It's only been a couple of months that we've known about the existence of Diablo 5, and as such there are a ton of open questions about the direction it'll take. Blizzard teased a few fundamentals during BlizzCon 2026, like the fact that it'll take place in a Sanctuary that's been completely overtaken by Diablo and his minions, and that there will no longer be any traditional towns or safe havens to hide from the bad guys. It's been clear to me that Blizzard is doubling down on the horror-driven bleakness that defined the first game in the series, and there are blatant call-backs to the series' roots in the itemization and procedurally generated environments, but there's still a lot left unanswered about what it'll be like to actually play Diablo 5.
Chris Wilson, co-creator of Path of Exile and noted Diablo 2 mega fan, has been encouraged by everything Blizzard has shown of Diablo 5, but has one concern based on the messaging so far. Referencing comments from Diablo leadership at this year's BlizzCon suggesting Blizzard is surveying all generations of players from Diablo 1 to 4, Wilson says he's worried Blizzard might be trying to appeal to too many different audiences at once. He points out that Blizzard didn't even label Diablo an action-RPG series until Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction, and that Diablo 3 and 4 each appeal to a different type of player as well.
"This means that when you survey Diablo players and say 'what would you like in a Diablo 5, how can we get you to play it?', you're gonna get many different answers, and I worry that some of these answers might be slightly mutually exclusive," Wilson says in an interview with Destin Legarie. "I'm optimistic by what they showed because there's heavy Diablo 2 signaling, and that's really cool. I just would urge caution, of, it's OK to not appeal to every Diablo player as long as the product that's made is really fun for the core audience you're targeting, and I'm sure they are thinking of the core audience. Like, I'm simplifying it a lot here, but that's my one worry, really, that they go a bit too broad.
"There's a saying, if you make a game for everyone, you make a game for no one," Wilson concludes.
I understand where Wilson's coming from as a fellow Diablo 1+2 diehard, but it seems a little premature to be worrying about a too-safe Diablo 5 based on such limited information. There are all sorts of reasons a developer might survey fans of a series from different entry points, and regardless of Blizzard's reasoning, everything we've seen so far points to the darkest Diablo yet, which if anything stands in stark contrast to a game like Diablo 3. Meanwhile, the aforementioned return to procedural generation and Diablo 2-style itemization further suggests an embrace of the series' roots rather than some broad-strokes appeal to every generation of Diablo player.
This could very well be pure hopium, but the overall vibe I'm getting as a lifelong Diablo player, and as someone who attended this year's BlizzCon and spoken directly with Blizzard, is that the original Diablo is at the forefront of the studio's mind as it works on Diablo 5. To be very, very clear, that's just the collective impression that's formed in my head over dozens of interviews, panels, and videos scanned, and not something I was explicitly told by Blizzard, but it's exactly what I'm hoping for nonetheless.
Diablo 4's nostalgic new season has convinced me that we need a Diablo 1 remake more than Diablo 5
