Diablo 4 Seasons, Monetisation, and In-Game Store Detailed
Post by KostaAndreadis @ 02:17pm 19/08/22 | Comments
Blizzard breaks down the Seasons, Season Pass, and Store stuff coming in Diablo IV
“You will not be able to pay for power in Diablo IV”, writes game director Joe Shely in the latest Diablo IV Quarterly Update. The update covers what players can expect in terms of post-game content and support, which takes the Seasons of Diablo 3 as a framework and builds on it. The detailed update confirms that all items in the store available for purchase will be cosmetic, alongside a currency that can also be used for cosmetics.
This is worth stating out of the gate, mainly because of how the free-to-play monetisation model of the mobile Diablo Immortal was not only handled but received by fans of the franchise. The update goes to great lengths to also state that cosmetic items (which will be thematic and mostly class-based to maintain identity) will sit next to the extensive transmogs and other cosmetic looks you can acquire just by playing the game.
“The best-looking cosmetics aren’t exclusive to the Shop,” writes Joe Piepiora, associate game director for game systems and Diablo IV’s live service side. “Diablo IV will ship with hundreds of transmogs unlockable from drops in-game, including dozens of armor sets of the highest visual quality. There are incredible pieces - Unique and Legendary quality items - for players to find without ever going to the Shop. The Shop offers more diversity of choices, not systematically better choices.”
“Players can experience all core and seasonal gameplay features without spending money,” writes Joe Piepiora. “Our goal is for players to enjoy going to the Shop, buy something when it catches their fancy, and walk away happy with what they bought. It’s important that players know exactly what to expect before making a purchase. We’ve built preview functionality that enables players to closely examine every detail of the cosmetic on their own characters before deciding to make a purchase.”
Above is a side by side comparison of in-game cosmetics discovered (left) versus those purchased (right).
Like Diablo 3’s Seasons, Seasons in Diablo IV offer a clean start for players to begin their Season Journey with a new character and class and will run for three months - meaning each year will bring four new Seasons. As Diablo IV has been designed as a live service game from the outset Seasons (and the endgame) will be far more involved than what’s found in Diablo 3. This means thematic live events like an “invasion of the Drowned” that might last a weekend.
Each Season will debut a “fresh new gameplay feature” which sounds pretty cool, especially based on what we’ve recently seen with Diablo 3’s themes. But, there will also be new questlines, challenges, and lore to discover. “Each Season's new questline will reveal more of the world of Sanctuary and your character’s place in it,” writes Joe Piepiora. “Here, we get an opportunity to introduce new characters or revisit old ones while exploring the lore and content of the season.”
Seasons will also introduce balance and class changes, new Legendary and Unique items, Paragon boards, Glyphs, and more - with the philosophy being one of fun over nerfing. Plus quality-of-life changes and updates will be based on player and community feedback. “Diablo is a game that is about creating exciting, overpowered builds, and while we don’t want to balance the fun out of the experience, we don’t want to create situations in which imprecise tuning squash creativity,” adds Joe Piepiora.
And in keeping that Diablo 3 connection, the Season Journey returns which will be broken up into Chapters with the final task being “overcome an extremely difficult encounter with an especially deadly foe”. Blizzard notes that future Season Journeys will be designed to test players and reward them with unique cosmetics. And this is interestingly where the Season Pass comes into the picture, where the Season Journey grants progress on the Season Pass. There will be a paid-for premium Battle Pass-like tier though paid rewards will be cosmetics and premium currency only. Boosters like bonuses to XP will be free rewards for players.
Here’s the breakdown.
Again, there's no doubt Blizzard is going into this much detail right now because of Diablo Immortal's controversial and very questionable monetisation. It all sounds very cool and very different from Diablo Immortal. From its huge open world to countless dungeons and endgame that really allows you customise your build and play style thanks to the expanded Paragon system. Diablo IV is shaping up to be the modern extension of Diablo II and Diablo III - here’s hoping we get to hands-on in the near future.
Head here to read the full Diablo IV Quarterly Update for August 2022
Diablo IV’s In-Game Store
This is worth stating out of the gate, mainly because of how the free-to-play monetisation model of the mobile Diablo Immortal was not only handled but received by fans of the franchise. The update goes to great lengths to also state that cosmetic items (which will be thematic and mostly class-based to maintain identity) will sit next to the extensive transmogs and other cosmetic looks you can acquire just by playing the game.
