Following the call for investors for the third quarter of this fiscal year, Activision-Blizzard has revised its plans for the two most anticipated titles in its portfolio.
The hack'n slash Diablo IV and the FPS Overwatch 2, announced last February as arriving at least at the end of 2022, finally see their potential release postponed at least to the year 2023.
A sad 2022 in releases for Blizzard
Decidedly, Blizzard continues to suffer disappointments. In addition to cases of sexual harassment and discrimination, which notably led to the change of name of the charismatic cowboy of Overwatch, the development of its flagship games suffered another blow.
While a potential release of Diablo IV in 2023 isn't surprising in itself, the same can't be said for Overwatch 2. Indeed, we learned in September that an early version of it would be used for the 2022 season of the Overwatch League. We could then hope for a release at least in closed beta of the title during the summer.
Unfortunately, the report of the last call to investors published on Tuesday evening comes to shower the hopes of the last diehard heroes of the successful FPS. “While we still plan to release substantial content at Blizzard this year, we are now planning to launch Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV later than anticipated.”
The report, however, is keen to reassure that these two highly anticipated titles are progressing well in their development. But obviously not enough to present anything substantial, since BlizzConline 2022 has been canceled. An icy wind is therefore likely to blow in the Blizzard studios for the following year.
