A release date for Diablo Immortal, the next entry in the acclaimed action RPG series, has been announced, alongside the surprise reveal that the formerly mobile-exclusive title will also be launching on PC.
Developer Blizzard announced Diablo Immortal will launch on June 2 for Android and iOS devices and will be released into open beta on PC at the same time. The free-to-play multiplayer RPG will support crossplay and cross-progression, letting you play with others across platforms, while retaining all character progression when you switch between PC and mobile.
The game will include controller support for both mobile and PC, and – in a first for the Diablo series – let PC players pick between a traditional point-and-click or WASD-based control scheme to move about Sancturay using their mouse and keyboard.
The announcement of the game’s PC release is something of a surprise. When Diablo Immortal was first teased back in 2018, Blizzard maintained it had no plans to bring the game to other platforms, prompting one Blizzcon crowd to boo the game's announcers.
Asked in a press briefing why the development team is now bringing the game to PC, game director Wyatt Cheng said the decision was made in response to fan feedback.
“It was and remains our intention to bring Diablo to as many players as possible, and we feel that mobile is an exciting opportunity to bring Diablo to players all around the world who might not experience the fun and joy of a Diablo game otherwise,” he said.
“When we started to go through our alpha and beta testing phases, we saw a lot of players ask for a PC version or talk about a PC version, or other players were talking about how they plan to emulate the game on PC. And we thought, ‘Gosh, if people are going to emulate the game on PC, it'd be really good for us to just create a native client so that people could experience the game on the platform of their choice’”.
“We are still making the game as a mobile-first game, but since our goal is to reach as many players as possible, being on both mobile and PC is the best way to do that.”
Diablo general franchise manager Rob Fergusson further clarified that alpha and beta testers tended to play Diablo Immortal for long periods of time, rather than in short bursts of playtime that users often spend on mobile games.
“We were seeing sessions that were three and four hours long,” Fergusson said. “So we just felt like that having that ability for a person to be able to sit down at their desk and play with a large screen, it would be something that would be desired.”
He went on to say that although Diablo Immortal is ready to launch, it will be releasing in open beta on PC so the team can continue to receive player feedback surrounding that version of the game. As a “mobile-first” title, its controls and interface have been created with phones and tablets in mind.
“Even though the PC has the moniker of open beta, it's really an open beta around the interface. It's really about how you interact with the game, the UI, the controls that are in the open beta of the game,” Fergusson said.
“The game is being released, so all of your progress, everything you do, everything you earn, and so forth will all be retained. Nothing will be lost as we go from open beta to a fully released PC version as well.”
You’ll be able to play as six classes when Diablo Immortal launches on June 2 – Barbarian, Crusader, Demon Hunter, Monk, Necromancer and Wizard. Down the line, you also be able to switch your existing character to a new class after creation while retaining their progression and items. The feature is intended to save players from having to create alt-characters that need re-leveling if they want to try out a new class, but won’t be available on launch day.
Blizzard is also emphasizing the game’s social aspects. You’ll be able to form Warbands with up to eight other players to take on raids and challenges, as well as join clans of up to 150 players. A faction-based PvP system called the Cycle of Strife will also support server-wide battles.
As is standard with mobile games, microtransactions will be included alongside a battle pass for players to progress through. Cheng says the team has taken care to place gameplay design ahead of these monetization features, with all of Diablo Immortal’s main mechanics and entire storyline available to play for free. Cosmetics will be available to purchase, but gear and XP will not.
Breath of the Wild 2 trailers could point to new Switch hardware
Breath of the Wild 2’s recent gameplay footage certainly looks impressive, but speculation is mounting as to whether the game is actually running on a Switch, or something more powerful.
According to tech experts Digital Foundry (thanks, GamesRadar ), Breath of the Wild 2 includes a number of graphical features that the Nintendo Switch would struggle to run based on its aging hardware.
The latest trailer for the Breath of the Wild sequel apparently runs at a higher image quality than we’re used to seeing on Switch, features graphically taxing volumetric clouds, and also includes an increased draw distance that may be too much for the original Switch hardware to handle.
“This trailer was interesting because the image quality seemed quite good,” says Digital Foundry’s senior staff writer John Linneman. “I was a little bit surprised by how sharp and clear it looks, compared to the original in general.”
“I agree,” says Digital Foundry’s technology editor Richard Leadbitter. “The leap in image quality compared to the first title is stark, to say the least.”