“The best-looking cosmetics aren’t exclusive to the Shop,” writes Joe Piepiora, associate game director for game systems and Diablo IV’s live service side. “Diablo IV will ship with hundreds of transmogs unlockable from drops in-game, including dozens of armor sets of the highest visual quality. There are incredible pieces - Unique and Legendary quality items - for players to find without ever going to the Shop. The Shop offers more diversity of choices, not systematically better choices.”
“Players can experience all core and seasonal gameplay features without spending money,” writes Joe Piepiora. “Our goal is for players to enjoy going to the Shop, buy something when it catches their fancy, and walk away happy with what they bought. It’s important that players know exactly what to expect before making a purchase. We’ve built preview functionality that enables players to closely examine every detail of the cosmetic on their own characters before deciding to make a purchase.”
Above is a side by side comparison of in-game cosmetics discovered (left) versus those purchased (right).
Diablo IV Seasons and Season Pass
Like Diablo 3’s Seasons, Seasons in Diablo IV offer a clean start for players to begin their Season Journey with a new character and class and will run for three months - meaning each year will bring four new Seasons. As Diablo IV has been designed as a live service game from the outset Seasons (and the endgame) will be far more involved than what’s found in Diablo 3. This means thematic live events like an “invasion of the Drowned” that might last a weekend.
Each Season will debut a “fresh new gameplay feature” which sounds pretty cool, especially based on what we’ve recently seen with Diablo 3’s themes. But, there will also be new questlines, challenges, and lore to discover. “Each Season's new questline will reveal more of the world of Sanctuary and your character’s place in it,” writes Joe Piepiora. “Here, we get an opportunity to introduce new characters or revisit old ones while exploring the lore and content of the season.”
Seasons will also introduce balance and class changes, new Legendary and Unique items, Paragon boards, Glyphs, and more - with the philosophy being one of fun over nerfing. Plus quality-of-life changes and updates will be based on player and community feedback. “Diablo is a game that is about creating exciting, overpowered builds, and while we don’t want to balance the fun out of the experience, we don’t want to create situations in which imprecise tuning squash creativity,” adds Joe Piepiora.
And in keeping that Diablo 3 connection, the Season Journey returns which will be broken up into Chapters with the final task being “overcome an extremely difficult encounter with an especially deadly foe”. Blizzard notes that future Season Journeys will be designed to test players and reward them with unique cosmetics. And this is interestingly where the Season Pass comes into the picture, where the Season Journey grants progress on the Season Pass. There will be a paid-for premium Battle Pass-like tier though paid rewards will be cosmetics and premium currency only. Boosters like bonuses to XP will be free rewards for players.
Here’s the breakdown.
The Season Pass has Free Tiers and Premium Tiers. Throughout the pass players can earn a variety of rewards for free, just by playing. At any point during the Season, players can purchase the Premium Pass to unlock the ability to earn Premium rewards tiers containing seasonally themed Cosmetics and Premium Currency.
The Season Pass awards cosmetics. Like the Shop, these don’t affect gameplay. Additionally, certain cosmetic types are exclusive to the Season Pass.
The Season Pass awards Premium Currency. Players can spend this currency on cosmetics offered in the shop.
The Season Pass awards free Season Boosts. Boosts accelerate players’ progress for the duration of the Season. For example, a Season Boost might accelerate XP earned to make leveling multiple characters within a season faster. Because they affect gameplay, Season Boosts are free rewards for all players. We want to be clear that players can’t unlock Season Boosts more quickly through purchases--there is no way to unlock more boosts or boosts at a faster pace, by spending money.
Players can purchase Tiers-but they won’t speed up getting Season Boosts. Players can’t upgrade Season Boosts just by purchasing Tiers, because they’ll also have to earn level milestones to apply them. All other Tier rewards can be unlocked instantly by purchasing Tiers. In other words, there’s no way to shortcut getting Season Boosts by buying Tiers; they must be earned.
The Season Journey accelerates Season Pass progression. While any play style can progress through the Season Pass, min-maxers can focus on Season Journey objectives to advance more quickly.
Again, there's no doubt Blizzard is going into this much detail right now because of Diablo Immortal's controversial and very questionable monetisation. It all sounds very cool and very different from Diablo Immortal. From its huge open world to countless dungeons and endgame that really allows you customise your build and play style thanks to the expanded Paragon system. Diablo IV is shaping up to be the modern extension of Diablo II and Diablo III - here’s hoping we get to hands-on in the near future.
Head here to read the full Diablo IV Quarterly Update for August 2022
Read more about Diablo 4 on the game page - we've got the latest news, screenshots, videos, and more!
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Posted 04:43pm 19/8/22