Blizzard has gone on record explaining what its plans are forDiablo 4’s post-launch content, and it seems that the game will indeed be a full-fledged live-service experience. While the fact that the newDiablowill have live-service elements isn’t new, the extent of the developer’s plans for the longevity of the game appears to be very substantial.
There’s every chance thatDiablo 4may be the best in the seriesfor a number of reasons, of course, but one of the game’s biggest draws may end up being that there’s always something new for players to do. While its immediate predecessor,Diablo 3, did end up getting seasonal content a while after it came out, the new title will be fully adapted for this new concept.
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According to Blizzard,Diablo 4is going to receive substantial story-based content every three months. Game Informer’s recent interview withDiablo 4’s Associate Game Director Joe Piepiora revealed that the devs plan to release “meaty” updates alongside each new battle pass. While Piepiora didn’t want to say that these content releases were actual, full-fledged expansion packs, each of these quarterly updates will come with new features, mechanics, and other assorted goodies.
From what Blizzard has said, its plans forDiablo 4sound eerily similar to what Bungie’s been doing withDestiny 2.Destinyalso gets quarterly seasonal content releases that introduce new mechanics, content, and their own respective battle passes, and the core idea is essentially the same between the two games. An issue worth considering, though, is thatDestiny 2has a serious FOMO problem, and something similar may end up happening withDiablo 4as well.
Blizzard is yet to go into the nitty gritty of its post-launch support plans, though, and the recent interview only really provided a generalized overview of what players ought to expect. It’s entirely possible that the seasonal content releases end up having little to no FOMO in the end and thatDiablo 4’s endgame progressionwon’t end up getting vandalized by constant changes and the potential power creep.
Diablo 4’s official release dateis already confirmed, and Blizzard had previously explained that the first batch of the game’s seasonal content will not be coming out alongside the main game. Instead, it’s due to launch sometime later on, and those eager to participate in its seasonal progression should stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks and months.
Diablo 4releases June 6 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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