While Diablo 5 is still quite some time away, with Blizzard announcing it with a 2029 launch window, the company has now confirmed that development has been progressing at a steady pace. In a new social media post, the cinematic director for Diablo, Neil David Carter, has revealed that the company has started doing video shoots for Diablo 5’s cinematics.
Carter posted a picture of a gigantic sound stage with several monitors where actors would don mocap suits before they acted out scenes for the in-game cinematics, and provided some context with the caption: “First shoot #Diablo5”.
Blizzard has been well-regarded for the cinematic cutscenes of its games as far back as 1998 with the release of the original StarCraft. Since then, the company has continued to build on this reputation with games like Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos and The Frozen Throne, World of Warcraft, all three StarCraft 2 titles, and Overwatch. The last one is especially noteworthy since the company has used cinematic cutscenes to tell much of the PvP shooter’s story.
Diablo has been no exception to this, with Diablo 2 and its Lord of Destruction expansion seeing quite a bit of praise for the moody cutscenes that told the action RPG’s story. Both Diablo 3 and Diablo 4 would also feature phenomenal cutscenes, with the latter getting a lavish reveal through a cinematic cutscene giving us our first proper look at antagonist Lilith.
The story of Diablo 5 is going to be an ambitious one, with Blizzard noting that three narratives will be presented to the player as they make their way through the action RPG. One story will provide the background information on how the world fell under Diablo’s power. The second will tell the story of the player’s own actions that will decide the fate of Sanctuary, while the third will focus on the world’s future.
Executive producer Mark Zitterman said last month that the company is hoping to make Diablo 5’s campaign the “best campaign ever.” He spoke about how this serves as “a pillar of how we think about the game” and how it serves as “an example of us taking what was great in Diablo 4 and taking it further.”
As for why Blizzard announced Diablo 5 so early, president Johanna Faries said that the company wanted to “convey confidence in some of our biggest bets coming forward.” She went on to say that the studio is “going to ship, ship big, and ship on time”.
Diablo 5 was unveiled alongside a pair of other new projects – a shooter set in the sci-fi setting of StarCraft slated for launch in 2030, and a reimagining of the original 2004 version of World of Warcraft, dubbed World of Warcraft Forever. The latter is slated to go live on November 4th and will be available as part of a regular World of Warcraft subscription. A $30 version is also available for pre-order, which provides access to a brand-new playable race – the Skyborne.
In the meantime, take a look at why Blizzard has decided to once more focus on the Lord of Terror with Diablo 5.
