The launch of Ladder, a seasonal competitive game mode, for Diablo 2: Resurrected has been anxiously awaited since the ARPG was released six months ago. It not only offers an exciting reason for Diablo 2: Resurrected players to play once more, but it delivers the first new content and balance changes the game has received in a very long time. It turns out, however, that upgrading an old game like Diablo 2 is pretty challenging. Blizzard has chosen to delay the launch of Diablo 2: Resurrected's Ladder into late April.To be clear, Diablo 2: Resurrected's Ladder and patch 2.4 never had an official release date. A PTR update with all the new content arrived in March, with many players believing a full release would arrive in a matter of weeks. The new release schedule for Diablo 2: Resurrected's upcoming content is April 14 for patch 2.4, and then the Ladder's launch two weeks later on April 28. The delayed Ladder release should provide additional time to make certain the game state is prepared for a competitive environment.Blizzard was very transparent with regard to what led to the delay, describing three specific "showstoppers" that need to be addressed on Diablo 2: Resurrected's PTR. Two of the showstoppers revolved around database issues. First, a missing index in the database led to "slow joining and creation of games." Blizzard says the database error was fixed, but more time is needed to ensure the fix works over an extended period of time. Second, several region-specific database errors were also encountered and need to be addressed.
The third showstopper, and a major unacceptable issue, was that stashes did not properly convert to the new version of Diablo 2: Resurrected. Obviously, that kind of a bug can't go live. Blizzard chose to delay the game to address it, as well as the database errors, rather than risk another Diablo 2: Resurrected fiasco for the update's launch and the update likely being pulled anyway.
Blizzard does apologize for the decision to delay Diablo 2: Resurrected. The development team certainly wanted to launch the new update and Ladder season as planned. The decision to delay will give the development team the time it needs to make Diablo 2: Resurrected's Ladder shine, which in turn will hopefully mean many Ladder seasons to come.
Expect to hear a lot more about Diablo 2: Resurrected's Ladder in the weeks to come as Blizzard delivers some exciting community events and other revelations. It's still going to be a big event. It's just happening on April 28.
Diablo 2: Resurrected is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
