As Diablo 4 fans celebrate Helltide changes, senior devs thank players: "When you have a game that no-one cares about, you just don't get any feedback"

With the end of 2023 rapidly approaching, it’s time to look back fondly on the year and your achievements therein. Oh no, wait, I don’t mean real-life achievements — I mean all the games you played over the last 12 months to occupy your time between global crises.

Video game developers are constantly under pressure to make the best titles they can. That goes double for when they’re working in an established franchise or have made a hit game and are asked to follow it up. With Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the pressure increases exponentially because of various factors. First, the previous entry in the “remake saga” was a smash hit and “rewrote” the world and characters that fans loved in certain places. That means the sequel could be just as “shifting,” and that has caused some problems amongst “some fans.” By that, we mean people have been bombarding the Square Enix team with messages and demanding that certain things don’t happen in the sequel.

Unforetold: Witchstone was maybe the biggest surprise for me at our PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted showcase. The Spearhead Games CRPG almost evokes Larian's first Divinity: Original Sin game in its presentation, but instead of pursuing cinematic RPG production values, Witchstone is like an alternate evolutionary path emphasizing the construction of an open-ended, RPG sandbox.

Diablo 4's Midwinter Blight is now live! As a part of this event, players will be able to earn event-specific cosmetics, titles, and a new Midwinter Ward buff. While this buff currently only lasts 6 minutes, Diablo 4 Global Community Development Director, Adam Fletcher has stated that this buff duration will be increased to one hour in an upcoming Hotfix. Midwinter Blight Event is Now Live! Midwinter Tribute Tier Rewards

Guildford.Games Ltd – a not-for-profit initiative introduced to «showcase the local industry and bring the concentrated, creative talent within Guildford to the attention of the world» – has confirmed its 2024 event will kick off on 16th February 2024.

Diablo 4's infamous new Abattoir of Zir event is primed for changes, thanks to developers listening to feedback.

Since the release of Patch 1.2.3 and Abattoir of Zir, Blizzard has received abundant feedback on this new endgame feature. Global Community Development Director, Adam Fletcher has stated that Blizzard has discussed this community feedback internally, and is planning on making some changes to Abattoir of Zir with a Hotfix later this week. Diablo 4 Abattoir of Zir Guide Abattoir of Zir Sigil Crafting Cost The changes coming as a result of this Hotfix will be revealed sometime on December 7th, and the Hotfix itself is expected to be available later this week.

Developer Starbreeze has announced a new game, codenamed Project Baxter, a cooperative multiplayer game presumably in the style of its PAYDAY series. Further, Starbreeze has managed to snag the official Dungeons & Dragons branding. However, we don't expect the studio to treat the RPG setting as reverently as Larian recently did with Baldur's Gate 3.

Larian Studios collects a lot of data—as plenty of studios do—about their player's habits in-game, and Baldur's Gate 3 is no exception. For example, it shared the game's most-played multiclasses back in September, leading to some interesting insights about how a strong character theme wins out over min-maxing power.

Diablo 4's developers accidentally nerfed just about every single player - just in time for a very difficult endgame event to launch.

It's been a long wait—over ten years—but our first official look at Grand Theft Auto 6 is nearly here. Rockstar Games will reveal the first trailer for GTA 6 on Tuesday, December 4 on YouTube.

Blizzard really, really wants you to know Diablo 4 isn't going to add any pay-to-win elements. In fact, the ARPG's lead developers are so keen on making that point clear that they repeated it no less than six times during a recent livestream.