Yes, seasons will return
Diablo 3 seasons have been a success, prolonging the game's lifespan and ushering in new players. Blizzard will be bringing the seasons concept back for Diablo 4 [1], with the main intent to make the game feel fresh each new season. Players should notice dramatic gameplay changes within the first hour of starting a season.
"We're going to modify what the most powerful items are from season to season, so that the meta game shifts."Joe Shely · Diablo IV Game Director ·
Four seasons per year
After Diablo 4 launches, it'll have a large team dedicated to creating new content and adding features. This will include releasing four seasons each year [2]:
"We're building a dedicated team to bring you four Seasons a year."
Date of first season
The first season will come a few weeks after the game's launch. This will allow Blizzard time to address any major hiccups with the game's launch. Also, because the Deluxe and Ultimate editions of the game allow purchasers four days of early access, the delay puts everyone on a level playing field.
"We're making the first [season] available soon after launch."
New character each season
Parcipating in a new season will require creating a fresh, Level 1 character. Blizzard is calling this its "seasonal reset structure." This ensures all players begin on an equal footing and can experience all stages of the game with the new changes tacked on.
"To play a new season, you'll make a fresh character, experiencing the new seasonal content and features while leveling alongside other players. This, together with capping Paragon points in Diablo 4, ensures your effort and skill — determined by both theorycrafting and dexterity — decide how powerful your character becomes. Also, it allows players who missed last season to participate."
Eternal Realm for post-season
After a season ends, seasonal characters are moved to what Blizzard is calling the Eternal Realm, where players can continue developing them in perpetuity (without being eligible for seasonal leaderboards):
"All characters from the previous season are moved to the Eternal Realm. Here, you can keep playing, collecting loot, and leveling up."
How many hours of content will a Season provide?
Blizzard estimates that a season's content will take the average player about 75 hours to complete. Given that a season lasts for 90 days, this is a little less than an hour of play per day (50 minutes per day to be exact).
TOPList of seasonal content additions
In addition to new items, Blizzard also wants to introduce new dungeons, monsters, and more [3] in Diablo 4's seasons. Here's the content mentioned so far:
- Class skill changes
- Dungeons
- Gameplay features
- Glyphs
- Items (especially Legendaries and Uniques)
- Live events
- Microtransactions
- Monsters
- Monster affixes
- Mounts
- Paragon Boards
- Quality-of-life features
- Quests
- Random events
"The goal for seasons is to change up the play experience as much as possible. We want to do that across as many angles as possible. For example, new types of challenges in dungeons, monster affixes, stuff like that. We want to do as much as we can to make sure that when you come back for a season, it's a new experience and you can have new things to explore."
Incorporating community feedback
Smartly, Blizzard says it'll be closely monitoring the Diablo 4 community's feedback to help develop future seasons for the game. Because Blizzard can't test everything itself, this crowdsourcing of balance, bug identification, and ideas has served game companies well in the past.
"We want to create this scenario where we introduce new items to the game through seasons. That way, the most hardcore players out there that like to discuss various topics online -- what we can do is if there's ideas like, "This build will be really awesome if there was this one type of item," then we can explore that and add it to the game. You'll have full customization in-game and we'll work together to figure out what are some new types of builds to play in future seasons."
Also, players will have the ability to vote on quality-of-life improvements, so Blizzard can prioritize the community's top wanted features:
"Based on feedback we receive, the team will identify quality-of-life improvements to improve the overall game experience, and invite the community to vote on their priority."·
First season rumored for Q3 2023
The site, WindowsCentral.com, says it's obtained leaked information claiming Diablo 4's release date will be in April 2023, and the game's first season will be in Q3 of 2023 [4]:
"According to our info, Season One is tentatively scheduled for [2023] Q3, despite the game releasing in April"
Xiphoid has been playing Diablo since the original's release in 1997. He made one of the largest Age of Empires sites in the late-'90s and early-'00s. Now, he runs MythicDrop.com, a premier Diablo 4 fansite.
Sources
| Article | Source | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Streamer Quin69 interviews Blizzard's Joe Shely | Blizzard | |
| 2. | Diablo IV Quarterly Update 2022 Q3 | Blizzard | |
| 3. | Rhykker interviewing David Kim at 2019 BlizzCon | Rhykker | |
| 4. | April 2023 release date rumor | WindowsCentral |
Changelog
| Ver | Change | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
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Beta | Added section on rumored first season date | |
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Alpha | Added section on frequency and Eternal Realm | |
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Alpha | Added section on rewards | |
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Alpha | Published original |
