Steam has launched its Winter Sale 2023, which runs from December 21st to January 4th, offering some impressive deals on popular games like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Diablo 4, Hoghwarts Legacy, Alan Wake 2, Assassin's Creed Mirage and others.

Although it does not offer free games, like it is the case with Epic Games Store Holiday Sale or GOG's Winter Sale, Steam might have the cheapest price on some games that you might have missed. There are plenty of titles on the list with discounts from 30, up to 75 percent, and it might be the perfect time to get some games that you might have missed.

During last week's Gamescom presentation of Diablo IV's upcoming Season of Blood (due October 17), Rod Fergusson—general manager of the franchise—announced that the game's user base had surpassed 12 million. He also proudly declared that the active population has spent around 1.3 billion hours playing the extremely popular, and evidently highly addictive, action RPG. Number crunchers estimate that this works out as 100+ hours (on average) per player. Blizzard Entertainment and Activision have chosen to not release official sales figures for Diablo IV, but Fergusson's disclosure provides us with a rough picture of how well the game has sold since launching on June 5 across multiple platforms. It should be noted that the fourth entry in the long-running series has not been released via game subscription platforms.

Blizzard Entertainment has started teasing the second season of new content: "At the behest of their dark master, a newly turned army of ravenous vampires has set their sights on Sanctuary. The master's sinister plot remains a shrouded mystery but their pursuit for the blood of innocents has caused an uproar. You must learn to hunt the hunter—your fate depends on it. Season of Blood will introduce a new Questline for you to uncover, Vampiric Powers to wield against their originators, 5 additional endgame bosses with the ability to target specific Unique and Uber Unique items as a drop, and more."

Blizzard Entertainment has once again refuted claims that their blockbuster (online only) action role-playing game, Diablo IV, is coming to Xbox Game Pass at some point in the future. PicPay, a Brazilian payment app, has been displaying adverts presenting Blizzard's latest ARPG as a current prospect on the Microsoft game subscription service. Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra was quick to shoot down this rumor as it hit news site—in a reply to Game Pass Tracker (on Twitter) he succinctly stated: "This is not happening." A couple of media outlets are now reporting that the Diablo IV advertising banners have been removed from the PicPay app.

Ybarra's career includes a twenty year stint at Microsoft—he was Corporate Vice President of Gaming prior to joining Blizzard Entertainment back in 2021. His former colleague—Xbox boss Phil Spencer—made clear (last September) his company's ambitions for several Acti-Blizz franchises, under conditions of a successful acquisition of the publishing group: "We intend to make Activision Blizzard's much-loved library of games - including Overwatch, Diablo and Call of Duty - available in Game Pass and to grow those gaming communities." Microsoft is inching closer to finalizing the proposed merger, so it will be interesting to see whether Blizzard will break with tradition when the new management steps in.

MSI, a leading gaming hardware brand, and Blizzard Entertainment, a renowned game developer and publisher, are thrilled to announce a partnership for the highly anticipated game, Diablo 4. This collaboration aims to bring an unparalleled gaming experience to passionate players worldwide.

The partnership between MSI and Blizzard, combining the expertise of two industry giants to enhance the Diablo 4 gaming ecosystem. This joint venture is driven by a shared commitment to pushing boundaries, delivering cutting-edge technology, and immersing players in a world of unparalleled adventure.

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."

Blizzard has released a new post outlining some of the key elements of the Diablo 4 game, an all new game developer video, as well as the final and launch system requirements for the game. The latest post talks about the character build like skill tree nodes and passives, cosmetics and character creation like transmogs and mounts, and gear.

There is also a whole new game developer video, which is a part of the Inside the Game video series, talking about choices that come with character creation, character builds, gear. Hosted by Rod Fergusson, general manager, Adam Jackson, lead class designer, Melissa Corning, lead game producer, and Joe Shely, game director, this latest developer video gives a bit more insight about the gameplay experience.