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[Draugoth]

In a recent interview with Dexerto, Diablo 4 general manager Rod Fergusson confirmed that Blizzard is working on “annual expansions” for the game.

Rod Fergusson: Yeah, I mean, obviously, that’s like how long is a piece of string.

PD: Exactly.

RF: But, you know, it’s years and years. That’s the thing we’re focused on. When you look at the launch of the game and this first season, we see that as building a foundation on which we can build for the future. So, as we look at our quarterly seasons, and we look at our annual expansions, those are the things that we’re really focused on for our live service.

We’ve got plans, we have storylines that go well into the future. We’ve got plans. We’re always leapfrogging our seasons, and leapfrogging our expansions, so it’s something we are going to do for a long time. We’re excited.

When you look back and realise that there were 11 years between D3 and D4, that feels like we didn’t live up to our players, our community, and what they deserve. That’s something we are rectifying in D4 with our seasons and our expansions.”

With four quarterly seasons and an expansion roughly every year, it sounds like Diablo 4 is aiming for a release cadence similar to Destiny 2. Bungie’s game has largely stuck to that, though expansions have been delayed in the past. Of course, that Diablo 4 matches Destiny 2 is speculation.

 

[Kacho]

Milk them good, Blizz

 

[Magic Carpet]

Will one of those years have Diablo?
I think Diablo was mentioned in passing conversations.

 

[tmlDan]

i done goofed, never preordering a blizzard game again.

Milk baby milk

 

[Danjin44]

 

[Fake]

Players deserves every bit of what left from Blizzard.

 

[Gudji]

 

[newtypepilot]

 

[Holammer]

There's no cow level, you are the cow now.

 

[Poppyseed]

I don’t really have a problem with yearly expansions if they’re really fully-fledged. I mean, why not? I’m not thrilled at the end-game state the game is in at all, but I’ve certainly gotten my money’s worth so far.

 

[Bry0]

Not surprising. The game had the stink of destiny 2 in many aspects of its design. If they are significant and if high quality then that’s fine, but cmon… lol

 

[BlueLyria]

Yearly expansions AND battlepasses AND a premium cash shop, on a 70 usd game

 

[graywolf323]

making me feel better about my decision to pass on the Labor Day sale, I’ll pick this up eventually but sheesh

 

[Kenneth Haight]

In a way the writing was on the wall for this as soon as the mentioned it was live service.

 

[Lucifers Beard]

Ah, Blizzard saying all the right things, as fucking usual...

 

[March Climber]

Players deserves every bit of what left from Blizzard.

It's odd, it's like they're trying to go for a trifecta of bad PR for their biggest properties, Diablo, Overwatch, and WoW.

If these strategies weren't making them loads of money, I would absolutely believe this is some form of internal sabotage.

 

[Laieon]

As someone who has played WoW since 2007 I don't know how I'll feel if they'll actually manage to pull this off when the WoW team seems to clearly struggle with a release schedule (although Dragonflight has been pretty good in that regard).

It's odd, it's like they're trying to go for a trifecta of bad PR for their biggest properties, Diablo, Overwatch, and WoW.

What's the bad PR with WoW? Dragonflight has been very well received by those of us actually playing it.

 

[gothmog]

I'd be more than happy to pay for expansions and such if they could prove the game could be kept fresh and exciting.

 

[MiguelItUp]

It somehow just gets worse and worse, lmao.

 

[Spyxos]

I'm not even sure you can save the game. It's so incredibly boring and repetitive.

 

[Sleepwalker]

I wish I could refund this game.

 

[StereoVsn]

I will try this, one day, when it hits GamePass.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

I've quite enjoyed D4 on PS5, and put around 150h into it, however I'm not sure if this planned yearly expansion release cycle on top of seasonal updates & battle passes is the way to go lol. Most of the casual playerbase will not put up with that; they were already pretty upset upon finding out that each season you have to roll a fresh character in order to play the new content before it eventually goes into the eternal realm (non-seasonal mode without battle pass and seasonal content). XD

 

[semiconscious]

i love developers that take the time to remind you over'n'over again why you made the correct decision in passing on their game...

 

[Bkdk]

Hopefully with dwindling sales and online players will lead to offline mode with mod support eventually being released.

 

[FearlessBelgian]

Aren't they already working on Diablo V?

 

[username12]

Paradox and Kalypso like to do this. I'm okay with it in theory. But I expect the execution to be more like The Sims 4.

 

[King Dazzar]

I was at one time looking forward to this game. But as more things came to light around the grind and monetisation, I've lost any interest. The Act Man did an interesting video on it all, around the game design:

 

[Kacho]

Yearly expansions AND battlepasses AND a premium cash shop, on a 70 usd game

 

[LordCBH]

My big mistake this year was buying the Diablo 4 Xbox bundle over the Forza one. I played like 5 hours of diablo and was like "nah this ain't it."

