Following a strong launch with over $666 million in revenue within the first five days, Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo 4 fumbled its first season with a hugely unpopular patch. Nerfs galore, increased XP for leveling, underwhelming Uniques – such was the backlash that the game’s Metacritic user scores took a beating.
Many unpopular changes have been undone, and the team is prepping for Season of Blood on October 17th. It introduces a new vampire threat in Sanctuary, with the player cursed and utilizing new vampiric powers. GamesRadar spoke to lead game producer Timothy Ismay and associate game designer Antonio Watson about the response, and it seems there’s a fair bit of optimism from fans.
“There’s a lot of stuff that was received very positively by the fans. A lot of the conversations that I’ve had have been that people are excited about the Season 2 content, but they’re also separately very excited about the quality of life changes. It feels like it’s enough of a motivating factor for people to come back and play,” said Watson.
Ismay says the new season is extensively played internally. “Honestly, the quality of life changes – we’ve been able to play them pretty extensively internally – [Diablo 4] is a lot more fun to play. There are improvements that, each of them is small, but collectively, the game just feels a lot better.”
Some of these QoL improvements include removing gems from your inventory, as you’ll instead collect materials to craft them at the Jeweller. Those who complete the Prologue in the base game can skip the campaign on a new seasonal character, and there are five new Uber bosses to battle for an increased chance at Uniques. Stay tuned for more details en route to the season’s release, which coincides with Diablo 4’s upcoming launch on Steam.
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