kuarinofu 78]

Diablo 4 

 

[Kurosu 58]

What a coincidence, right after the china fiasco!

Whats more , do you honestly think they would develop diablo 4 , when diablo mobile isnt even released yet? 

Just fake news in order to restore blizzard's image. Good luck with that.

[Aegrotat 80]

10 minutes ago, Kurosu said:

What a coincidence, right after the china fiasco!

Whats more , do you honestly think they would develop diablo 4 , when diablo mobile isnt even released yet? 

Just fake news in order to restore blizzard's image. Good luck with that.

While I'm not saying these aren't to try and restore their image, Diablo 4 and mobile have nothing to do with eachother. they wouldn't at all be the same team and it's not like they can't announce diablo 4 until mobile is out. Bethesda announced ES6 the same day they announced their crappy mobile game.

I'm also not sure if "there are going to be some things at blizzcon which is coming up really soon" is necessarily to do with China, considering these leaks come out every year.

[CaperfinWoW 21]

Diablo 2 remastered is the most likely out of the bunch.

[Twych 24]

Overwatch 2? Mei in the trailer? With considering recent events...I'm thinking they wanna rethink.

[Kurosu 58]

4 hours ago, Aegrotat said:

While I'm not saying these aren't to try and restore their image, Diablo 4 and mobile have nothing to do with eachother. they wouldn't at all be the same team and it's not like they can't announce diablo 4 until mobile is out. Bethesda announced ES6 the same day they announced their crappy mobile game.

I'm also not sure if "there are going to be some things at blizzcon which is coming up really soon" is necessarily to do with China, considering these leaks come out every year.

You just replied to yourself. When bethesda announced their mobile game they announced ES6 ( like it needed announcement) at the SAME TIME. Blizzard announced diablo mobile and hasnt made any diablo 4 mentions at all since then. Now ofc its likely they will announce it but we will all know why.

[Basque 4]

Does anyone commenting actually check what's up outside of icy-veins? For one d4 has been in the make for a while and d2 remake is most likely next from the team that does remakes/keeps up the older games, this is coming from people like Asmongold who have the better insider information too, it's just they only hint at what they know, to protect the people that leak to them at all costs. 

Get over the china stuff, you say that and are most likely played Legends of Runeterra, which is a Riot game and they are owned 100% by a Chinese company, Tencent. Where as Blizzard Activision only has a 5% steak from them... 

 

[VictorVakaras 83]

6 hours ago, Kurosu said:

What a coincidence, right after the china fiasco!

Whats more , do you honestly think they would develop diablo 4 , when diablo mobile isnt even released yet? 

Just fake news in order to restore blizzard's image. Good luck with that.

Diablo Immortal is being developed by a different company, not sure how that would have any bearing on if and when they develop Diablo 4. 

Edited October 20, 2019 by VictorVakaras

[iThinkiWin 0]

NetEase long since finished it's role in creating the engine for diablo immortal.

https://blizzardwatch.com/2019/03/01/netease-says-diablo-immortal-finished-dont-release-date/

It's all on blizzard currently.

[Trinkles 0]

10 hours ago, Kurosu said:

What a coincidence, right after the china fiasco!

Whats more , do you honestly think they would develop diablo 4 , when diablo mobile isnt even released yet? 

Just fake news in order to restore blizzard's image. Good luck with that.

Yes? It's not Blizzard who's actually developing Diablo immortal, you know this right?

[Pantalaimon 0]

Meh, this looks too good, probably a fake.

[Ohmybadness 5]

my question is with the success of overwatch and It's league in general, why would they announce overwatch 2 so soon and split the player base? granted we don't know what ow2 actually is but its a genuine question in my opinion.

Edited October 20, 2019 by Ohmybadness

[Arcling 898]

38 minutes ago, Ohmybadness said:

my question is with the success of overwatch and It's league in general, why would they announce overwatch 2 so soon and split the player base? granted we don't know what ow2 actually is but its a genuine question in my opinion.

