Since it was announced at BlizzCon 2019, Diablo 4 has certainly spent a lot of time under the radar. While lengthy development periods are nothing new for many Blizzard franchises, such as the oft delayed Overwatch 2, things are seemingly on track for Diablo 4 which is aiming for a worldwide release in 2023. Thankfully, fans won't have to wait quite that long to go hands on with the highly anticipated RPG as signups for future beta tests appeared online back in June.
In addition to the beta announcement, Diablo 4 had a major presence at the Xbox Games Showcase. During the show, fans got a brand-new trailer to watch as well as a developer deep dive into Diablo 4's dynamic open world, couch co-op, and even its end game content. As a few months have finally passed, Blizzard Entertainment is providing a new quarterly update for fans, highlighting some new milestones as well as how Diablo 4 will keep players invested long after launch.
Inside of Diablo 4's third quarterly update for 2022, Blizzard confirmed that the game is embracing a live service style, in an effort to answer fan wishes for more extensive seasonal support in past games like Diablo 3 and Diablo II: Resurrected. When a new season begins, all characters from the prior season at moved to the Eternal Realm where players can keep collecting loot and leveling up. In order to play in the new season, players create a fresh character to experience the new seasonal features while leveling up. Blizzard is also capping Paragon points, which it hopes helps players who missed a previous season to participate, earn seasonal rewards, and still be competitive.
Just like most live service games, Diablo 4 will also have season passes and a cosmetic shop where players can spend money. However, the blog post made it clear that none of these features will have pay-for-power options. Season Passes have a free and premium track of loot, where the free tier will have gameplay boosting items for all players, and the premium tier will include many aesthetics, cosmetics, and premium currency. In turn, the premium currency can be used in the in-game shop which features even more cosmetic rewards as well as armor and weapon transmog skins.
While there will no doubt be those disappointed in these live service elements, the reveals will likely satisfy many who were worried the full priced Diablo 4 would follow in the footsteps of its mobile sibling, Diablo Immortal. While Immortal has raked in major profits for Activision-Blizzard, fans have been highly critical of the monetization practices, where those who pay get better rewards faster. In addition, some have calculated it can cost over $100,000 just to fully level up.
Diablo 4 releases in 2023 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Blizzard