Tuesday, June 6th 2023
Two Diablo IV Expansions in Development at Blizzard
The Diablo franchise's general manager Rod Fergusson appeared on the Kinda Funny Xcast last week, only a few days before the fourth game's full launch - episode 140's interview segment focused on Blizzard's final preparations and post-game content (seasonal and possible DLC) calendar. Fergusson indicated that his team was very busy and will have more work to do: "As I sit here we're about to launch the main game, we're finishing up season one, we're working on season two, we're working on expansion one, we're kicking off expansion two…we're working on that now and we haven't even launched the game."
Blizzard Entertainment received much criticism for its slow and sparse trickle out of seasonal material for Diablo III, and Fergusson is keen to not repeat similar post-launch patterns with the latest entry in a very long running series (the first game debuted back in January 1997!). Diablo IV has been built with a live-service format in mind - thus allowing for greater and more substantial content to be delivered over seasonal time periods. Blizzard is likely aiming to compete with the likes of Bungie (Destiny 2) in terms of keeping an online game alive for a while - Fergusson outlines a key goal for his team: "We're going to be supporting Diablo 4 for years to come - (with) very rich seasons, much richer than we had in Diablo 3."
Rod Fergusson's Diablo IV Review Reactions - Kinda Funny Xcast Ep. 140 - fast forward to the two minute mark for the relevant conversation:
Source:
IGN
Blizzard Entertainment received much criticism for its slow and sparse trickle out of seasonal material for Diablo III, and Fergusson is keen to not repeat similar post-launch patterns with the latest entry in a very long running series (the first game debuted back in January 1997!). Diablo IV has been built with a live-service format in mind - thus allowing for greater and more substantial content to be delivered over seasonal time periods. Blizzard is likely aiming to compete with the likes of Bungie (Destiny 2) in terms of keeping an online game alive for a while - Fergusson outlines a key goal for his team: "We're going to be supporting Diablo 4 for years to come - (with) very rich seasons, much richer than we had in Diablo 3."
25 Comments on Two Diablo IV Expansions in Development at Blizzard
I play diablo for the campaign in coop, finish, close it, uninstall, that's it. WTF "season" are you talking about in a isometric RPG
D3 also had 28 seasons since they added that system to the game. 'I've played like 25 out of the 28'
PoE also has leagues, usually thats when most ppl are playing or come back to the game.
This is pretty much normal by today's standards, if anything there would be more complaints if the game had none.
Personally I'm also a seasonal only player ever since D2 ladders on Bnet, its also what kept my interest alive in D3 over the years.
Always playing for 2-3 weeks/season or until I reach my personal goals and then drop it till the next one with a new patch/balance changes.
D4's map is quite massive on its own, I've been playing for 4 days now rather actively 'lvl 50 atm' and I'm yet to even explore the whole thing nor finish all of the quests.
If the expansions will be solid additions to the game like LoD was for D2 and RoS for D3 then I don't mind buying them/should offer tons of hours of gameplay in the long term anyway.
Btw D3 was also supposed to have a second expansion too but they scratched it and relased some of its content as a seasonal update + sold the Necro for 15$.
They also said that the premium pass will unlock certain amount of currency which you can put towards the next premium season pass but not fully pay it off. This is a real d**k move imo because typically people would buy the first premium season pass for $10 in this case and use the unlocked in game currency from playing the first season to keep rolling and unlocking each upcoming premium season pass. looks like if you want each premium season pass you will have to pay a small amount of money for each upcoming season
If this is the price for a vibrant and kicking online community its not really a high price to pay. I'm happy we're rid of the RMAH and Blizzard isn't really likely to push two dozen bits of 4 dollar content pieces out either. We really get what we asked for - proper expansions, and a good base game with good online support.
Apparently I will have a 'trial' version of the battle pass once its live/during the first Season since I've bought the Deluxe edition and then I will see how it works for real or if its worth it for me but likely I wont pay for it once it expires.
But hey if its allows them for more free updates/patches then I don't mind having it as an option, cosmetics I would rather just buy them directly if I do happen to like some that much tho for now I'm pleased with the in game transmog looks.
For real tho, that game is legit af!
It all seems a bit much in comparison to Path of Exile, a game that has just as more content (been out forever) for no up front cost and has only ever had microtransactions up until a year ago (when they introduced a premium season pass that basically no one uses).
I burned out on blizz games after how D3, then D2C And W3R were handled
I can't be arsed spending the effort to learn yet another disapointment has been createdThis is how DRG does things, and it works great there. Happy people can pay for cosmetics which are used to fund free content for everyone.
Devs get money and new players, die-hards get new shinies and new content lures bored people back.I never liked them, but yeah they've been around a long long time.
I was planning on opening a separate topic to discuss the game but eh I don't see much interest on this forum, there are only a few of us playing from what I've noticed.
It feels like they kill your childhood when they ruin sequels, it felt like it took a LONG time for Diablo 3 to catch up to what it should have been at launch - and then D2R came out without learning any of the same lessons (like yes we want a remaster with the same gameplay, but we need modern controls because mice and keyboards have changed since then guys...)
It was split into two categories, pure comsetics and QoL (like the chest tabs)
Here is a post from 2020 talking about their most popular ones
www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/2860204
Here is the "daily deals" for 2013...
pathofexile.fandom.com/wiki/Daily_Deals/2013
and their point shop-link for reference: www.pathofexile.com/purchase
PoE is of a (semi-)fully F2P game. and imo, thus much more "OK" to have MTX than a bloody 70$ game
(Saying semi, since if you are "hardcore", the chest tabs and some QoL is allegedly almost required)
Dungeons are private by default and can only be entered with other players if they are in a party already.
It's survived and expanded purely off of microtransactions with no up front cost, paid DLC or paid season passes for over 9 years.
Currently Blizzard says that their microtransactions will be purely cosmetic, but just looking at the QoL limitations in the game right now, such as current stash tabs(4) and lack of gem bag, etc., it's hard to trust it will stay that way, unless the paid DLC is where those QoL improvements will come from, which is just a way to get around their promise of only-cosmetic MTX.
I don't trust Blizzard to keep it only-cosmetic. 2 years mzx, and they'll introduce some bought QoL-stuff (like PoE), and a sometime after they'll introduce some kind of booster packs. I bet.
Wouldn't surprise me if they include new classes in season pass (as "early access" to them)
I had the opportunity to play this for an hour yesterday and then got a connection error and was queued for login 10 minutes. Then I got errors. Rinse and repeat.
And yes, you get randoms in your play. I don't like it either.
Skill trees and all are in a good place though, but at the same time its Diablo 3 itemization at its core, which is again... not a great thing.
I really want it to be good. But I can't deny these reality checks. Damn
The only saving grace is that I know Blizzard is likely to adapt things to meet the complaints. The login issues will ofc definitely be fixed. I just hope they get it done soon, this is a week old now.
Otherwise though the game is nice. That's what's most jarring about it. The game at its core is just fine. Its all the bullshit around it that kills the experience.PoE has ten times more value, but also much more complexity. Diablo is as on-rails as an ARPG gets. Its super casual these days. PoE isn't. Still... stash tabs are a must, so the actual entry fee is certainly about 10-20 dollars if you want any kind of comfort during play. And then there's all the alternative stash tabs to cater to all those drops (most of which you'll want to save!).
But I fully agree. There is a lot more game in PoE, but some would argue, there's too much game in it, and I wouldn't disagree entirely. The passive tree isn't even the biggest hurdle, just the sheer amount of stuff alongside it. The game rains such a wide variety of items on you, you just don't know where to stop or start for example.