In a quarterly developer blog released by Blizzard, Diablo 4 director of product Kegan Clark honed in on the monetisation of the upcoming release. This was likely done to assuage community fears that Diablo 4 would be monetised similarly to Immortal.
Diablo 4 will be a full-price game with a season pass and an in-game cosmetics shop. Clark specified that the game would be supported “by an army of developers for years to come” post-launch and a large part of this team will be focused on keeping seasonal content fresh.
The season system seeks to refresh the game regularly, adding new content with each subsequent season. The pass will have a free tier and a premium tier. In-game boosts will be available to everyone through the free tier as levelling rewards, while the premium tier will focus on aesthetics – giving the player cosmetic rewards as well as premium currency for use in the shop. This two-tier season pass system has become common in free-to-play multiplayer games.
As mentioned above, there are in-game XP boosts present in Diablo 4. However, these will be rewards for everyone through the season pass system, not just those who paid for the premium tier. As outlined by Clark, “…there is no way to unlock more boosts, or boosts at a faster pace, by spending money.” While players can buy season pass tiers, they’ll need to hit certain level milestones to activate the boosts, gating those who want to skip the game’s progression system by spending money.
The in-game shop sells exclusively cosmetics for premium currency. Players will be able to examine the on-sale cosmetics thoroughly before purchase and individual pieces of cosmetic sets can be mixed with transmogs of other armours to create a unique visual appearance. Clark also stressed that even though shop items cost money, they aren’t necessarily better than the cosmetics players can find by playing the game normally.
The rest of the blog had little to share. Each season will bring a new major questline that “will reveal more of the world of Sanctuary and your character’s place in it.” The developers will also be keeping an eye on the meta, they don’t want to discourage the overpowered builds that are in Diablo’s DNA but they also don’t want to “squash creativity” by making less-popular builds unviable. Lastly, Diablo 4 is confirmed to feature live events that can happen sporadically throughout a season, such as the arrival of a mysterious peddler.
Diablo 4 is expected to release sometime in 2023.
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Source: https://www.dualshockers.com/diablo-4-microtransactions-strictly-cosmetic/
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