Diablo Immortal, A New RPG, Announced For Mobile At BlizzCon 2018

Diablo was for much of its life a PC-only franchise. Now, with Diablo III having expanded to consoles--including, as of today, Nintendo Switch--Blizzard has its eyes set on what might be its most difficult adaptation of the action RPG yet: mobile.

During the BlizzCon 2018 opening ceremony, Blizzard revealed that it is developing a brand-new Diablo game to mobile platforms. Blizzard said it "want[s] to do it in a way that's true to Blizzard, putting gameplay first, in a way that feels right for Diablo." It's described as a full-fledged action RPG you can play everywhere with everyone. It's being developed in collaboration with NetEase. The Chinese company has previously helped to bring a number of Blizzard's games to China.

Diablo: Immortal tells the story between Diablo II and Diablo III, filling in details on what unfolded with Tyrael, Malthael, and others. A cinematic was shown featuring voiceover from Tyrael talking about the events following the destruction of the Worldstone. He spoke about its corruption spreading, leading to a CG sequence where a Barbarian attacks enemies in various settings. Just as he's about be killed, he's saved by another of Diablo III's classes, the Wizard. After they wipe out the enemy forces, they're joined by several other characters (the remaining Diablo III classes) as Diablo emerges from a huge cloud of smoke.

Next we were shown some brief gameplay clips. While seemingly catered to a mobile interface (as is to be expected), it does appear to have the same style of gameplay we're accustomed to from the franchise. New abilities will be available for the six classes, along with new zones, stories, and dungeons. It also features online multiplayer, with numerous characters being shown on the screen at once--we counted at least six, which is more than Diablo III allows for.

Diablo III originally launched on PC in 2012, making its console debut a year later on PS3 and Xbox 360. A year after that, it moved to the newest generation of consoles with a PS4 and Xbox One release, and alongside the start of BlizzCon 2018, it's now launched an excellent Nintendo Switch version.