Diablo 4 is officially ending its annual expansions, following the announcement of its sequel, Diablo 5. Blizzard is apparently stripping away development on the current game, instead focusing most of its efforts on the upcoming post-apocalypse coming to Sanctuary.
That is according to Diablo game director Brent Gibson, who spoke with PC Gamer at BlizzCon and confirmed that Diablo 4 will no longer be receiving massive yearly expansions. “We feel like we told the Story of Hatred,” Gibson said, adding that Blizzard is fully locked in on Diablo 5 and getting it over the threshold in 2029.
To that end, expansions are stopping, but seasonal content will remain one of the primary focuses for the time being, alongside, as stated, Diablo 5‘s active development. “We had a great conclusion with Lord of Hatred with what we have with Mephisto, and we are moving towards telling the Story of Terror,” Gibson said.
Seasonal updates could prove of significant importance to how Diablo 5 will shape up. The story setting up the premise of Diablo 5—the one where Diablo won, and Sanctuary was plunged into total apocalypse—will apparently come through the seasons, with Blizzard looking at how players are “reacting season to season” to determine how exactly the sequel’s story will be set up.
“The events of Diablo 5 happen 100 years after everything that’s happening with Diablo 4,” Gibson said. “So continuity is something that we’re really excited about, but we don’t necessarily have a perfect picture of exactly where that’s going to go because we want to see how fans are reacting season to season.”
So, the story is far from over, but dedicated, big, paid DLCs will have to wait until 2029 to start again.
