Diablo 4 dev on winning players back with Season 2: "It feels like it's enough of a motivating factor for people to come back and play"

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Blizzard says Season 2's quality of life updates make Diablo 4 "a lot more fun to play"

Diablo 4
(Image credit: Blizzard)

Blizzard is confident that all of the quality of life changes coming in Diablo 4 Season 2 will bring back lapsed players.

I had the chance to sit down with Diablo 4's lead game producer Timothy Ismay and associate game designer Antonio Watson to talk all things Season 2, and both were optimistic about the impact the quality of life changes specifically will have on the overall game experience. Asked about the community's reaction to Wednesday's developer update, Watson said he's hopeful it convinced players to come back and check out what's new.

"There's a lot of stuff that was received very positively by the fans. A lot of the conversations that I've had have been that people are excited about the Season 2 content, but they're also separately very excited about the quality of life changes," he said. "It feels like it's enough of a motivating factor for people to come back and play."

The first of two planned Diablo 4 developer updates about Season 2, titled Season of Blood, revealed a new 1 - 100 roadmap for players tired of the old grind, changes to make the game's rarest items easier to get, and loads of quality of life tweaks, which were a common focus through my conversation with the developers.

"Honestly, the quality of life changes - we've been able to play them pretty extensively internally - [Diablo 4] is a lot more fun to play," said Ismay. "There are improvements that, each of them are small, but collectively the game just feels a lot better."

 Diablo 4's quality of life changes are coming throughout Season 2, not just at launch.

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.