Diablo IV’s official launch is just a few hours away, but millions of people have already been enjoying Early Access. There’s plenty to look forward to as well, as Diablo franchise general manager Rod Fergusson has confirmed in an interview with Kinda Funny Games that two expansions are already in development. Since Diablo IV is a live service game and will have quarterly seasons, Fergusson spoke in detail about how to avoid developer burnout and manage expectations, while creating new content:
“So you have to build your team and your structure around a way you can do that sustainably, because you’re kind of always shipping in a way,” said Fergusson. “In fact that’s something we talk about. We have to build things in parallel. Right now, as I sit here, we’re about to launch the main game, we’re finishing up season one, we’re working on season two, we’re working on expansion one, we’re kicking off expansion two. All that’s happening right now and we haven’t even launched the game yet.”
It’s no surprise that Diablo IV is getting an expansion; the bigger surprise is that there are going to be two expansions, and they’re already in development. Both Diablo II and Diablo III each got one expansion apiece, although Diablo III did get the Necromancer as a form of paid DLC.
The team has been quick to patch in balance changes to all the classes, with one patch going live less than 72 hours after Early Access launched. While Diablo IV did get overwhelmingly positive reviews from the media, the community has had its fair share of issues with the game, some of which I agree with from my time with the beta. Our full review of Diablo IV won’t come until we’ve fully explored the end-game content, so look for it sometime after we’re comfortably sitting at level 100.
