Blizzard is back with its Diablo IV quarterly update, where Game Director for Live Service, Joseph Piepiora, and Director of Product. Kegan Clark shares insights into the upcoming title’s seasonal content and in-game monetization. The post is rather lengthy, so we’re here to give you the TLDR summary and highlight some important things we learned from the update.
Coming off of the Diablo Immortal monetization controversy, Blizzard seems to want to drive home the fact that Diablo IV will not be pay-to-win in any way. This quarterly update mainly focuses on two aspects of Diablo IV: seasons and monetization. Let’s dive into some highlights.
Diablo IV Seasons
Blizzard aims to deliver quarterly seasonal releases for Diablo IV, and the seasons are modeled after Diablo III. According to Kegan Clark, “the scale of Diablo IV Seasons is much more ambitious than what we’ve done in the past on Diablo III, with a large development team dedicated to Seasons after launch. Diablo IV will be supported by an army of developers for years to come.”
When a new season begins, last season’s characters move to the Eternal Realm. Players can play their Eternal Realm characters at any time to continue leveling up and collecting loot, regardless of the season. At the start of each season, players will need to create a fresh character so they can experience the new seasonal features and content. It gives everyone an opportunity to start on an even playing field.
Seasons add new quests, challenges, meta changes, quality-of-life improvements, gameplay, and rewards. Each season also introduces a new Season Pass, leading us to the next topic.
Diablo IV Season Pass
Each season in Diablo IV will offer a Season Pass with two tracks, a free tier, and a premium tier. Players can earn a variety of free rewards simply by playing the game. Those who want to purchase the Premium Pass can unlock the ability to get Premium rewards consisting of cosmetics and Premium Currency.
Cosmetics do not affect gameplay in any way, and some cosmetics are exclusive to the Season Pass. Premium Currency spent at the in-game shop can be used to pick up class-specific cosmetics and limited-time transmogs.
The Season Pass also awards free Season Boosts, and while players can purchase additional tiers to fast track through the battle pass, there is no way to get season boosts faster by paying money. Boosts speed up a player’s progress through the season by awarding bonus XP to level multiple characters in a season more quickly.
Diablo IV Shop
The in-game shop will offer cosmetics, including transmogs for weapons and armor, all of which are purchased with Premium Currency. According to Blizzard, “nothing offered in the Shop grants a direct or indirect gameplay advantage. So, while many of these may look like powerful pieces of gear, they have no in-game stats.”
The three main points we learned about the shop:
- The shop is totally optional
- The best-looking cosmetics are not exclusive to the shop
- Armor Transmogs from the shop are usable on all class characters, account-wide
From the details provided, the shop will be a way to unlock cool-looking class-specific cosmetics which offer no direct or indirect gameplay advantages.
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