The 3 main veterans include Peter Hu, Phil Shenk, and Erich Schaefer (brother of Max Schaefer who was also a lead at Blizzard North). The Schaefer’s also worked on the Torchlight series (Runic Games) and the ill-fated Torchlight Frontiers (Echtra Games). None of these on their own have struck gold anything close to Diablo/Diablo II (since as I’ve noted before, it really is about the time/place and entire team effort).

Since I haven’t really followed gaming in recent years, I did a little bit of research. It seems that back in 2024, the studio managed to secure $4.5 million in seed funding (and that it had originally been founded in 2021 by the three, but only announced the studio to the public in 2022 — though at the time, Schaefer was not listed as one of the founders).

The Darkhaven title was listed on Steam a few weeks ago (stating a demo is near). The thing that stood out to me was at the bottom; fully moddable. The other earlier stuff (with the persistent world environment with unique environments for every player) has me taking a wait and see attitude (because we’ve heard those grand pitches before where not even companies that specialize in MMORPG’s, have been able to deliver on those ambitions).

Genshin Impact has done an incredible job with the large open world design (including lots of verticality for both climbing and gliding, some sailing/underwater designs, many different biomes) for a mostly solo/limited co-op setup where it doesn’t have to worry about large scale persistence (a design that will definitely be more challenging in terms of what Darkhaven is trying to achieve). It will be interesting to see if they are able to pull this off in an OARPG as a small studio.

It does look like there are plans for a Kickstarter campaign (which again, I’ve been very much not into on the gaming side because of the sheer amount of rug pulls/scams that have occurred). Only recently did I actually fund a campaign (Pixelfed) but that was because it was an already shipping product (mobile app, open source server, web based sites); the Kickstarter was for additional funding to extend its development including that of the ActivityPub ecosystem. I ended up pulling that pledge though (as noted in the writeup).

The actual demo will give me a better idea of what I think about Darkhaven going forward (I guess the fact that I am even writing about it, says that is has piqued my interest to a degree).

I used to be a huge fan of this genre, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve tended towards games that allowed me to become a literal casual potato in them (which is why 1 month later, I’ve taken a supreme liking to Honkai: Star Rail (HSR) given that I can set most battles for 2x auto-combat when “grinding” for materials to progress my characters).  And while playing HSR, one thing that stuck out to me was the lack of “in your face” tribalism between it, Genshin Impact, and Honkai Impact 3rd (all miHoYo games).  I’m not saying it doesn’t exist (it does in places like social media, YouTube comments, and Twitch).  But I’m referring to the constant barrage by the known influencers.

Contrast this with the ARPG genre and even specific Diablo’s within that franchise.  For example, you have some Path of Exile (PoE) fans shitting over the imminent launch of D4.  You have some D2 fans shitting over D4.  And the weirdest one to me is you have some D3 loyalists shitting over D4.  I’ve noted some of my thoughts regarding D4 in this prior post (from the initial open beta weekend).  To quickly summarize, the nostalgia wasn’t there for me (with the genre and the franchise) and as I noted, my tolerance for the loot grind also isn’t there.

Keeping my feelings about Activision Blizzard and Blizzard Entertainment outside of this purview, I felt that the D4 open beta (effectively the “starter” trial version of the game) was fun, and the parts that kept hitting my button was the exploration component (uncovering the fog of war on the map, finding the Lilith altars, unlocking those waypoints, etc); it’s that aspect in games that keeps me engaged (like it did with Guild Wars 2 and Genshin Impact).  Compared to 30+ years ago (where the grind component was up there in terms of what I enjoyed more), what’s a lot more fun for me now is open world exploration (and it helps if the PvE combat feels impactful and visceral); bringing it back to D4, those specific buttons were hit for me.  Yes, what is fun for one person may not be fun for someone else.  That is what is known as personal preference (which is highly subjective).

