For those unaware, about two weeks before BlizzCon 2018, Blizzard shared a blog post that stopped just short of actually confirming Diablo 4, with the publisher and developer asserting that fans should measure their expectations, as the game would not make an appearance at this year’s event. Nevertheless, one of the unnamed sources claimed Blizzard was still going to assure fans that D4 was in development by playing the aforementioned teaser video at BlizzCon, but then those plans were nixed.

Thus far, many who have weighed in on the matter, both fans and industry figures alike, have contended that if Blizzard simply closed out its BlizzCon 2018 address with even a brief acknowledgement of Diablo 4, the company could have avoided this situation in the first place. For instance, Diablo 2 producer Mark Kern recently argued that D4’s exclusion from the event shows that Blizzard doesn’t understand gamers anymore, and that the company should have dropped a short teaser for D4 right after Diablo Immortal’s announcement.

Although Kern’s overall opinion on the matter is definitely debatable, there are still some truths that can be gleaned from his and others’ critiques of Blizzard’s recent presentation of the direction in which the Diablo franchise is moving. After all, Blizzard contemporaries such as Bethesda had been stuck in a similar spot earlier this year buy Diablo 4 Gold, with the latter having been keenly aware of players craving even the smallest scrap of The Elder Scrolls 6 news during E3 2018, and it managed to meet fans’ expectations by being forthright.