Fair point, that's why most of those leaks are doubtful. Separate game would drive people away from the main one, I don't think they want that, as it also draws attention away from e-sports scene (and they've invested a lot into it). Possibly, it's a working title, so perhaps it turns out to be a larger content patch/expansion? Kinda like "HotS 2.0" update.

 

7 hours ago, Kurosu said:

Blizzard announced diablo mobile and hasnt made any diablo 4 mentions at all since then. Now ofc its likely they will announce it but we will all know why.

Yes, there has been no official mention of number 4 anywhere, which doesn't make sense to keep it a secret at this point, if it's true (in fact, it would have helped them to just mention "4" to alleviate the Immortal fiasco a bit). Some have speculated that it's a "Diablo with subtitle", we will know pretty soon anyway.

Edited October 20, 2019 by Arcling

[Starym 3,800]

Overwatch 2 wouldnt come out for a couple of years so your claim that it's less likely is somewhat weird. Ofc the OW community would move over to OW2, especially the PvP players and if they added PvE they'd go for that Destiny/Borderlands crowd (depening on whether it would have item drops). Remember how OW is actually Titan, the old MMO? Well this would just be adding more of those old features back into the game and moving it back to what it originally was.

 

And about Diablo 4 OF COURSE they're making it and have been making it for years now. Blizzard never mention anything until it's ready to announce officially, with this year being the possible exception if they really had to restart development same as they did with 3. I'm sure they'll say something about, like you say even a number and logo, but that's mostly due to the fiasco from last year.

[Arcling 898]

34 minutes ago, Starym said:

Remember how OW is actually Titan, the old MMO? Well this would just be adding more of those old features back into the game and moving it back to what it originally was.

Well, previous "leaks" referred to it as pve game, without pvp. It's not as easy as it sounds. It would mean remaking them, not a simple copy/paste from cancelled game. Overwatch is a very different game from what Titan was supposed to be, so it's not accurate to say that is the same. Also, pvp is a mess to balance, restarting and changing it would split the community, even many pros wouldn't be happy (possibly like with SC1 and 2 split, but on a larger scale).

More importantly, it goes against their live service direction, to keep expanding on a game, rather than making a sequels in typical way (like Ow was supposed to be alive for years, like LoL for example). But again, we could all be wrong about it.

34 minutes ago, Starym said:

Blizzard never mention anything until it's ready to announce officially

Perhaps it's for the best to change it, and make even a small teasers like many others do. Because doing it like usual had worked for them so well last year...

Edited October 20, 2019 by Arcling

[Starym 3,800]

3 minutes ago, Arcling said:

Well, previous "leaks" referred to it as pve game, without pvp. It's not as easy as it sounds. It would mean remaking them, not a simple copy/paste from cancelled game. Overwatch is a very different game from what Titan was supposed to be, so it's not accurate to say that is the same. Also, pvp is a mess to balance, restarting and changing it would split the community, even many pros wouldn't be happy (possibly like with SC1 and 2 split, but on a larger scale).

Perhaps it's for the best to change it, and make even a small teasers like many others do. Because doing it like usual had worked for them so well last year...

Have to disagree on the OW2 thing. They'll just use the exact same PvP with some improvements, they wont change it up too much. And the PvE is a relatively easy addition since the core of the game is Titan, the reason they didnt put it in OW1 is cos they would have needed like a year or two more (aka exactly this amount of time to now) and they wanted it out to salvage something from Titan.

Now they MIGHT go the Destiny route and have PvE impact PvP but i highly doubt it. PvP stays the same and PvE is added on. Same engine improved gfx etc. The entire OW community has been crying for a proper PvE and story mode for a long time now.

[Arcling 898]

1 minute ago, Starym said:

Have to disagree on the OW2 thing. They'll just use the exact same PvP with some improvements, they wont change it up too much. And the PvE is a relatively easy addition since the core of the game is Titan, the reason they didnt put it in OW1 is cos they would have needed like a year or two more (aka exactly this amount of time to now) and they wanted it out to salvage something from Titan.

