While Diablo games have always received industry-leading post-launch support for the eras they were launched in, Diablo IV is going a step further, with a full-on live-service approach. We already know Diablo IV will feature regular seasonal updates, which will offer new quests, gear, battle passes, gameplay features, balance tweaks, and more, but in a new interview with IGN, Diablo general manager Rod Fergusson went into a bit more detail.
Post-launch updates to past Diablo games mostly focused on mechanical and gameplay tweaks, but Diablo IV offers a large connected open world and a greater focus on lore and narrative, so can players expect a regular rollout of new story content post-launch? According to Fergusson, the answer is yes, with seasons offering new narrative questlines. These will largely be sidequest-style content – they won’t add to the game’s core story – but they sound like they’ll be plenty meaty. Meanwhile, there will also be full-on expansions that will add to the game’s core narrative.
“As [support] Diablo IV as a live-service, we definitely want story to be a part of that. The way that you'll see that play out in seasons is more questline based -- it'll have a narrative questline. […] Diablo IV will have a richer context around each season and also have a narrative theme that you're working toward and that all the things will relate to: the cosmetics relate to it, the mechanics will relate to it. There will be a narrative questline that won't extend the campaign, but will be a story that is taking place inside the open world. […] But as we look to the future of expansions, those are the opportunities where we can continue to extend the game from a story perspective, from a mechanics perspective, from a world perspective.”
Delivering a satisfying amount of post-launch content on a regular basis is something Blizzard has a mixed track record with. While you can set your watch by World of Warcraft updates, games like Overwatch have struggled. Of course, plenty of recent games from other developers, like Halo Infinite and Battlefield 2042, have failed to deliver a robust pipeline of content. Thankfully, it seems that won’t be the case with Diablo IV, as Fergusson says Season 1 content is “pretty much already done.”
Fergusson further promises the Diablo team has “multiple lanes of development” so several seasons and updates can be worked on at once. That said, working ahead ironically means that certain gameplay tweaks and updates may not arrive quite as quickly as fans hope. Again, Season 1 is basically done, so balance issues and other non-critical problems fans will undoubtedly pick up at Diablo IV’s launch may not be addressed by Season 2, at the earliest.
If you want to get even more details on Diablo IV’s endgame and upcoming content, do check out IGN’s full interview here.
Diablo IV arrives on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and PS5 on June 6. You can check out Wccftech’s full review of the game here.
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