For those people who prefer to take in their gaming content more passively, though, Blizzard (and parent company Microsoft) (and massive streamer Netflix) did still have at least one big surprise saved up: A new animated series set in the world of the Gothic and bloody Diablo games, currently in development for the streamer.
Per Variety, very few details about the series have been revealed—Blizzard hasn’t said who’s animating it, or when it’s expected to arrive, noting only that “this is only the beginning, with even more taking shape across our universes.” But we can venture a few guesses as to what it’ll look and sound like: A whole lot of muscular people swinging swords at giant demons while old men invite you to stay awhile and listen to their various lore dumps about the never-ending wars between Heaven and Hell. (Source: Having played basically any Diablo game, ever.)
This news is, honestly, more interesting in light of recent reports that Microsoft was getting kind of jealous of its PlayStation rival Sony’s successes in TV over the last few years; the tech giant has reportedly been shopping around packages of its various gaming brands, trying to find another show that will do as well as its Fallout is currently doing on Prime Video (and erase the low-level shame of the Halo TV adaptation from everybody’s memories for good). It’s not clear if Netflix has signed any kind of wider deal with Microsoft or Blizzard, or if it’s just continuing the model it kicked off with its Castlevania animated show several years back: Cartoon adaptations of some of gaming’s biggest brands that make fans happy, without swinging for huge live-action price tags like the Last Of Us TV adaptation, or the upcoming God Of War.
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