How long is Diablo 4 meant to last?
Is it a typical, Launch, release 1-2 DLCs then on to Diablo 5?
Or is it more Live Service/MMO-Lite, where I should expect it to be actively supported with new PVE/story content, Game World Expansion and features for 7-8 years or more, like say, a Destiny 2 or a regular MMORPG?
I’m not concerned about Monetization because I have self-discipline in that regard. I am far more concerned with how long the Devs will actively support and add content to the game.
I have not really been following D4’s development and my only experience with it was the last Beta. So I am kinda wanting to set/temper my expectations going in.
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D3 was released in 2012 and had 28 seasons so far.
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D3 was released in 2012 and had 28 seasons so far.
Were these seasons constantly and actively adding new content, zones, features, etc?
Or were they just Battle Pass resets?
Man, I haven’t played Diablo 3 in years.
https://diablo.fandom.com/wiki/Season
You can see here what each season added in D3.
They used “expansions” for D4 in the plural, so I’d expect more expansions for D4 than there were for D2 or D3.
I don’t think anyone outside of Blizzard really knows for certain, but I leaning more towards the long-term support with frequent expansions like WoW or an MMO.
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Seeing as they plan to sell cosmetics and battlepasses, they’ll have to consistently add content, else people wont come back for new seasons to buy new battlepasses.
i think i heard (not sure tho) that every season (so every 3months) will add meaningful content like story continuation and with a big patch every year or so?
yea thats true, but a lot of those seasons didnt really add much content. like 2x goblins is hardly content.
It’s the Path of Exile model. Expect actual content quarterly unlike D3.
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No one can predict the future.
It seems they are going the live service route, for whatever that means.
i’ve been wondering if it’ll be a 10 months thing or a 10 years thing myself.
i guess we’ll see.
My guess is 10 years till D5.
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I imagine it will depend on its success. If they can keep doing expansions indefinitely and keep turning a good profit, why make an entire new game engine? Just like they never made a WoW 2.
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The game is geared for long term support, the whole structure of area per act, events, dungeons and world bosses.
All of it is definitely made so they can keep adding more while following a standard.
I’d say they’re here for the long run, unless something goes terrible wrong on launch and the game flops hard.
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Considering they plan on adding actual stuff during each season, I don’t expect this to go the normal route. I’m hoping they slowly improve the game constantly, like PoE, until eventually the engine can’t keep up or is outdated, and only then they make Diablo 5. Which would also probably mimic PoE and seem very similar but act as a new base to improve rather than ending up like WoW which is being held back by the engine and would definitely benefit from a WoW 2.
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Dunno. Think current plan is launch 7-8 seasons and then expansion. If it’s all successful would think it’s rinse and repeat as it’s meant to be a live service game sort of.
For what it’s worth the launch has like 4th of the planned map from what I know of.
D3 has had a bunch if new stuff added for free. Season 28 has a new alter with 30 buffs.
D3 does not have a Battle Pass.
Nobody knows for certain everything they have planned, but I’d say they’ll easily be supporting it for years more than any other Diablo yet.
If I remember right, Diablo 3 will have 30 seasons in total. It’s on 28 right now, and once season 30 ends it’ll reset back to season 1 and repeat and that game released in 2012.
If it does well it could last forever (like POE → POE2). Diablo 3 was meant to have multiple expansions too as far as I remember and it only got one, because it wasn’t received so well.
Some people say this game is too expensive with a 60-100$ price tag, and 10$ battle pass, but I actually think that might not be enough if it wants to compete with POE. As far as I know there is no real way to whale in D4 compared to POE, where you can spend 180$ per season and 480$ per year on supporter packs as a whale.
We have a PoE fanboy on the D3 forum who complains left and right about the D4 cosmetic Battle Pass.
But he has no problem spending $1,000 on cosmetics in PoE ‘a fool and his money are soon parted’.
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I’m still waiting to go to the Skovos isles in D3.
Skovos is a dangerous land.
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Hmm. I just read up on seasons, and I am not at all a fan of having to start over from scratch every three months or whatever.
I prefer persistence for my character(s).
For those of you who did this in Diablo 3, and know what seasons generally consist of, does this mean you have to play the entire game again from scratch, from the beginning of the story? and you have to do that for every new season?