Recent footage of BOTW 2 runs at 1080p to 720p, which is higher than the 900p docked resolution of the original.
While Leadbitter still thinks the higher resolution could be feasible on native hardware thanks to dynamic resolution scaling, Digital Foundry’s video producer Alex Battaglia seems convinced that Breath of the Wild 2’s recent footage definitely wasn’t taken from an original Switch.
When asked if BOTW 2 was actually running on the Switch, Battaglia said: “I honestly don’t think it is. We’ve seen volumetric clouds very rarely on Switch, and these don’t break down super obviously. Camera cuts also have perfect anti-aliasing, which is even rare for an Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5 game. It could be the next Switch.”
When Battaglia suggests the trailer may have been rendered at a higher resolution, Linneman rightly points out that Nintendo rarely does that. “The thing is, Alex, they never do that. In terms of actual resolution bumps to their trailers, I don’t think they ever really do that,” says Linneman. Nintendo tends to show its games running natively on original hardware, while other companies like Sony and Microsoft often show games running on high-end PCs .
So could Breath of the Wild 2 be a cross-generational title? “I generally think that since they are delaying it now, this is gonna be the equivalent of what we saw with Breath of the Wild: it launches on the old and also on the new, and we see the nice benefits of the new regarding Switch Pro, Switch 2, Switch EX whatever,” says Battaglia.
Will we see the Nintendo Switch 2 in 2023?
Nintendo has been tipped to deliver new hardware for the past couple of years, with many speculating that a Nintendo Switch Pro would be released before 2022. However, Nintendo opted to release the Switch OLED , which though superior in almost every respect to the original model, doesn’t include any technical upgrades whatsoever.
A Nintendo Switch 2 would certainly be welcome for those who play their Switch docked, as the Nintendo Switch can only output at 1080p and isn't capable of hitting 4K resolution . There’s no denying that some titles could also benefit from some additional graphical grunt to help improve performance and deliver better image quality when blown up on the TV.
Nevertheless, Nintendo has been extremely coy about releasing a successor, going as far as to say that the Nintendo Switch is at the mid-point of its lifecycle . Releasing Breath of the Wild 2 as a launch title for any new hardware would make sense, though, particularly if the Nintendo Switch 2 showed a clear improvement over the older models.
Battlefield 2042 finally gets voice chat – a whole five months after launch
Battlefield 2042’s major 4.0 update is live, introducing over 400 bug fixes and gameplay rebalances, as well as new features that fans have been calling for since the multiplayer shooter launched last November.
Chief among them is in-game voice chat – or VoIP functionality, as it’s officially called. You’ll now be able to chat with the players in your Battlefield 2042 party or squad using a microphone. Previously, voice chat was totally absent from the game, requiring you to use in-game text chat or map pings to communicate with your fellow players. If you wanted to speak live, you’d have to use Discord, TeamSpeak, join a party on PlayStation or Xbox consoles, or use another third-party platform.
This new voice chat system looks similar to those of past Battlefield games. To activate and adjust the feature, head to Options > Sound/Voice > Chat through the main menu.
The absence of voice chat from Battlefield 2042 has been a sticking point for disappointed fans of the game. The feature has been a staple of past Battlefield releases, allowing players to coordinate attacks and plan tactics with multipayer squadmates. It’s also a staple feature of most modern multiplayer shooters, and many were surprised by its absence on the game’s release.
Heaps of changes
Update 4.0 also introduces a bunch of other features, gameplay tweaks, and bug fixes to the beleaguered game. Weapon attachments have been overhauled to make them more distinct, and its recently revamped scoreboard will now be available to view at the end of each round, rather than just mid-match.
Improvements have also been made to matchmaking, progression, unlocks, maps, audio, Portal mode, animations, and enemy AI. The topline features include:
The full list of changes – which is very long – can be read in full in the Update 4.0 patch notes . They suggest the next Battlefield 2042 update is due to release in May and will focus on further quality-of-life updates and bug fixes.
For many players, those changes can’t come soon enough. Players have been frustrated after persistent glitches and absent features have plagued the multiplayer shooter for the last five months. While Dice has committed to fixing these problems and delayed the game’s first season of content to do so, the rate at which updates have been rolled out hasn’t alleviated the ire of many fans, and the recently announced map changes left many disappointed.