Blizzard delays highly-anticipated titles ‘Overwatch 2’ and ‘Diablo 4’

During a quarterly earnings call, Activision Blizzard announced delays for both Overwatch 2  and Diablo 4. Well beyond 2022 from the sounds of it too.

“While we are still planning to deliver a substantial amount of content from Blizzard next year,” Activision Blizzard said during the earnings call. “We are now planning for a later launch for Overwatch 2  and Diablo IV  than originally envisaged.”

Activision Blizzard’s reasoning behind the delay is to give its development teams more time. Both to grow resources and to ensure the games, you know, turn out great!

Check out the complete statement for yourself below.

Diablo IV and Overwatch 2 delayed pic.twitter.com/4pr9c0OEdz

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) November 2, 2021

On the call, Mike Ybarra, the leader of Blizzard, said that both games got delayed due to leadership changes — according to Bloomberg reporter Jason Scheier. 

“[Overwatch 2’s] executive producer left by choice,” Scheier said on Twitter. “[Diablo 4’s] director was seemingly ousted after the misconduct lawsuit.”

Hard to say what a delay for Overwatch 2  means for esports, as the 2022 Overwatch League season is supposed to use an early build of the sequel for pro matches. Blizzard hinted that new heroes would debut there too. The company also recently announced the World of Warcraft Community Council, which is likely part of ongoing efforts to improve Blizzard as a whole. 

Written by Kyle Campbell on behalf of GLHF.