Diablo V: Everything we know

Diablo V was announced at BlizzCon 2026.

The game is still in an early development phase.

Release is targeted for spring 2029.

Blizzard intends to publish regular development updates from 2027 onwards.

Blizzard says it revealed the game this early to be able to listen, learn what excites players most, and let that inform the decisions ahead.

Blizzard runs an official Diablo V site that takes sign-ups for development updates.

Blizzard frames the game around one question: what must you become when the world has already fallen?

Blizzard says it is confident of hitting the spring 2029 window.

Senior art director John Mueller says game director Joe Shely wrote down "community involvement, as early as possible" at the start of development, and that it became a team pillar.

Blizzard and Netflix are developing an animated series set in the world of Diablo. Blizzard has not connected it to Diablo V, and no studio, date or story has been named.

Blizzard says it has no platforms to announce yet, and that it wants as many people as possible to be able to play.

Blizzard says the "PC version" remark made at the reveal came from the Diablo PR director and acknowledged that PC and Battle.net are foundational to Blizzard, rather than announcing its platform plans.

Blizzard says the next chapter needed a new game rather than another Diablo IV expansion.

Cinematics director Neil David Carter posted "First shoot #Diablo5" on 14 October 2026: filming for the game's cinematics has begun. What is being filmed has not been said.

Senior producer Tiffany Watt says Diablo V has had its own branch of the Diablo IV engine "for a while now", tooled for this game so that it does not carry over tech debt.

Watt says features like party finder and the armory were meant to be in Diablo IV at launch, and that bringing "the whole package" matters this time. She has not said what Diablo V launches with.

Diablo IV game director Brent Gibson says Diablo IV will keep getting seasons after Diablo V launches, for as long as players keep showing up - as Diablo II and III still do.

The heroes of the past failed.

Sanctuary has fallen and Diablo has won.

Diablo rules from the throne of Westmarch.

Sanctuary is used as the staging ground for an assault on the High Heavens.

The population and their souls are used as weapons in the Eternal Conflict.

The player takes the role of the Heir to Westmarch.

There is an as yet unexplained connection between the player character and Diablo.

The initial focus is on the Western Continent.

Seven years have passed since Diablo conquered Sanctuary.

Senior art director John Mueller places the game roughly 100 years after Mephisto's defeat - the century runs up to the conquest, not since it.

Mueller calls the seven years a "Lost 7 Years": finding out what happened in them, and what was lost, is described as a core part of the storytelling.

Diablo is no longer a distant threat waiting at the end of the journey: he is present from the moment the game begins, shaping the story, the world and the player's path through it.

Executive producer Matt Zitterman says "Best campaign ever" - a sticky note in the director's office - has become a pillar of how the team thinks about the game, building on how Diablo IV told its story.

The team describes telling three stories at once: the past, the present desolation, and what Sanctuary is being turned into.

Shely says Diablo's conquest will not happen entirely off-screen: the game opens with Westmarch burned and the player on the run, and how the conquest happened is learned while travelling the world.

Hepler says the story begins when the Heir discovers they can enter Diablo's Terror Realm and come out alive, which nobody else can do.

Hepler says the bond between the Heir and Diablo - and how it affected his ability to win - unfolds over the course of the story.

Humans have submitted to Diablo, joined cults, or been corrupted into powerful Dread Commanders.

Blizzard describes a world that is procedurally altered between visits.

Returning to an area can change the terrain.

Returning to an area can change the points of interest.

Returning to an area can change the enemies present.

Returning to an area can change the rewards.

Returning to an area can change the degree of demonic corruption.

The changing world is meant to reflect Diablo's advancing rule, not only to randomise dungeon layouts.

Instead of permanently safe cities, the player travels with a growing caravan of survivors.

Caravan members act as merchants.

Caravan members act as companions.

Caravan members act as quest givers.

Caravan members act as narrative characters.

Caravan members may serve as upgrade stations for crafting and supply.

A former Sister of the Sightless Eye is a confirmed caravan member.

A stranded Treasure Goblin searching for a new purpose in a ruined world is a confirmed caravan member.

Shely calls the caravan "a point of light moving through the land": areas it leaves stay empty of people, and can become dangerous again after a while.

The Demon Hunter is confirmed: two crossbows, mobility, and attacks from the shadows.

The Monk is confirmed: melee combat with fists and holy power.

The Plague Knight is a new class that spreads diseases and then consumes them as a source of power.

Further classes are to be revealed later.

Shely and Mueller say appearance and background are chosen separately from the class. Mueller is aiming for "more RPG character creation than we've ever had"; the options have not been described.

Shely says Blizzard plans to include more classes than any base Diablo game has had, announced over time. No total has been given.

Itemisation is strongly influenced by Diablo II.

Items are intended to be understandable, memorable and desirable over the long term.

Blizzard says it is experimenting with stat requirements on gear - not that equipment will carry them.

Items of different sizes occupy different numbers of inventory squares again.

Equipment sets return.

Shely calls collecting a set a "player quest", meant to "broaden the range of viable builds rather than narrow them".

Shely says that, as in Diablo II, "the item's name will tell you something about its power level".

Runes and runewords in the style of Diablo II are planned.

Crafting is intended to build on ideas from Lord of Hatred.

Shely says Diablo V will take "a somewhat different approach" to monster level scaling than Diablo IV, because automatic scaling can get in the way of feeling stronger as you level.

What replaces Diablo IV's scaling has not been described; Shely says the team has not fully discussed it yet.

Shely says Diablo V will keep some moment-to-moment execution, but on balance be a game of planning and investment, designed so that any challenge can be overcome with the right build.

Shely says the team is committed to a complete endgame at launch.

Some of the complexity of the systems and itemisation is deliberately deferred into the endgame, so the campaign does not overwhelm players who are there for the story and the world.

Hepler says the people who love the campaign are working on the campaign, and the people who love systems are working on the endgame.

Hepler says the team is "thinking a lot about the post campaign state", and that the end of the story should leave you feeling you have achieved something with a lot still left to do.

Diablo V can be played solo or in a group.

Blizzard says it will have more to share about multiplayer as development goes on.

The platforms Diablo V will release on have not been confirmed.

The final business model has not been confirmed.

Pre-orders and editions have not been announced.

An exact release date has not been announced - only a spring 2029 window.

No alpha or beta dates have been announced.

The total number of classes is unknown.

No PvP system has been described.

What the endgame consists of has not been described - only that one is promised at launch.

The size of the inventory grid and the stash has not been given.

Seasons and a battle pass have not been confirmed.

Crossplay and cross-progression have not been confirmed.

Whether a permanent internet connection is required is unknown.

System requirements have not been published.