Diablo has been an iconic video game franchise for years and fans were incredibly eager to see Diablo 4 get announced. The video game development process has been in full swing with Rod Fergusson, who you may be familiar with from The Coalition and Gears of War, has left to front the game at Blizzard. However, no one could have predicted the massive health pandemic outbreak that occurred this year. So when Rod left The Coalition to work with Blizzard in March, he only had a total of eight days within the office.
March was the month that plenty of companies closed its doors. Most are working remotely due to the coronavirus health outbreak and Rod stated during a GDC Q&A session, that this outbreak only gave the developer just over a week to spend with the team in-person at Blizzard. After those short eight days, Rod and the rest of the staff from Blizzard started to transition into working from home and while Rod feels that he works best with being in the room with other people, it’s clear that nothing is stopping the production from continuing on.
Instead, Diablo 4 is continuing on with Rod Fergusson and his team remotely. This is done through employees allowing to bring home necessary equipment from the offices and Blizzard also covering fees to ensure their internet is taken care of. Still, that doesn’t mean it’s not without challenges as every development studio had to learn the process of working efficiently from home.
We’re not sure just how long of a wait we’ll have to endure to see Diablo 4 hit the marketplace. Most games have taken a delayed hit in some shape or form. With other games receiving updates and expansions from Blizzard such as Hearthstone, it does seem like the developers are capable of bringing out projects while not being present within the actual studio building.