Diablo 4 Codenamed Fenris, Was A Souls-like Before 2016 Reboot

A new report from Kotaku hints that Diablo 4 has been in the making since 2016 at Blizzard, although it underwent a major reboot.

A new report from Kotaku hints that Diablo 4 has been in the making since 2016 at Blizzard, although it underwent a major reboot.

Originally, the team was working on a second expansion for Diablo III, which was later cancelled because of the game’s troubled inception.

Then, a third person perspective game set in a souls-like environment was nurtured by Josh Mosqueira and his team, but when he left the studio it was binned.

It was codenamed Hades, and it was mentioned to be a gothic and tough dungeon crawler that would’ve brought the franchise to a whole new direction.

Someone at the development team was enthusiastic about it but felt it was never going to be named Diablo 4 after all, since it was so different.

At this moment, Blizzard is indeed working on a Diablo 4, but it’s returned to its isometric roots, reportedly with a tone similar to the beloved Diablo 2.

“They want to make this gross, make it dark, [remove] anything that was considered cartoony in Diablo 3… Make what people were afraid of in Diablo 2, but modern,” said an anonymous employee.

It’s said to be featuring a “light MMO” component: perhaps it won’t be close to Destiny-like strikes, but it will allow people to meet and do their stuff in the title’s map.

Blizzard has been thinking about showing the project at this year’s BlizzCon since January, we’re told, but the process has been way slower than the expectation.

This led the developer to wait a bit more before the reveal, although the release is still slated for 2020. Whether it’s coming to consoles together with a PC version or not, it remains to be seen.