Diablo 4 GM confirms “annual expansions” for the game

In a recent interview with Dexerto, Diablo 4 general manager Rod Fergusson confirmed that Blizzard is working on “annual expansions” for the game. 

Ever since the launch of Diablo 4, players have been clamoring for more. Season of the Malignant has helped to tide players over and give them a new chase. It allows players to go out into the world and roll a new character to hunt down new builds. 

That said, while these work as seasonal releases, like the upcoming Season 2, players are hungry for juicier expansions. Diablo 2’s Lord of Destruction expansion and Diablo 3’s Reaper of Souls were both very well-liked, and there are already mounting expectations for Diablo 4 to match those. 

Especially with where the story left off in the campaign, players will be hoping to see that continuation in the future. However, while we’ve known there are multiple expansions in the works, it’s not been clear when we might expect those. 

However, we may now know. In a recent Interview with Dexerto, Diablo General Manager Rod Fergusson said the game will be getting “annual expansions”. 

Blizzard is planning to support Diablo for years into the future

In our interview, we asked Fergusson how long is the team planning ahead with Diablo 4. In the exchange, Fergusson referenced “quarterly seasons” and “annual expansions” giving us a glimpse into how Blizzard is considering the Diablo calendar.

Here’s the exchange in full: 

“Patrick Dane: This is a broader question – how long does the future of Diablo 4 go? How far does that vision go? You know, we’ve come through the launch, which had this really nice condensed campaign. And now we’re at the seasonal stuff, so, like how long does that live?

Rod Fergusson: Yeah, I mean, obviously, that’s like how long is a piece of string.

PD: Exactly.

RF: But, you know, it’s years and years. That’s the thing we’re focused on. 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. 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.

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.

When you look back and realise that there were 11 years between D3 and D4, that feels like we didn’t live up to our players, our community, and what they deserve. That’s something we are rectifying in D4 with our seasons and our expansions.”

With four quarterly seasons and an expansion roughly every year, it sounds like Diablo 4 is aiming for a release cadence similar to Destiny 2. Bungie’s game has largely stuck to that, though expansions have been delayed in the past. Of course, that Diablo 4 matches Destiny 2 is speculation on our part.

On that, game development can change, and this is likely just a projected release schedule. Still, it seems from this phrasing that Blizzard could be aiming for an expansion in the summer of next year. This would put it in line with a year from the release of the game.