Since it was announced at BlizzCon 2019, Diablo 4 has certainly spent a lot of time under the radar. While long development times are nothing new for many Blizzard franchises, like the oft-delayed Overwatch 2, things seem to be on the right track for devil 4which is targeting a worldwide launch in 2023.
Thankfully, fans won’t have to wait that long to try out the long-awaited RPG, as sign-ups for future beta tests popped up online in June.
In addition to the beta announcement, Diablo 4 had a big presence at the Xbox Games Showcase event. During the expo, fans were treated to a new trailer, as well as an immersion of the developers in the dynamic open world of devil 4in cooperative mode and even in its final content.
As a few months have passed, Blizzard Entertainment is bringing a new quarterly update to fans, highlighting some new milestones and how Diablo 4 will keep players engaged long after release.
As part of Diablo 4’s third quarterly update for 2022, Blizzard confirmed that the game is adopting a live service style, in an effort to respond to fan wishes for broader seasonal support on older games like Diablo 3 and Diablo II: Resurrection.
When a new one starts season, all characters from the previous season are moved to the Eternal Realm, where players can continue to collect loot and level up. To play through the new season, players create a new character to experience the season’s new features while leveling up.
Blizzard is also capping Paragon Points, which it hopes will help players who missed out on a previous season to participate, earn seasonal rewards, and stay competitive.
Like most games as a service, Diablo 4 will also have season passes and a cosmetics store where players can spend money. However, the blog post made it clear that none of these features will have pay-to-win options. Season Passes have both a free and a premium loot tier, where the free tier will have items that boost gameplay for all players, and the premium tier will include lots of cosmetics, cosmetics, and premium currency.
In turn, the premium currency can be used in the in-game store, which offers even more cosmetic rewards, as well as transmog weapon and armor skins.
While there will no doubt be some who will be disappointed by these game-as-a-service elements, the revelations will likely satisfy many who feared that the full-priced Diablo 4 would follow in the footsteps of its mobile sibling, Diablo Immortal.