Diablo 4’s tumultuous post-launch journey continues with beleaguered players saying the upcoming Season 4 may be its last chance.
Diablo 4 is creeping into the back third of the Season of the Construct. The game’s third seasonal content update added some new twists to the ARPG with a mechanical companion and the long-awaited leaderboard system.
Unfortunately, these new changes and mechanics didn’t hit the mark for players, and continuous misses from the dev team are taking their toll on the game’s audience. The goodwill engendered from Diablo 4 Season 2 has almost completely dried up and players are concerned about the future of the title.
Reddit user u/JerczuUK put it succinctly in a post titled ‘Season 4 needs to get it right’ in which players expressed some fear about a potential “death” for the game. Many are saying that if there isn’t a substantial improvement in Diablo 4 Season 4, they may give up on it entirely.
The devs at Blizzard seem to understand the danger and have recently announced that Diablo 4 Season 4 will have a Public Test Realm (PTR) prior to its release. The stated aim of the PTR is to have players give feedback on the major overhauls they have planned so that they can make appropriate changes before the season’s launch.
The current lack of a PTR with just over one month before Season 4’s likely release date is worrying some players. “The fact that the PTR isn’t live right now makes me think nothing they put in there will have enough time to be reasonably impacted by feedback outside of some bug fixes,” one commenter said in u/JerczuUK’s thread.
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The primary draw for Season 4 is the long-teased changes to Diablo 4’s itemization that has grated on players since the game’s launch. Unfortunately for Blizzard, players aren’t hopeful. “After the gauntlet, I have no more hope at the itemization rework,” one explained.
“The itemization overhaul will make or break Season 4. This is likely their one shot prior to the expansion to recapture player interest after the largely disappointing launch,” one user put forward. “If Season 4 doesn’t deliver, I don’t know if I can justify spending more time on the game,” another replied.
This is a familiar point of discussion in the lead-up to new seasons of Diablo 4 and whether or not a perceived failure of Season 4 will have a genuine impact on the game’s more dedicated playerbase remains to be seen.
Diablo 4 Season 4 will likely release sometime in April if previous trends around seasonal timelines continue. The PTR launch is yet to be announced but we’ll be sure to update you with information as it develops.
