D3 moved a lot of units and was super hyped. Within a month, everyone was sick of getting wrecked by the bees in Act II Inferno and quit. Path of Exile will be on 5.0 by the time this comes out and this game will be far behind.
The way Blizzard treated D3 is what concerns me most about the viability of this game in the long term. They have done virtually nothing to support D3 since the expansion came out. I don't think they care about Diablo aside from it being a nostalgia, legacy, big name IP they can cash in on to move boxes. I love Diablo and I hope I'm wrong.
its more complex then that.
D3 sold more units in 1 week then PoE has in its lifetime. Blizzfan boys can't be underestimated.
That said, the retention on d3 was of course HORRIBLE. D3 launch was a shitshow, and pissed of alot of people. Many of which never came back. Lack of support. releasing a paid expac, to fix the problems of the base game. Fucking bullshit, no doubt.
And Blizzards rep has only gone down since. PR disaster after PR disaster. HS is way down, heroes of the storm nearly dead. But, nostalgia is still a huge thing. I'm sure D4 will get a ton of sales again, regardless of its quality.
We are also still years away, and have time to see how Blizzard shapes up or fucks up even more in the 2-3years before D4 is out.
GGG and PoE is the opposite. They have done nothing but GROW. But at the same time, we are talking about a very slow build up from a non-existent fan base.
again, D3 sold 6.3 million copies in 1 week. 3.5million day 1.
And Path of Exile is aging. that shit is 8 years old already. (6 from "release")
the ball is undoubtedly in GGG's court. 4.0 is either going to be a massive overhaul, that shits all over anything D4 could possibly be... or, a massive let down, as its just a minor engine update, etc...