Now they MIGHT go the Destiny route and have PvE impact PvP but i highly doubt it. PvP stays the same and PvE is added on. Same engine improved gfx etc. The entire OW community has been crying for a proper PvE and story mode for a long time now.

But then they wouldn't need a new game, just an update to existing one ("live service"). Games can drastically change during development, so it's not really a Titan anymore. You can't design and optimise team-based shooter in the same way you would do with a crowded MMO. "Pulling something out", well that's not how it works (many developers would wish it was that easy to reuse stuff), that game got scrapped. Of course, we don't have detailed insight, so your guess is as good as mine.

By balancing, I meant whether they will try staying faithful with characters in a new pvp mode/game or if they will try to shake things up (like with returning units from SC1 in SC2, but with different abilities, stats etc.). That could have been a very divisive issue among players, not to mention the already uncertain future of their e-sports. Regardless, it's rather interesting if it turns out completely true, because it would mean that they are (at least partially) abandoning their "live service" model (short service? ?).

[Starym 3,800]

5 minutes ago, Arcling said:

But then they wouldn't need a new game, just an update to existing one ("live service"). Games can drastically change during development, so it's not really a Titan anymore. You can't design and optimise team-based shooter in the same way you would do with a crowded MMO. "Pulling something out", well that's not how it works (many developers would wish it was that easy to reuse stuff), that game got scrapped. Of course, we don't have detailed insight, so your guess is as good as mine.

By balancing, I meant whether they will try staying faithful with characters in a new pvp mode/game or if they will try to shake things up (like with returning units from SC1 in SC2, but with different abilities, stats etc.). That could have been a very divisive issue among players, not to mention the already uncertain future of their e-sports. Regardless, it's rather interesting if it turns out completely true, because it would mean that they are (at least partially) abandoning their "live service" model (short service? ?).

I doubt they can just add the entire PvE system into OW1. It's maps story, leveling, they have to change all the heroes and how they work for PvE, not to mention if they introduce items (which i dont think they will) it's way more than an expansion IMO.

[Arcling 898]

3 minutes ago, Starym said:

I doubt they can just add the entire PvE system into OW1. It's maps story, leveling, they have to change all the heroes and how they work for PvE, not to mention if they introduce items (which i dont think they will) it's way more than an expansion IMO.

Indeed, that would have been difficult to do, although a lot of it seems possible now (and plenty of "live service" games had completely new modes added to them), like changing character kits just for one mode. Workshop allows that and that's only a fraction of what they could do. Still, unknown how it's all going to affect the potential split in community, e-sports, and as their history with HotS readily demonstrates, they won't hesitate to pull the plug. Another PR disaster is the last thing they need right now. This year especially, when something may always happen that will overshadow game-related issues.

[Starym 3,800]

10 minutes ago, Arcling said:

Indeed, that would have been difficult to do, although a lot of it seems possible now (and plenty of "live service" games had completely new modes added to them), like changing character kits just for one mode. Workshop allows that and that's only a fraction of what they could do. Still, unknown how it's all going to affect the potential split in community, e-sports, and as their history with HotS readily demonstrates, they won't hesitate to pull the plug. Another PR disaster is the last thing they need right now. This year especially, when something may always happen that will overshadow game-related issues.

I guess it depends on WHEN it's planned to come out. If it's in the next year then I'd have to agree with you, but as I think it'd be more the 2-3 year range I'd say OW2 makes perfect sense.

[HugeMurloc 43]

18 hours ago, dartbodman said:

Diablo 2 remastered? Yes please. Hope it's not a mobile game

There are rumours for a console port

[Aegrotat 80]

10 hours ago, Kurosu said:

You just replied to yourself. When bethesda announced their mobile game they announced ES6 ( like it needed announcement) at the SAME TIME. Blizzard announced diablo mobile and hasnt made any diablo 4 mentions at all since then. Now ofc its likely they will announce it but we will all know why.

And we've seen... how many blizzcons since Diablo Immortal was announced? Wow I'm shocked that Blizzard would announce a game at blizzcon and not say anything about it outside of blizzcon. Nope, they've never done THAT before