Highlights
- Diablo 4's first major Battle Pass offering in Season 1 has received criticism for its stingy distribution of premium currency, with players earning a meager 666 Platinum while the cheapest cosmetic in the store costs 800 Platinum.
- The exclusive seasonal armor set that players can earn from the Battle Pass does not make up for the lack of usable currency, leaving players feeling frustrated and dissatisfied.
- Despite similarities in the season pass model between Diablo 4 and Destiny 2, Diablo 4's approach feels like a ploy to entice players with the Battle Pass while still requiring additional purchases. This has led some old-school Diablo fans to consider Path of Exile 2 as a potential alternative due to its fair monetization system and free-to-play nature.
Blizzard appears to have been quite stingy when deciding how much of Diablo 4's premium currency, Platinum, should be included as part of the game's first major Battle Pass offering. Having an extra post-launch Battle Pass in a modern full-price AAA title is hardly novel on its own, but the issue this time around lies in Diablo 4's rendition of the in-game premium cosmetic store.
Diablo 4's controversial Season 1 has been under fire for a wide variety of reasons, not least of which are some questionable balancing and a whole slew of changes designed to slow player progression down. Yet, the player base hasn't yet gone over all of the game's new problems, as the limelight has now fallen upon Diablo 4's cosmetic pricing and its premium currency model.
Diablo 4's Season of the Malignant comes bearing the game's premier Battle Pass feature, and one of the items that players receive for its completion is a prize of Platinum, the aforementioned premium currency. Though the fact that players can earn premium currency through Battle Pass progression is good news, the total payout is a paltry sum of 666 Platinum, the key issue being that the cheapest cosmetic in the premium store costs 800 Platinum. What this means, in effect, is that players still need to purchase an additional Platinum bundle to be able to spend any of what they earned as part of the active Battle Pass, which is rubbing the community the wrong way for obvious reasons.
It is worth bringing up that Diablo 4's new seasonal armor set is essentially a universal cosmetic set that, from the looks of it, will remain exclusive to those who finish the Battle Pass. The Platinum itself is hardly the main prize, then, though it doesn't feel particularly great that the awarded amount of currency isn't enough to do anything with.
Though there's been some animosity between Destiny 2 and Diablo 4, the truth is that the two games feature a surprisingly similar season pass model. Destiny 2 does not offer any amount of premium currency outside real-money purchases, and though this is objectively worse than what Blizzard is doing, it's clear that the Diablo 4 developer is using the Battle Pass to dangle a carrot in front of its players.
As it stands, old-school Diablo fans might not be thrilled with the direction Blizzard is taking the game and may instead opt to check out Path of Exile 2 as a potential Diablo 4 replacement. The original Path of Exile features an infamously fair monetization system on top of being a completely free-to-play title, making it easier and cheaper to get into by default, though it remains to be seen if it can deliver a counter to Diablo 4's classic franchise charm.
Diablo 4 is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
