Diablo 4 dev update implies main game is almost finished

Lauren Bergin
Diablo 4

As Blizzard continues to keep information on Diablo 4 close to their chests, fans have done some digging and are theorizing that the base game may already be complete.

The next couple of years are set to be just what Diablo fans have been hoping for. With Diablo 2: Resurrected, the remaster of the original title, dropping in September, 2021, the fires of hell have been lit once more.

As lost souls return to the familiarity of Diablo 2’s Sanctuary, others look to the future at Diablo 4, the next chapter in the war between the High Heavens and the Burning Hells.

One fan has noticed, however, that the elusive sequel may be nearing some sort of early completion, and the news has sent waves of excitement through the franchise’s dedicated community.

Diablo IV Cover Art Blizzard Entertainment 2021
Despite being announced in 2019, very little is known about the next installment in the Diablo tale.

Fan notices Diablo 4 status update

An eagle-eyed fan has spotted that Diablo 4’s status on Blizzard’s online development tracker, Blizztrack, has been upgraded from 0.0.1 to 0.2.0. Writing that this is a “significant increase in version number,” and that “this is good news!”

While we can’t say for sure that this means development is wrapping up, the original poster has theorized “my (very speculative) guess is that the game foundation is finished.”

“Maybe the game is playable from beginning to the end, but all events, many missions and other content is not yet finished,” they conclude.

The vast majority of comments (optimistically) agree. One commenter notes that, in terms of update numbers, Blizzard normally follows the schema “x.0.0: New expansion (pre) patch, 1.x.0: Major patch, usually with new features/mechanics/content, 1.0.x: Minor patch, usually just balance changes and bug fixes.”

This would therefore imply that a whole host of new mechanics and content have just been added to the game, meaning that it’s finally beginning to take form in the shadows.

The news drops as the same time as leaks suggesting that a possible Alpha access version has been uploaded onto the PlayStation store under the codename “Oberon.”

While this may be completely coincidental, putting two and two together may imply that some form of early access version of the game may become publicly available by the end of this year. Of course, nothing is ever certain in the world of Diablo, so take everything with a pinch of life-saving salt.