Just as the Diablo 4 community went through the now-standard-fare highs and lows of being a fan of the latest installment in Blizzard Entertainment’s award-winning dungeon crawler, the series’ creators sat down with the “enemy” at ExileCon in an hour-long “ARPG Roundtable” hosted by none other than the biggest ARPG fan in the world, Kripparrian.
To say that the panel was filled with a who’s who of the APRG genre is no exaggeration, as each individual carries a resume that puts others to shame. David Brevik, widely credited as the brains behind the Diablo franchise, was among them. Also a part of the panel were the Schaefer brothers, Erich and Max, who were instrumental in the development of both Diablo and Diablo II and two-thirds of the co-founders of the now-defunct Blizzard North. Finally, the last three were Travis Baldress, one of the co-makers of Torchlight alongside the Schaefer Brothers; Chris Wilson, the CEO, game designer director of Path of Exile, and co-founder of Grinding Gear Games; and Erik Olofsson, a co-founder of Grinding Gear Games and former lead artist of Path of Exile.
Naturally, tuning into this panel is heaven for any ARPG fan, and it definitely didn’t disappoint. But, there’s a part near the end that would leave any player wanting to trade their souls to Diablo just for it to happen.
As the panel was about to wrap up, Kripp, as he’s fondly called within the ARPG community, threw in a throwaway question, “Why don’t you guys come up together and make the Ultimate Game?”
The entire panel couldn’t help but laugh at the whimsical question as the crowd all clapped, perhaps in united joy.
Erich was the first to respond, describing the panel as a “hell of a group” and that they could definitely make something “if the personalities didn’t clash too much.” His brother, Max, then chimed in, ribbing him, as brothers do, saying that “it’s very hard to work with a sibling.”
Then, as Max tried to find the words to continue what he was saying, David jumped in and told everyone, “I’m in.”
Now, before you go ahead and celebrate the possibility of seeing these six work together under a single umbrella on the same game, we’ve got bad news for you – it isn’t happening.
The good news is that, as Chris said, the DNA of Diablo, Torchlight, and Path of Exile, are already present in so many other projects that they’re either involved in or were inspired by their works, so it’s all like their “spirit” is in every game genre anyway.
Besides, as Erich puts it, the way that they’re all working on their own things is better since it lets them spread out.
Technically, there is a game that the panel have had a direct hand in making, or at least five of them do, either as one of its developers, as a consultant or as a direct influence – Path of Exile 2.
Path of Exile 2, which enters closed beta next year, isn’t quite the “Ultimate Game” but its predecessor, Path of Exile, is billed as the true successor to the older Diablo games – not Diablo 3 and certainly not the much-maligned Diablo 4, in the eyes of fans.
We’ll have to wait and see if Path of Exile 2 lives up to the billing, but in the meantime, ARPG fans can check out Diablo 4, which is starting to get better as of the latest update, and Baldur’s Gate 3, now available on the PC.
Max Schaefer, now the VP of games over at Zynga Games, is working on an “unannounced” cross-platform game.
