Image: Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard’s latest quarterly update for Diablo 4 breaks down its ‘much more ambitious’ seasonal structure and monetisation.
Blizzard Entertainment has released a new quarterly update for Diablo 4, running through the game’s ambitious seasonal content updates and monetised in-game store. The latter topic is touched on very delicately, almost as if Blizzard knows how much Diablo fans are currently wary of in-your-face monetisation and pay-to-win elements.
On Diablo 4’s monetisation, Blizzard promises zero pay-to-win microtransactions:
As we’ve discussed previously, Diablo IV will be a full-price game with a Cosmetics Shop and Season Pass—none of which provide any pay-for-power options. Our goal in designing our in-game purchases is that we want to create beautiful things which add value to players’ experience of the game.
Essentially, this means that Diablo 4 will have loads of microtransactions - as is the norm with most modern live-service games - but they will largely focus on the season pass and other cosmetics. This follows the monetisation structure of games like Fortnite, despite it being a full-priced game. Blizzard also promises that loads of cosmetic options will be available through gameplay at no extra charge, so the in-game shop will be completely optional to use.
Now, onto Diablo 4’s seasons. Blizzard promises that the action-RPG's seasonal updates will be much more ambitious than anything seen in Diablo 3, while staying true to what fans have come to expect from the franchise. There will be a seasonal reset like usual, erasing your character, items and gold for the sake of a fresh start. However, your old characters won’t be gone forever. Instead, they’ll be moved to the ‘Eternal Realm’, where you can continue to level them up and collect loot.
Starting each new season with a clean slate will let Blizzard shake up the meta in meaningful ways. Every season will come with a new gameplay feature and questline that lets players learn more about the world of Sanctuary, revisit old characters and meet new ones. In addition to this, Blizzard will constantly add new legendary and unique items, paragon boards, glyphs and other elements that impact gameplay to ensure the meta doesn’t get too stale.
Diablo 4 will also feature plenty of live events every season, ranging from a weekend invasion of the Drowned or the arrival of a stranger in the Dry Steppes, giving players new adventures to latch onto as they make their way through the campaign. The seasons’ big hook will be the Season Journey, which offers limited-time rewards for completed chapters. The Season Journey will get more difficult to complete as you go on, culminating in a major boss encounter, but there will be lots of rewards waiting for you on the other side. The Season Journey is free, and its objectives will allow players to advance the Season Pass.
It’s a tricky balance that Blizzard is trying to strike. Diablo is all about creating overpowered builds, but you can’t carry on annihilating everything in your path without things getting a little boring. The developer makes big promises in this quarterly update that there will be constant balance changes, updates and new content to address player feedback, but we can only take Blizzard at its word for now - not that its word means a whole lot these days.
Diablo 4 is set to launch sometime in 2023.
