Activision Blizzard has delayed Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 launches indefinitely

Fans of the popular Diablo and Overwatch series hoping to play the latest installments sometime this year will have to wait a bit longer than originally anticipated as Activision Blizzard has delayed Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 until at least sometime in 2023, according to the company’s third quarter earnings report call on Tuesday morning.

“As we have worked with new leadership in Blizzard and within the franchises themselves, particularly in certain key creative roles, it has become apparent that some of the Blizzard content planned for next year will benefit from more development time to reach its full potential,” Activision Blizzard chief operating officer Daniel Alegr explained.

“While we are still planning to deliver a substantial amount of content from Blizzard next year, we are now planning for a later launch for Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4

than originally envisaged,” Alegr added. “These are two of the most eagerly anticipated titles in the industry, and our teams have made great strides towards completion in recent quarters. But we believe giving the teams some extra time to complete production and continue growing their creative resources to support the titles after launch will ensure that these releases delight and engage their communities for many years into the future.”

Diablo 4 was first announced at BlizzCon 2019 and takes place many years after the events of Diablo 3, which saw players destroy the Black Soulstone, the Prime Evil and Malthael, the Angel of Death. The game is said to feature an open world structure with five unique regions, a day and night cycle with changing weather effects, PVP zones where players can battle one another, an “evade” function which can allows players to dodge enemy attacks and “stagger” system for certain bosses, which allows players to induce a control or stun effect on bosses after filling up their stagger meter to a required level.

Overwatch 2 was also first announced at BlizzCon 2019, albeit at a very early stage of development. The multiplayer first-person-shooter was first given an eight-minute long announcement cinematic called “Zero Hour,” followed by a gameplay trailer and a near 40-minute presentation at BlizzCon 2021 which detailed the game’s change in team sizes from six to five, new team compositions, changes to Tanks, character skill trees for in-depth customization, as well as main PvE campaigns comprised of cooperative Story Missions and highly replayable missions that are separate from the main story called Hero Missions.

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