With all the recent departures and the lack of any news of an expansion, most had given up hope of a second expansion and an article on Forbes does nothing to keep any remaining hope alive. Citing a “source” it is claimed that a planned second Diablo 3 expansion was scrapped and new content has instead been rolled out in game updates. Back in November Blizzard confirmed they would release content in free patches but there was no confirmation that there would not be a second expansion.
This could of course not be true, we don’t know the “source”, but it make sense. There was a gap of two years between the release of Diablo 3 and Reaper of Souls and we would have expected to have heard something about a second expansion by now.
With Blizzard no longer monetising the game through the auction house, it’s likely they are unwilling to dedicated resources to creating new content for free. Content that was planned. and a possibly already created for a second expansion, can now be rolled out in the patch updates while they carry on tweaking the existing game to keep players on-board.
We also have to look at how Blizzard are approaching their games now, it’s all about microtransactions and monetisation with Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and now Overwatch being prime examples of this.
What all this means for the future of the Diablo franchise is unknown. We have to take some comfort in the fact that they are hiring a new game director so something new could be in the works.