Recently, Path of Exile designer Chris Wilson stated that he sincerely hopes Diablo 5 will be a good game. He believes that if the new title succeeds, it will attract more players to action role-playing games; currently, he holds cautious expectations for the game.
Wilson said that the Diablo series led him down the path of creating Path of Exile. As a teenager, he was obsessed with Diablo 2, and six years after its release, with no news of a sequel, he and his friends created Path of Exile, hoping for a new action role-playing game to play. However, he stated that he gradually lost interest in the recent entries in the series: Diablo 3 failed to capture his attention upon release, and some of the designs shown when Diablo 4 was announced did not spark his anticipation.
The recently announced Diablo 5 has given Wilson a glimmer of hope. He specifically mentioned that the new game's logo, featuring burning black text, reminded him of the logos from the first two entries in the series. However, he still reminds himself not to get too excited too soon, and believes that Blizzard's public discussion about having considered making the new title an expansion for Diablo 4 may affect players' confidence in it as a standalone sequel.
Despite this, Wilson still hopes for Diablo 5's success. He believes ARPG players are eager for more content, and if this game is good enough to attract a large number of new players to the genre, they may later try other titles as well. In his words, "a rising tide lifts all boats."