 

[clarky]

Enjoyed my time with it but it became a major grind after level 60 ish and became no fun. Ill try it again when an expansion hits, when hopefully they remove level scaling in the mid/ late game.

 

[drotahorror]

Hopefully with dwindling sales and online players will lead to offline mode with mod support eventually being released.

I didn't think about that but that is literally the only way this game can be saved. Offline + Mods. The community may be able to fix this game if given the tools. As an online game, D4 is dead to me and I'm sure many others.

D4 did have a great campaign, but I don't play ARPG's for their campaign. I play for the end game and the fun grind. Both at which D4 has failed tremendously at.

 

[DavidGzz]

I hope the first one has the Paladin.

 

[SmokedMeat]

I’m enjoying Diablo 4, as a Diablo game. Not interested in hopping on their treadmill, so when I’m finished with it, I’ll uninstall it.

I’ve got other great games to experience.

 

[cash_longfellow]

Duped…all of you who bought this game for the name….duped. As much as it sucks, this shit was written on the wall far before the game released.

Edit - The sad thing is, we’ve moved from having season passes and paid add on content, to GAAS…and now these clowns are moving to GAAS combined with season passes and paid content. Gaming is a shit show at this point.

 

[lughnasadh123]

Bliz still puts out good products but damn their monetization is shitty.

 

[Puscifer]

Duped…all of you who bought this game for the name….duped. As much as it sucks, this shit was written on the wall far before the game released.

Tell me about it, I've been really enjoying Grim Dawn and am having a ton of fun. It's really interesting the obvious design choices in giving players more agency vs limiting it for more money. Blizzard can really fuck themselves honestly, said it before and I'll say it again, that shit should've been free from day 1.

 

[FearlessBelgian]

Bliz still puts out good products but damn their monetization is shitty.

No they are not.

 

[cash_longfellow]

Tell me about it, I've been really enjoying Grim Dawn and am having a ton of fun. It's really interesting the obvious design choices in giving players more agency vs limiting it for more money. Blizzard really fuck themselves honestly, said it before and I'll say it again, that shit should've been free from day 1.

I don’t game on PC too much but I have a boat load of games on Steam downloaded and Grim Dawn is one of them. I haven’t got around to playing it yet…how is the solo experience?

 

[BlackTron]

I don’t really have a problem with yearly expansions if they’re really fully-fledged. I mean, why not? I’m not thrilled at the end-game state the game is in at all, but I’ve certainly gotten my money’s worth so far.

Who needs an end-game when they can sell it to you later?

 

[jshackles]

These need to have, at minimum:

• a new character class
• a new unique zone
• a new quest line / act

If any of these are missing, it's a no-buy for me.

 

[cash_longfellow]

These need to have, at minimum:

• a new character class
• a new unique zone
• a new quest line / act

If any of these are missing, it's a no-buy for me.

I wouldn’t get your hopes up too high.

 

[lughnasadh123]

No they are not.

The certainly are.

 

[jshackles]

I wouldn’t get your hopes up too high.

I'm not exactly opening my wallet up to pre-order here. If what they have on offer seems worthwhile to me, I'll buy it. I'm just saying I'm not likely to buy it unless it's similar in size and scope to their previous expansion (like Reaper of Souls size DLC for D3). Kind of like how I've completely ignored the cosmetic shop because the prices are astronomical for what you get - if these are the same I'll just also ignore them.

 

[EDMIX]

nah, FOH lol I'll once over it and move on.

 

[Buggy Loop]

Fuck these devs

Telling ya, after Baldur's gate 3 quality and content at launch without bullshit, I'll be more critical than ever.

 

[Puscifer]

I don’t game on PC too much but I have a boat load of games on Steam downloaded and Grim Dawn is one of them. I haven’t got around to playing it yet…how is the solo experience?

I'm loving the solo experience, I love playing as necromancer in titles like this and being able to cross class with a magician is just so much fun. I'm buffing my summons and doing serious damage to everything because of build decisions that aren't artificially limiting.

It's truly single player first and I would recommend it to anyone who wants a Diablo fix that isn't being satisfied anymore and I stand by that

 

[MirageMew2]

Rod said two expansions minimum were already in the works three months ago.

 

[DaleinCalgary]

Just wait to see how much of a cash cow the cow level will be.

$5 every time you enter

 

[phant0m]

Yearly expansions AND battlepasses AND a premium cash shop, on a 70 usd game

I actually don't mind expansions if it's truly new content (dungeons, areas to explore, enemy types, etc) nor the cosmetic shop.

but fomo battle passes can eat my ass