As we approach the launch of any big online game

As we approach the launch of any big online game, I’m always ready to write a story about disaster. This is because, historically speaking, big online games like Diablo IV launch badly. Just looking at Activision-Blizzard D2R ladder items, we can point to two recent launches of major titles that crashed and burned at launch:

Blizzard’s Overwatch 2 launched to such high demand that even getting through the server queue and having a chance to login at all could take hours. YouTuber Dunkey made a pretty hilarious video about this:

When Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare II launched last November, it was so frustrating I briefly uninstalled the game. I have never had a AAA game crash on me so many times. Matchmaking was a disaster. The UI was (and remains) unintuitive. It was a mess.

Both these games are doing fine now. I play them both regularly and enjoy them a great deal, but their launches were anything but stellar.

Diablo IV hasmiraculouslybucked that trend buy diablo II resurrected items. Perhaps desperate to avoid the grim Error 37 days of Diablo III, or even the frustrations around Overwatch 2, Blizzard managed to pull off a nearly-perfect launch, at least on PC.