Blizzard loses another key employee. Caleb Arseneaux, Diablo Immortal’s Production Director, has announced that he will be leaving the company. And that just before the game appears.
Who is the lead producer? Caleb Arseneaux has been with Blizzard since August 2018, just over 3 years. He came into the industry as a developer of the indie game Scribblenauts and then to Blizzard via Disney.
Most recently, as lead producer, he was responsible for the development of the mobile game Diablo Immortal, which is currently being created in collaboration with NetEase. On linked.in, Arseneaux announced that it was now his “last week” at Blizzard.
Blizzard loses important employees: Arseneaux is leaving the company shortly after Jen Oneal, the former co-boss of Blizzard. This announced in early November that it was leaving Blizzard.
Oneal, along with Mike Ybarra, were the new leadership duo of Blizzard after the resignation of J. Allen Brack. She left the company after just 3 months in her new job.
The Game Director of Diablo Immortal, Wyatt Cheng, remains according to current information, but still with Blizzard and continues to work on the game. So at least one of the pillars for the development is still there.
Diablo Immortal in closed beta, release 2022
How’s Diablo Immortal? At the moment Diablo Immortal is in the closed beta, which should run for 3 months since October 29th. However, only selected players from Canada and Australia as well as the press, and later also from Asia, can take part.
In the beta, the Necromancer will be available to test as a new class, as well as new PvP modes and some improved features. Controller support is now also in the game.
Although Immortal caused a lot of displeasure among fans of the franchise at the announcement, the mobile ARPG is now quite well received. The first testers say: Immortal plays like Diablo 3, only better.
The development will probably continue as before. Arseneaux describes the team as “passionate” and “talented”. However, it is currently difficult to say how much his departure will affect production.
At the moment it’s mainly up to the beta testers to provide feedback and the developers to implement it. Some of the experts and streamers have already addressed issues such as long waiting times that need to be resolved before the release.
When does the game come out? The release of the ARPG is planned for 2022 on Android and iOS. A PC version is not planned at the moment, but the game can be played via emulators such as BlueStacks.