There's A New Sheriff In Town As Blizzard Announces New Game Director For Diablo IV

Note: Activision Blizzard is still under investigation by the state of California for serious harassment charges.

In case you’re wondering what’s been going on with Diablo IV, we do have a bit of news. There’s a new face at the helm. Well, not a "new" new face…but new to this particular job. Joe Shely, who previously worked on several World of Warcraft expansions and was the senior game designer on Diablo III before joining the Diablo IV team in 2017, is now the new D4 game director.

Shely replaces Luis Barriga who left Blizzard back in August, around the same time as Jesse McCree, after California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed suit against Activision Blizzard for sexual harassment and discrimination against female employees. Shely briefly alludes to this in his first Diablo IV quarterly update letter, but mostly sticks to introducing himself and talking about the game. In fact, the second half of the letter provides a ton of information on the sound design practices used in creating Diablo IV. If you’re interested in that kind of thing, you can find the full letter with a whole bunch of videos on the Blizzard site.