Diablo IV BlizzCon 2023 Q&A – ‘We Have a Big Vision; Microsoft Is Very Committed, so We See a Bright Future’

wccftech.com:

Following the successful release of Season of Blood, Blizzard's Diablo IV team unveiled the first expansion at BlizzCon 2023: Vessel of Hatred.

Due to launch in late 2024, Vessel of Hatred will build upon the base game by focusing on the fate of the Prime Evil Mephisto. Adventurers will head to the Torajan Jungle, which Diablo II players will recall due to their visit to the city of Kurast. The developers have also promised a class addition never before seen in Diablo games.

Meanwhile, the live service will be updated with Malignant rings coming this week. Next month, a patch will introduce the seasonal endgame event Abattoir of Zir, while the Enchanting Preview window will be added to the Occultist NPC. Looking even further, Season three will introduce the Gauntlet weekly challenge dungeon and leaderboards.

At BlizzCon 2023, we joined a roundtable press interview to discuss the future of Diablo IV with Blizzard, including their first thoughts on how Microsoft's acquisition can be a boon.

One of my Barbarian coworkers asked if there's any plans on creating new uniques that cause skills to be fundamentally altered to create entirely new builds. Like something that might cause you to become a throw Barbarian. Is that something you considered?

It's been really cool to see both players embrace builds that we designed many uniques for and also to discover new ways to create builds, including ones that we haven't always anticipated.

Throw Barbarian is a cool idea. We've also seen companion Druids. I was in Scosglen and there was a Druid with three buddy werewolves. We know that there are those kinds of builds that maybe don't quite have as much support as they could have, so we want to continue adding uniques and Legendary Aspects