Even Blizzard veteran David Brevik is feeling the crush of a high-budget video game industry seemingly collapsing in on itself through things like layoffs, $55 billion buyouts, and AI evangelism.
Speaking to PCGamesN, the Blizzard co-founder and Diablo co-creator describes a "super risky" landscape for those in the business of making "giant games," presumably like Diablo 4, which is getting attacked from all sides – Brevik says meeting player expectations is difficult, too.
He elaborates on his thoughts on the current state of gaming, noting that "we've seen so many triple-A and double-A stuff get canceled in the last two years. It's just brutal."
Diablo 4, at least, seems healthy at the moment. As of writing, the ARPG has 36,116 concurrent players according to SteamDB (not a long way off from the game's all-time peak of 55,561), and its developers plan to release its next major expansion in 2026. But this last part is where things start again feeling constricting for Brevik.
"I think that anytime that you have a big game and you make any changes at all, you're going to have some people that are not happy with it," he says. "I think it's a really tough thing when you're super popular and you have a huge game, the expectations are just through the roof."
Players' hopes for Diablo 4 get so big that, for devs, "It's just really stressful to do anything." The best medicine is to stick with what you believe in.
"You have to put that aside," Brevik continues to say about expectations, "and say, 'Hey, I believe in the direction we're going here. I believe in what we're doing."
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