Diablo 4 boss clarifies seasonal story content: "Not a new campaign"

Diablo 4's seasonal releases will introduce some new story content, but franchise boss Rod Fergusson says it won't be on the level of a campaign.

Fergusson took to Twitter with an eye for "managing expectations" after "seeing some people misinterpreting" a recent Diablo 4 cover story from Game Informer. "The story that [associate game director Joe Piepiora] refers to in Seasons are new quest lines that help to provide context to new seasonal mechanics - not a new campaign," Fergusson clarified. 

Piepiora said that quarterly seasonal updates will come with new story content, but a crucial detail that seems to have gotten lost in some discussions is that this minor story stuff will simply explain the content available elsewhere in that season. Each season won't kick off its own bespoke sub-plot, in other words. 

In follow-up tweets, Fergusson affirmed that these new seasonal quest lines will be "part of the free season." Blizzard will discuss Diablo 4's live content more in the future, he added, and plans to offer both seasons and expansions. Based on Diablo 3's updates, we can reasonably assume that new campaign content will be tied to expansions, with seasons focusing more on loot grinds and the like, but we still need more details there. 

We're getting close to Diablo 4's June 6 release date, and minor but valuable details are still trickling in. Blizzard recently confirmed that Diablo 4's respec costs "are final," and meant to ensure that players "feel that there are important decisions they're making along the way that feel like they're - not permanent, they can always back out of these things - but they're intentional," as Piepiora put it in a group interview attended by 12DOVE. 

Speaking of new content: Diablo 3's next season will be the last one with new content before the game enters a cycle of repeats to keep the lights on.