For all its shared online activities and social spaces, Blizzard says that when it comes to Diablo 4 "we're not really making an MMO."
In a recent roundtable interview attended by WCCFtech, lead game producer Kayleigh Calder and associate game director Joseph Piepiora were asked about whether the endgame will lean further into the MMO qualities that are present in some of Diablo 4, as well as Diablo Immortal. While Piepiora notes that the Diablo Immortal team "has created a lot of really cool content and features to support that game," Blizzard "really wants to make sure that Diablo 4 stays firmly in the ARPG camp."
"We're not really making an MMO. We are making an online game that does have that connected community feel in some spaces." That means that future updates to Diablo 4 will be focused on "features [that] are gonna serve the game that we've made." Diablo 4's live-service setup means that that plan might change over time, but Piepiora is adamant that "we're not looking to make that [MMO] game, if that makes sense.
In the wake of the Diablo 4 beta, Blizzard has been discussing the game at length, giving us our best look yet at the Diablo 4 endgame. We know that beta feedback is coming pretty soon, and a key focus is likely to be on character repec costs; originally pitched as not "prohibitively expensive," Blizzard has since suggested that the price is "final", and that might cause some concern when the full game releases this summer.
We're weeks from release, but Blizzard has already confirmed the Diablo 4 launch times.