According to a French news publication, Le Monde, Blizzard Entertainment is working on, both, a Diablo game as well as Overwatch 2. Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 are likely to have release dates for 2020 or later.
In their article, Le Monde talked about the future of Blizzard and how they have laid off several just quite recently. The publication also reported that Activision Blizzard held an internal presentation where it talked a bit about future projects such as Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2.
Even though the article is locked behind a paywall and is written in French, we managed to pull off an excerpt of it as well as a rough translation.
French excerpt:
Quid de l’avenir ? Les équipes de Blizzard Entertainment ont déjà eu le droit à une présentation du très attendu Diablo 4 et savent qu’un nouveau Overwatch est dans les tuyaux. Mais aucun ne sortira avant 2020, au mieux, et les salariés de Versailles ignorent s’ils en verront la couleur. « Activision Blizzard fera moins de bénéfices, mais fera quand même beaucoup de bénéfices », veut croire un vétéran.
Our rough translation:
What about the future? The Blizzard Entertainment teams have already had the right to a presentation of the highly anticipated Diablo 4 and know that a new Overwatch is in the pipes. But none will come out before 2020, at best, and the employees of Versailles do not know if they will be here to see the game’s release. “Activision Blizzard will make less money, but still make a lot of money,” said a veteran.
Back in 2017, global investment banking, securities, and investment management firm, Goldman Sachs predicted a 2020 release date for Overwatch 2. A
ccording to analyst Christopher Merwin, “We are raising our 2019 and 2020 estimates on account of a robust multi-year pipeline of games — Diablo, Overwatch 2, and a Blizzard mobile title — which we don’t think Street estimates are fully taking into account.” Merwin has also forecasted that “Overwatch 2″ will launch in 2020 and sell 20 million units within the first year of its release.
Even though Blizzard Entertainment has made Overwatch to be a live service game that will be supported by frequent updates, there have been constant rumors about Blizzard working on an Overwatch sequel. According to Kotaku earlier this year, Blizzard has shifted its focus towards Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2.
Blizzard has also posted two new job listings just yesterday looking for character and concept artists to work on an unannounced Diablo project.
It is also very likely that Blizzard will provide more details on both, Diablo 4 as well as Overwatch 2 at BlizzCon 2019. In any case, since Activision Blizzard hasn’t confirmed anything official regarding an Overwatch 2 release date, it is best to take all of this with at least a grain of salt for the time being.
