Diablo General Manager Rod Ferguson says he sees creating Diablo 4's endgame as similar to whipping up a tasty bowl of soup.
Last month, select players were chosen to take part in a closed beta focused on Diablo 4's endgame content. In an interview with IGN, Ferguson describes how the team analyse and implement the feedback provided by testers, "There's a phrase that's used a lot around soup-tasting, which is this notion that 'we're gonna put it together, but you always have to taste the soup'". He adds, "Does it need more salt? Does it need more flavour? Did we do too much of something or not enough of another?"
Crucial to Ferguson's metaphor is the idea of constant tasting - or in this case, testing. He explains how Blizzard's approach to testing the upcoming action RPG differs from what he's worked on before and how important testing it from start to finish has been for the team. "I've been making games for 22 years now, and D4 is the game that's felt more holistically tested than any other game that I've been a part of... To have a game that's been playable from prologue to epilogue for so long is really different for me, it's really refreshing, and it's really about how we continue to polish and bring it up".
Diablo 4 is scheduled to release sometime in 2023, and according to Ferguson, it's currently simmering nicely. "We feel good about where we are with the campaign, a lot of that is implemented, we're finishing up the cinematic part of the story, we're honing in on making sure the end game is where it is."
If you missed out on the closed beta, you'll have the opportunity to try out Diablo 4 before it's officially released as part of the open beta, which is set to take place early in 2023.
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