Diablo 2: Resurrected season 2 was delayed because Blizzard "didn't plan very well"

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Update 2.5 and season 2 both need more time in the oven

Diablo 2 Resurrected players battle on a field
(Image credit: Blizzard)

Diablo 2: Resurrected season 2 is taking a good deal longer to arrive than initially planned, and Blizzard says it's largely due to poor timing on its part.

In an update on the Blizzard forums, community manager PezRadar (not to be confused with GamesRadar's totally real but tragically short-lived candy dispenser review vertical) explained that the introduction of Terror Zones in the Public Test Realm (PTR) caused season 1 to last longer than expected.

"Before S1 began, we had noted that we were aiming to have seasons last 4 months," said Pez. "We are obviously past that timeline and to be 100% honest, we kind of didn't plan very well on our end for that date."

"Terror Zones was a cool feature we wanted to nail correctly as it teetered back and forth on the line of 'Should we do this or not?' many times throughout development and with that it caused a little bit of a delay on the Season transition. I just wanted to state that and apologize for that murkiness around when that season transition would occur."

While there still isn't a hard season 2 release date, Blizzard says it's "looking at mitigating this issue for future seasons." It also isn't clear whether the plan is for seasons to last longer than four months going forward or if future seasons will be shorter than the first one.

Currently, patch 2.5 is still in PTR as Blizzard continues to evaluate feedback and implement tweaks. This extended testing period will "of course" push back the launch date for 2.5, but Blizzard says PTR is ending "soon" and that the final build should go live "sooner rather than later." Season 2 will launch "a week or two" later, with the transition happening immediately after season 1 ends.

"As more dates become aligned here in the coming week, we will provide updates to give a better window on 2.5 and S2 for the community," the post adds. 

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Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.