Diablo III, which was launched four years ago, is starting to show its age, and fans are already looking forward to when Blizzard will be releasing the next chapter of the long-running demon-slaying franchise.
A new job opening for a game director, along with other staff positions, for an unannounced Diablo project has given gamers hope that the development of Diablo IV will soon be underway.
The job listing, which is posted on Blizzard's official website and is located at the company's headquarters in Irvine, California, says that the person to fill the position will "lead the Diablo series into the future."
The other positions that Blizzard is looking to fill for the unannounced Diablo project include a software engineer for graphics, a senior concept artist, a senior character artist, a senior visual effects artist, a senior animator and another animator.
These job openings hint at the fact that a new game could be coming to the Diablo franchise. However, there are other possibilities.
According to Blizzard, Josh Mosqueira, the current director for Diablo III, has stepped down from his position and has left the company.
"With Diablo III in a good place at this point, Josh felt that now was a good time to pursue other opportunities with minimal impact to the team," Blizzard said, adding that the position could be filled either internally or externally.
The game director job opening, therefore, starts Blizzard's search for a replacement of Mosqueira, who took over as Diablo III director from Jay Wilson. Upon its launch in 2012, Diablo III received criticism due to the low drop rate for items and its auction house that uses real-world money. When Mosqueira took over, he was able to lead many improvements to the title, including the development of the Reaper of Souls expansion.
The job opening, which is searching for Mosqueira's replacement, could then mean that Blizzard is simply looking for someone to head Diablo III, and the work could be on something as small as upcoming patches for the 4-year-old title.
The hiring of several other positions, however, points to the fact that it will be a much bigger project than that. If it would not be Diablo IV, perhaps a new expansion will be developed for Diablo III.
Fans of the franchise could also simply wait for BlizzCon in November, as any news regarding the Diablo franchise will likely be revealed at the annual event.
The latest news regarding the franchise is that its iconic Wizard and Necromancer characters were added to Blizzard's free-to-play MOBA, Heroes of the Storm, so fans are thirsty for Diablo-related announcements.
