Blizzard has gone on record explaining what its plans are for Diablo 4's post-launch content, and it seems that the game will indeed be a full-fledged live-service experience. While the fact that the new Diablo will have live-service elements isn't new, the extent of the developer's plans for the longevity of the game appears to be very substantial.
There's every chance that Diablo 4 may be the best in the series for a number of reasons, of course, but one of the game's biggest draws may end up being that there's always something new for players to do. While its immediate predecessor, Diablo 3, did end up getting seasonal content a while after it came out, the new title will be fully adapted for this new concept.
According to Blizzard, Diablo 4 is going to receive substantial story-based content every three months. Game Informer's recent interview with Diablo 4's Associate Game Director Joe Piepiora revealed that the devs plan to release "meaty" updates alongside each new battle pass. While Piepiora didn't want to say that these content releases were actual, full-fledged expansion packs, each of these quarterly updates will come with new features, mechanics, and other assorted goodies.
From what Blizzard has said, its plans for Diablo 4 sound eerily similar to what Bungie's been doing with Destiny 2. Destiny also gets quarterly seasonal content releases that introduce new mechanics, content, and their own respective battle passes, and the core idea is essentially the same between the two games. An issue worth considering, though, is that Destiny 2 has a serious FOMO problem, and something similar may end up happening with Diablo 4 as well.
Blizzard is yet to go into the nitty gritty of its post-launch support plans, though, and the recent interview only really provided a generalized overview of what players ought to expect. It's entirely possible that the seasonal content releases end up having little to no FOMO in the end and that Diablo 4's endgame progression won't end up getting vandalized by constant changes and the potential power creep.
Diablo 4's official release date is already confirmed, and Blizzard had previously explained that the first batch of the game's seasonal content will not be coming out alongside the main game. Instead, it's due to launch sometime later on, and those eager to participate in its seasonal progression should stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks and months.
Diablo 4 releases June 6 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: GameSpot
