Blizzard announces the delay of Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4

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During Activision Blizzard’s third-quarter earnings call this year, the company announced that their highly anticipated titles Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 will be delayed. No release window was given but it looks like we can see these two games come out sometime in 2023 at the earliest.

“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” says Activision Blizzard during their presentation with investors.

Activision Blizzard also stated that “these decisions will push the financial uplift that we had expected to see next year”, which simply means we shouldn’t expect either of the games to come out anytime in 2022.

To be fair, both Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 were never given a release date, but the delay was announced anyway, giving a clear indication of the company’s current state and that more time is needed to get things back on track as a developer. 

Blizzard president Mike Ybarra explained that these delays are due to recent leadership changes throughout the company. He didn’t go into exact detail but many have left the company in this year alone. Just to name a few, Overwatch’s game director Jeff Kaplan left Blizzard back in April 2021. Then, the game lost it’s executive producer Chacko Sonny in September. For Diablo 4, game director Luis Barriga left in August.

Also, Blizzard’s co-leader Jen Oneal announced her departure from the company. The former Vicarious Visions leader joined the company only three months ago. She is now taking a new role with a nonprofit organization in Women in Games International.

This sudden shake up at Blizzard’s leadership is due to the current sexual harassment lawsuit the State of California filed back in July. The investigation is still underway but aside from big leaders within the company stepping down, the Financial Times reported that this resulted in 20 employees being fired by the company over claims of harassment as the company attempts to clean up its culture following the widepread gender-based discrimination and harassment. Blizzard also released an open letter last month regarding their attempts to change for the better. 

For those unfamiliar with what’s happening at Activision Blizzard and the current lawsuit, a post by Time does a great job explaining everything you need to know.