So on the eve of the early access launch, I took a look at the Diablo Reddit and official forums (and quickly left since the polarized opinions are pretty much the above).  Yes, there was a time when I used to be engaged (heavily) in forums; that too has been tossed into the trash bin since there are better things to waste ones time on (you get that way as you get older).  Which leads me to the real point of this post.  Games are supposed to be FUN.  It’s supposed to be an escape from the real world.  It’s supposed to be a source of entertainment.  And again, fun is subjective.  Yes, some development studios and publishers aren’t good at all (where they put out trash, and then try to monetize that trash).  Yes, each person has their personal preferences and will express their opinion about a title (I do it all the time here on this blog).  Sometimes, this “time investment” in opinionated feedback comes out of passion (that’s how this blog came into being before it eventually devolved to the point where I no longer enjoyed any of the Blizzard titles had been playing, and just stopped playing them back in 2015).

With D4’s launch (after so many years in development amidst Blizzard’s own internal woes and missteps), those who are playing on launch should enjoy and have fun with this launch, and play it however they want to (there is no right or wrong way to enjoy a game, except for that person playing it to have fun doing it).  Someone who is invested in PoE, D2, Last Epoch, Lost Ark (just throwing this in there even though it is more MMO than it is an ARPG), etc, isn’t going to convince someone looking forward to D4, that it isn’t worth playing because of their personal preference/opinion.  I’m no fan of what Blizzard Entertainment has turned into over the years (while acknowledging I’m also no longer a fan of the franchise like I was back years ago), but I’m not going to go out of my way to spend hours on trying to shit on a new version of the game in the Diablo franchise that a bunch of mostly new designers (that now comprise Team 3) have spent time creating (and that many fans of the franchise are looking forward to).  Unlike the original D3 team (that didn’t listen and often times were combative with the community), I did take notice the different tone the D4 team took (even after some leadership changes resulting from the internal dramas/scandals).  And that IMHO, has resulted in a game that has a solid foundation to build off of (and I say this as someone who is no longer interested in this genre/franchise).

So to anyone who might be reading this and intends to play D4 (early access or at official launch on the 6th), have FUN (and ignore the tribalistic noise that is going to be happening on the side).

According to the article, “Hu said Moon Beast’s debut project will remain true to both founders’ ARPG roots, but suggested there’ll also be some big innovations.”

I guess we will find out what this first project will be in the future. Myself, ARPG’s have fallen off a cliff in recent years (plus we know that just because designers previously worked on a franchise, doesn’t always mean it will translate into something that will be anywhere as iconic as those other titles; it is often times a matter of time/place plus the entirety of the team that ended up being involved as was the case with Blizzard North and Blizzard Irvine (South) bringing different qualities to Diablo and Diablo II).

This is in light of the recent allegations mentioned in the civil rights lawsuit that has been filed against Activision Blizzard (with much of it centering on this conduct occurring within Blizzard Entertainment).  D2R is the graphically enhanced version of Diablo II (including the Lord of Destruction expansion).  Much of this work was done by the company that Activision Blizzard had acquired (and has made a wholly owned subsidiary), Vicarious Visions.

People are free to do with their money as they please.  For myself, I walked away from Blizzard Entertainment as a customer back in 2015 (and as an ATVI shareholder not too long ago after learning how much worse things were internally with the company with the allegations brought forth).  While I fully realize this culture goes well beyond Blizzard Entertainment, the issue I’ve taken with Blizzard is how for years, they’ve marketed what has been a big lie (portraying it as a family which they cared about and listened to) to their community and own employees (similar to what Disney does); where at least two of the three co-founders, were part of that toxic culture (contributing to and/or being purposely oblivious to it).

Activision Blizzard being one of the biggest companies in the gaming space, and not holding anyone at the executive leadership accountable (Kotick and Townsend are still there), translates into ZERO money going their way from me.  It also doesn’t matter if the bulk of the work was performed by a subsidiary studio; they are still wholly owned by Activision Blizzard where the only thing these executives (in the main holding company) care about are the bottomline numbers.  The only way actual change is effected is when the bottomline numbers (revenues, MAU, concurrency, churn, etc) fall through the floor.  Yes, rank and file employees become collateral damage.  But guess what?  They have always been considered expendable (like the ones Kotick sent pink slips to in the recent past even while the combined companies were raking in record profits).

