Blizzard reveals how seasons will work in Diablo 4

diablo 4 will follow Diablo 3with a seasonal model following in the footsteps of , albeit with a few modern frills. Blizzard’s plan for diablo 4 Seasons, detailed in a new quarterly development blog, sounds a lot more ambitious than what Seasons was done for Diablo 3which gives the player more to do than restarting the game with a new character every few months.

Corresponding diablo 4 Game Director Joe Shely and Associate Game Director Joe Piepiora begin each season by creating a new character from scratch. Players will then level up their character as normal and play through a variety of games diablo 4Activities of , gain gear and get stronger. As the season comes to an end, seasonal characters move to the “Eternal Realm” where players can continue to level up and become stronger – albeit outside of the seasonal pool.

in the diablo 4, players get “up to four seasons a year”. Each of these seasons won’t just shift the meta like they do in Diablo 3but also add new content. diablo 4 will receive new features and quest lines each season, which Piepiora says players should be able to experience in just an hour of gameplay. The quest lines will also fill out the world of Sanctuary and provide new stories to discover.

The added content is a definite shift from Diablo 3which has operated on a seasonal model since 2014. Blizzard rarely adds new features or maps Diablo 3‘s seasonal updates, rather than focusing on balance changes and gear overhauls to keep the game fresh. diablo 4‘s planned approach seems to be similar to games like more modern games destiny 2 or the indie contemporary of the Diablo series, way of exile. These games change the class balance from season to season while also giving players new story beats and activities to engage in.

diablo 4 will also see periodic “full story-driven expansions”, Diablo franchise general manager Rod Ferguson said in June. How often these expansions will be delivered and what they will bring is still unknown. Diablo 3 only had a single full size expansion, reaper of soulswhich added the Crusader class in 2014 – the Necromancer was added three years later in a character pack with no expansion.

Blizzard is taking an interesting approach here diablo 4‘s Seasons and combines what has worked for nearly a decade with some modern innovations pioneered by its predecessors. And while it’s unclear how successfully the studio can blend past and present, it’s clear that Diablo fans will have a busy one at a time diablo 4 falls sometime in 2023.