One of the biggest questions that emerged following the surprise reveal of Diablo 5 at BlizzCon over the weekend surrounded the future of Diablo 4. Blizzard announced a returning class – the Amazon – coming to the game sometime in the first half of 2027, but nothing beyond that.
Of course, the question on everyone’s mind was whether the game will be getting any more expansions in the three-year wait between now and the 2029 release of Diablo 5. The studio’s answer will likely disappoint many.
“We’re all focused on [Diablo 4] seasons and getting to Diablo 5,” Diablo game director Brent Gibson told PC Gamer. “We feel like we told the Story of Hatred. 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.”
Lord of Hatred indeed had a great sense of finality, but I am willing to bet many simply saw it as the end of one arc rather than the game’s entire story. Speaking of which, more story content is coming, but it will be delivered through upcoming seasons.
The events of Diablo 5 take place a century after Diablo 4 in a completely changed Sanctuary. It would have been nice to have a major Diablo 4 expansion serve as a narrative lead-in, but perhaps the 100-year gap is large enough to make that difficult. Still, Blizzard wants to do some of that work with seasonal content, but the developer doesn’t quite know what shape things will take just yet.
“So continuity is something that we’re really excited about, but we don’t necessarily have a perfect picture on exactly where that’s going to go because we want to see how fans are reacting season to season,” Gibson added.
In the more immediate term, Diablo 4’s next season – Season of Hell’s Legacy – kicks off tomorrow, 15th September. The season is a celebration of the franchise’s 30th anniversary, bringing back Deckard Cain to aid the player in a quest where they face all three original Prime Evils: Diablo, Baal, and Mephisto. The same day also sees the release of the long-rumoured Switch 2 port, which includes all previously-released content.
