Blizzard has apparently revealed that Diablo 4 will be getting annual expansions like the MMO it most decidedly isn't.
Diablo franchise boss Rod Fergusson casually made the news in an interview with Dexerto, in which he seemingly confirmed annual expansions will accompany the seasonal updates in Diablo 4's roadmap going forward.
"When you look at the launch of the game and this first season, we see that as building a foundation on which we can build for the future," he said in the interview. "So, as we look at our quarterly seasons, and we look at our annual expansions, those are the things that we’re really focused on for our live service."
Fergusson didn't expand on what seems to be some fairly significant news, and chiefly he didn't say when the annual updates would start releasing, but he added vaguely:
"We've got plans, we have storylines that go well into the future. We’ve got plans. We're always leapfrogging our seasons, and leapfrogging our expansions, so it’s something we are going to do for a long time. We're excited."
Yearly expansions are most common in MMOs like Elder Scrolls Online, Destiny 2, and Lord of the Rings Online, and although Diablo 4 technically isn't an MMO but an action-RPG, it's interesting to see Blizzard continue to treat it like one in terms of its live-service offerings.
Again, as there hasn't been an official announcement, we know next to nothing about Blizzard's plans for Diablo 4 annual updates, and I definitely have questions. Will they be paid updates? Will they exist in separate realms that make you start a new character like the seasonal stuff? That wouldn't be very MMO-like, but it's definitely possible.
Finally, why haven't we heard anything from Blizzard about this? It seems like pretty big news to nonchalantly drop as a side comment in an interview, which leads me to wonder whether it was a goof by Fergusson. There's been a lot of controversy around Diablo 4's endgame right from launch, and annual expansions have the potential to dramatically reshape that aspect of the game, so one would think Blizzard would make a slightly bigger deal about it. I'm sure we'll learn more in the future, but for now there's definitely a curious air around the whole thing.
And rather than confirm or deny Fergusson's quote, a Blizzard spokesperson instead told us when asked about it that they would "be in touch" should they have something to share.
