Diablo IV’s First Season of Post-Launch Content Will Launch Sometime in July
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In the latest livestream from Blizzard’s Diablo IV team, they’ve detailed what to expect from the action RPG’s post-launch content explaining the game’s Battle Pass, microtransactions, and what kind of content you can expect after launch.
Diablo IV Post-launch Content
Just like Diablo 2 and 3, Diablo IV will have seasonal content that is expected to last for up to three seasons at a time and the team plans to deliver four seasons per year. The first season of the game will not be available the moment the game launches as Blizzard plans to release it mid to late July.
Battle Pass and Seasons
The new content each season will always have a particular theme and will include new gameplay features, a seasonal questline (separate from the overall story in the campaign), new items, quality of life improvements, and changes to whatever meta the game will have during that time. Each season will also feature a Battle Pass that will have 90 tiers mixed in with free and Premium tiers. The most significant reward from the Battle pass is a resource called Smoldering Ash, which allows players to increase experience gains for all their characters in certain aspects of the game, for example, more experienced earned when killing enemies.
Smoldering Ash will only be obtainable through the Battle Pass as a free tier and will not be part of the premium tier of rewards, and is their way of allowing players to level up faster through the season, especially if you plan to play multiple classes. The Blizzard team stated that the premium tiers will not contain anything that will affect gameplay as what’s planned are all purely cosmetic rewards.
The Battle Pass is said to cost $10 and just like all other systems like it, will feature a bundle that allows you to unlock the first batch of tiers in the Battle Pass.
Seasonal Questlines and no leaderboards
Another interesting new detail regarding Diablo IV’s post-launch content is the Seasonal story through a seasonal questline as it will feature new characters and have its own separate story. They didn’t go into detail just yet but again, don’t expect seasons to forward the story of the game’s campaign. It seems they are reserving the big story beats for possible expansions.
The team also confirmed that Diablo IV will not launch with a leaderboard system similar to what is available in previous games and they’re confident that it won’t be available even in season 1 or even season 2, but it’s definitely in their pipeline of things to add to the game in the future.
Lastly, this game will have microtransactions and will have an in-game store but for new cosmetic gear to expand your options when using the transmog system of the game.
Diablo IV is set to launch on June 6, 2023 on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. Blizzard will be hosting a Server Slam event this weekend, allowing players to play the entire Act 1 for free on all platforms, as a way to prepare the team and its servers for the eventual launch of the game in a few weeks' time.
You can watch the latest livestream below.
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