With all that is public now, how much more of a charade can the executive “leadership” continue to thin out the rank and file (the ones actually designing and developing these titles the company is reliant on for their revenues) in order to massage the numbers on the expense side of the ledger?  IMHO, this is the absolute worst time to continue supporting anything Activision Blizzard puts out.  But I know realistically that there are a lot more who do not keep up with, or care about how these companies operate.  So certain high profit franchises (like Call of Duty and Overwatch) will continue to rake in the money.  Likewise, many Diablo fans (who know what is going on with Blizzard) will continue putting money into Bobby Kotick’s pockets where so long as they continue meeting expectations, executives like him will never see any accountability.

The game will be available for PC (Windows) and console with cross play progression, and has a release date before the end of December 2021.  It’s not 100% true to the original game systems since there are enhancements such as larger and shared stash as well as heavier reliance on Battle.net (for social and networking functionality) which means it is online only.  Correction.  There IS an OFFLINE (aka single player) mode like the original.  And like the original, those characters cannot be used online.   The game will also officially support MODS.

The game can be pre-ordered now for $39.99 or $59.99 for the Prime Evil Collection which also includes Diablo III, Reaper of Souls, Necromancer Pack, and a Mephisto cosmetic pet and Hatred Wings for D3 (players who already own any of the D3 games can upgrade at a pro-rated amount).  Pre-ordering does not grant access to the technical alpha.  Given the fiasco that was WarCraft III: Reforged, I’d suggest NOT pre-ordering since this is primarily a move to juice Activision Blizzard’s revenues (disclaimer: I still own ATVI).

Myself, I’m not sure if I will return to playing any Blizzard game.  My reaction to this announcement was tepid at best (part of it is because my interests have diverged from the old ARPG format).  There was also updated news with Diablo IV and Diablo Immortal (neither interest me at this time either).

UPDATE:  offline mode and mod support has piqued my interest.  Mods are what really made D2/LOD shine in terms of replayability.

I’m watching some of the in-depth videos about this and it is interesting.  The core game is still intact (updated for modern architecture and with some “is this too much” vetting when it came to adding QoL aspects to the game; some which can be disabled like auto gold pickup) and runs at the original 25 FPS (since as David Brevik detailed in various interviews, is how the core game play logic ran).  The updated 3D graphics runs as a layer at a higher frame rate over the original logic and can be toggled off on the fly (revealing the original 2D sprite graphics).  Basically, they’ll be able to maintain the feel of the original game play.

They learned a lot from looking at the Diablo I source code (much of which was clean room reverse engineered by Devilution project since it seemed like Blizzard lost the full source after an office relocation move in their earlier days) which Brevik also provided insight on (including how parts of the game play was done out of frame given how CRT’s worked). They also discovered more source material including artwork and gained more insight from the design documents that were in Blizzard’s famed vault

UPDATE 2: The remaster is in very capable hands; Vicarious Visions is handling the work (they worked on the remasters for Tony Hawk and Crash Bandicoot).  They were previously a subsidiary studio of Activision (acquired in 2005) that became a subsidiary of Blizzard Entertainment (due to their involvement in this project) in January 2021 (everyone there is now considered a Blizzard employee).

My initial tepid reaction to this announcement now has me a lot more interested knowing that this project isn’t being handled by the usual Blizzard Entertainment teams.

https://github.com/d07RiV/diabloweb

The main site linked in the above repository is down though (traffic related).

This is what happens when I have a little bit (ok, maybe too much) of extra time on my hands while seeing more speculation topics spawning about what will be in store for “Diablo IV” (since we’re only 4 months away from BlizzCon 2019).  Diablo IV will be about 4 “DiaBro’s” donning tinfoil hats…

Seriously though, I personally have zero expectations…

There’s this thread on the Diablo General Discussion forums and the PTR Feedback forum…  once again, they’ve found a way to turn what meager positives players were looking for, into a negative.  I also originally saw this as a positive for those who continued and enjoy Diablo III (but as noted, none of the changes were enough to compel me to resume playing again).  I guess this yet another strong reminder why I stopped playing all Blizzard games and why it is going to take a lot for me to reconsider that decision.