Activision Blizzard has been pretty trending due to the recent acquisition deal with Microsoft that’s still in process, but in other news, the company has recently launched a Diablo 4 beta to the battle.net launcher. It still has lots of stuff to work out, but in time, Diablo 4 will be ready for its official release.

It was in a new quarterly update on the Blizzard website where the game director Joe Shely shed light on the new game’s live service implementations in which the most notable feature was the Seasons mode. Seasons mode allows players to start from barebones with a new character every season.

“To play in the new season, you’ll create a fresh character and experience the new seasonal features and content while levelling up alongside other players,” – Joe Shely

Players have to start from practically nothing and level up their way along with other players. They’ll have to create a new character for every season, but with that, they’ll get to experience new and exciting content for every next season.

“This, along with capping paragon points in Diablo IV, ensures that your effort and skill – measured by both dexterity and theorycrafting – determine how powerful your character becomes. It also allows players who missed the last season to participate.”

“This season design requires that all sources of character power come from playing the game, so you will not be able to pay for power in Diablo IV.”

All of this was reiterated by Joe Piepiora, the associate game director, who went into a bit more detail in regards to the game’s season pass structure. Players who go onto the complete the Season Journey objectives get the progression in regards to the Season Pass, which features a battle pass style structure which proceeds along with the Season Journey.

This allows players to get their hands on more and more rewards, cosmetics and prizes as they keep on playing. The season pass not only provides players with the opportunity to get their hands on tons of cosmetics but also boosts as well as currency drops.

“Completing Season Journey objectives also grants progress toward the Season Pass, a new feature with a battle pass-style progression that advances alongside the Season Journey, enabling players to earn even more rewards just by playing,”

“The Season Pass has both free rewards (cosmetics, premium currency, and gameplay boosts) and paid rewards (cosmetics and premium currency only).”

According to Piepora, premium currency can be spent in the in-game shop to gain access to cosmetic items, which means that the paid version of the Season Pass allows players to get their hands on only cosmetic items and not gameplay boosts.

But that’s not all, the Director of Product, Kegan Clark, had some words to share as well. Free tiers are meant to provide gameplay boosts to every Diablo 4 player, which allows users to level up faster with each new season and new character making the journey all the easier and enjoyable. The Premium tier rewards don’t offer any advantages in terms of gameplay and offer players only cosmetic items and only provide value in the form of cosmetics and premium currency.

“There will be a single track of rewards with Free Tiers that are unlocked just by playing the game and levelling, and Premium Tiers which provide no in-game power or advantage over other players.

The Free Tiers of the pass will provide gameplay boosts to all players – things which make the journey of levelling up a fresh seasonal character faster and more streamlined. In contrast, the Premium Tier rewards are focused on aesthetics, providing a huge value in the form of cosmetics and Premium Currency.” – Keagan Clark

Clark went on to explain that the shop provides players with cosmetics in exchange for premium currency. This allows players to customize their visual appearance in accordance with their tastes.

Nothing in the shop alters the gameplay experience or provides unfair advantages to the Premium Season Pass owners in contrast to players who don’t want to fork up the extra money. Although the cosmetics seem like powerful pieces of gear, they have no buffs or in-game stats.

“The Shop sells cosmetics for Premium Currency. Cosmetics give players even more options to customize the visual appearance of their characters. Nothing offered in the Shop grants a direct or indirect gameplay advantage. So, while many of these may look like powerful pieces of gear, they have no in-game stats.” – Keagan Clark

Blizzard is trying its best to assure players that Diablo 4 will in no way provide in-game upgrades for real money, which might be due to the backlash and negative responses in regards to the mobile title Diablo Immortal, which had pay-to-win implementations.

Fans are probably happy with this direction taken by Activision for Diablo 4. Hopefully, things stay this way, and all the players of Diablo 4 can have equal footing on their adventures and battles. Blizzard has learnt from its past mistakes and provided an equitable atmosphere for Diablo 4.

And that’s pretty much it for today’s news. Are you happy with the direction taken by Blizzard for Diablo 4, or do you have more concerns? Let us know in the comments below. We upload daily on Appuals, so stay tuned for more. Till then, see you later and goodbye!