Can we still call it Diablo? Censorship could make Diablo 4 unrecognizable in China

Blizzard recently gave Diablo IV a major overhaul with the 2.5.0 update. Smarter enemies, a reworked item system, and revamped defense and healing. But that’s nothing compared to the changes they had to make just to get the game playable in China.

Diablo 4 gets the full Chinese makeover

Diablo IV got the green light from China’s National Press and Publication Administration and will launch there on December 12, 2025, more than two years after the original release. And, as you might expect, this version comes with some visual tweaks to meet local regulations – in other words, a bit of censorship. And calling it “a bit” is of course a serious understatement.

That's our lovely Wandering Death (original version).Source: Dibalo IV; Developer: Blizzard

And here we have the Chinese version.Source: Wowhead

Instead of facing the Wandering Death boss as a giant skeleton, Chinese players will now fight a stone golem (via Wowhead). Even regular skeletons, the most common enemies in Diablo, have “evolved” from bones to stone. But the funniest change has to be the corpses, which have magically turned into wooden dummies. Blood is gone too, replaced with sand, and skill icons no longer have skulls. Healing Wells got a new color as well, so maybe now it’s just a healthy Gummiberry Juice.

Source: Wowhead

But that’s really nothing new for China. Blood in anime often gets changed to white, which just shows how little thought goes into it sometimes. Even the final scene in Arcane was tweaked so Caitlyn and Vi come off as just good friends, not a romantic couple.

So it’s either a ban, or you need to censor certain things if a game, anime, movie, or TV show wants to make it into China. Sometimes the changes look just plain bad, but most of the time they’re hilarious. I’m not sure how true it is, but there are some Reddit pics showing how sellers have to go to extreme lengths to get Yakuza and Like a Dragon games past censorship. Those “handcrafted” game covers are absolute masterpieces.

Diablo IV

June 6, 2023

Rate It!

• Overview
• Guide
• Maps
• Review

• China
• censorship
• Blizzard
• Diablo (franchise)