Activision Blizzard had its earnings call recently, most of which was filled with statistical financial gains and losses over the past quarter. There was some talk about the development of some of their IPs, two of which are highly anticipated, Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV. It’s been a little more than a year since Blizzard officially revealed both titles at BlizzCon 2019, and little to no information has been heard of since. With BlizzConline right around the corner, fans were hoping for a 2021 release date, if not for both then possibly just one. Unfortunately, in the aforementioned earnings call, Activision Blizzard stated that they aren’t expecting either game to be part of their 2021 financial reports. In other words, Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV will more than likely not launch this year.

Activision says Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 will not launch this year.

Sounds like Overwatch 2 will come in 2022.

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) February 4, 2021

Since neither title has an official release date, this technically is not a delay. If anything, it’s just confirmation that the company is slowly progressing on the development for both IPs, something that Blizzard is famous, and infamous for. Overwatch 2 is of course a full-fledged sequel to Overwatch which has gone on to become one of the most popular multiplayer games in history. Diablo IV is the fourth entry of the fabled Diablo franchise, which is considered one of the three major pillars of Blizzard Entertainment, the other two being Warcraft and StarCraft. Considering that every Blizzard title tends to carry some amount of anticipation and hype, it’s not surprising to see that the company is not ready to make an official date for either title.

Activision Blizzard already made the video game community turn upside down this year when it was revealed that the company acquired Vicarious Visions, which is the same studio that developed the critically acclaimed Tony Hawks Pro Skater 1+2. However, this news was met with a mixed reception as Bloomberg also revealed that the studio has been working on the Diablo franchise, specifically the long-rumored Diablo II Remake. It’s more than likely that this will be officially announced at BlizzConline, as well as a potential free-to-play World of Warcraft mobile game that was also talked about in the earnings call.

Clearly, Activision Blizzard has a lot going on right now, and while a few of these projects could see the light of day in 2021, it’s more than likely that most of them will be launching in either 2022 or beyond. If neither Overwatch 2 or Diablo IV even get a mention at the end of the month, then fans will no doubt have even more questions than they did when the titles were announced. Either way, we won’t be waiting long to find out, as BlizzConline, which will be free to watch, is scheduled to go live from February 19-20. Speaking of Overwatch 2 and Diablo IV, we got to play the demos for both titles at BlizzCon 2019 and gave our impressions of them which you can check out here and here. We also spoke to Jeff Kaplan on the development of Overwatch 2 at the time, which you can read here.