Path of Exile Creator Wants Diablo 5 to Be a Good Game

Chris Wilson, co-founder of Grinding Gear Games and one of the creators of Path of Exile, has shared his thoughts on the Diablo 5 announcement. In a video on his YouTube channel, he admitted that he sincerely hopes the new entry in the series succeeds, even though the previous Diablo 3 and Diablo 4 disappointed him.

Yesterday, Wilson released a long video on his channel breaking down the Diablo 5 announcement shown at BlizzCon 2026. In it, he made no secret of the fact that Diablo once shaped his path in the industry. According to him, the second game in the series influenced him so strongly that it eventually inspired him to create Path of Exile:

I spent my teenage years obsessing over Diablo, and played Diablo 2 to a degree that completely changed the course of my life.

However, things didn't work out with the following games. Wilson said he had high hopes for both announcements but was left disappointed each time. About Diablo 3, he said the game was too different from the second one, so he didn't enjoy it:

I was hopeful for the Diablo 3 announcement in 2008, but...it was too different from Diablo II to be enjoyable for me

The same thing happened with Diablo 4, and Chris Wilson felt that the series had moved on without him

The same thing happened with the Diablo 4 announcement in 2019...I felt that the Diablo series had just moved on

However, after two entries that didn't appeal to him, the upcoming Diablo 5 made him change his mind. Wilson admitted that he didn't expect anything special from the new game, but its first showing pleasantly surprised him:

When I watched the Diablo 5 announcement, I felt a glimmer of hope. I desperately want Diablo 5 to be a good game.

The reason is simple: in his view, Diablo 5's success will benefit not only its developers but the entire genre. Blizzard's game has a huge marketing budget and can bring millions of new players into action RPGs, who may later discover other games, including Path of Exile:

If Diablo 5 does really well, it'll sell a lot of copies, and bring a lot of mainstream players into the genre. A rising tide lifts all ships

If you're also a fan of the action RPG genre and want to try the best games out there, we recommend Eneba. There, you can buy different editions and DLC for Diablo 4 or try Path of Exile 2 in early access. And with the promo code EGW5, you'll also get 5% off the platform's entire catalog.

Chris Wilson was one of the founders of Grinding Gear Games and led the development of Path of Exile for many years, but he left the studio in 2023. Meanwhile, Path of Exile 2 is preparing for its full release: on December 11, 2026, the game will leave early access and become free to play.