Summary
After a month of anticipation,Diablo 4’sfirst season has finally arrived. The Season of the Malignant is supposed to kick offDiablo 4’s post-launch content stream in glorious fashion, but it has failed to deliver. The battle pass leaves much to be desired, the content does little to shake the game up, and Blizzard chose to make almost every aspect of the game slower. It is not at all what fans of the ARPG thought the first season would be, and that may not bode well for future seasons.
The game will live or die on the quality ofDiablo 4’s post-launch content, and so far, that quality is not good. Players need a reason to jump back into the game, but Blizzard has failed to give them that. The failure of this first season has made fans skeptical of the entire seasonal model. While Blizzard has yet to announce the game’s second season, there is a strong chance that it will suffer from the mistakes of its predecessor. If the studio does not blow players away, thenDiablo 4may die before it even has the chance to thrive.
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Diablo 4’s Future Seasons Have a Lot to Prove
The Season of the Malignantwas supposed to give players a reason to be excited about Blizzard’s post-launch plans. It was not only the first major content update forDiablo 4, but it was also the first time the game had a battle pass. Players were skeptical about the entire model, but this season should have proved the doubters wrong. Instead, Blizzard seems to have made things look even worse than some players imagined.
Season of the Malignant’s new mechanics did little to excite players, the new items are not that interesting,Diablo 4’s battle pass cosmetics feel lacking, and the entire season just feels like more of the same. On top of that, the initial patch saw Blizzard introduce dozens of nerfs that made the game a lot slower. These changes were very controversial with the playerbase and forced Blizzard to host a Campfire Chat to alleviate concerns, but the damage had already been done.
Diablo 4’s first season seemed to do almost everything wrong, and some players have begun turning their heads toalternatives likePath of Exile 2instead. While the game was initially extremely popular, this first season may have burnt up all that goodwill. This not only hurts the current season, but it will also have some major ramifications for the entire seasonal structure going forward.
Diablo 4’s next season cannot repeat the same mistakesas the first one, and it needs to blow players away with its content. The playerbase has already been scorned by this first season, and if the next season follows suit, then that could be the final straw for many. Players want to be excited about the future of their favorite games, but Blizzard has given them little reason to get hyped forDiablo 4’s seasonal structure. While it cannot go back and fix Season of the Malignant now, it must ensure it never happens again.
Diablo 4’s seasons need to be filled to the brim with exciting content to pull players back to the game. The mechanics need to be game-changing; the stories need to be exhilarating, and even the battle pass needs to be worth every penny. This may be an impossible feat to achieve, but Blizzard does not really have any other choice. The studio needs to rectify its mistakes and give players a reason to get on board, otherwise,Diablo 4may not survive for even half as long asDiablo 3did.
Diablo 4is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
