Set to arrive in mid-July, Diablo 4 season one will have the curtain pulled back on what it entails during a developer livestream on July 6. Speculation is rampant with how little has leaked to the public so far, with the Diablo 4 Items only tidbits fans have managed to data mine being a new world tier and quality of gems.

The first season will also come with the game's first battle pass, something many have already purchased, and fans are anxious to know what the value of that will end up being. Diablo 4 launched with a great core gameplay loop and a moderately healthy endgame, but players now having combed through most of what it has to offer and have already composed their wishlist for how Blizzard can iterate upon its foundation.

Diablo 4's First Season May be its Most Important

With the current plan for three-month seasons in Diablo 4, Blizzard's offerings for each will need to be enough to keep players coming back and engaging in the grind without it devolving to monotony. Merely slapping on a battle pass and resetting seasonal progress will fall short of the expectations for today's live-service games.

Presumably, Blizzard has kept a keen eye on what the most successful studios have done to keep games like Destiny 2, Fortnite, and Sea of Thieves from withering on the vine, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the live-service games the publisher's own development teams have maintained. Fortunately, Diablo 4 has a wealth of avenues it can look to build out, as well as plenty of space for new core features to be tacked on.

Besides adding new world tiers with higher-scaling stats, players will be looking for new items with creative perks that they can craft builds around, as well as new dungeons, events, bosses, class skills, and eventually additional chapters for Diablo 4's story. It is hard to say how much of that Blizzard can reasonably produce for the first season, but the studio has to take big swings at this critical point in a live-service game's journey, where players decide if it is an ecosystem they want to be with for the long haul.

For Blizzard, Maintaining Momentum is Easier Than Getting it Back Later

Blizzard has already come out to clarify that leaderboards will not be implemented in time for Diablo 4's first season. Without the competitive motivator, it will have to dial in the other aspects of the game that make it so rewarding, and most of all, fun. The seasonal theme could be an ace up the studio's sleeve, with an eye-popping aesthetic style, maybe wrapped around a core feature it kept out of release to polish for season one.

Something like the Uber Bosses in previous titles paired with a visual nod to Diablo 2, or introducing an item like the Horadric Cube would go a long way to satiating the fan base until the loop of seasonal ladders with leaderboads is up and functional. Whether it is something entirely new for Diablo 4, or just expanding on the least fleshed-out features, Blizzard can not afford to get by on the bare minimum.

The less it does to solidify its long-term players now, the more it will have to do with a larger-scale expansion down the line to claw them back. In terms of player retention, Blizzard will want to spend a penny now to save a pound Diablo IV Gold later. Regardless of what season one entails though, Diablo 4's initial offering at launch is an impressive one, and bodes well for what is to come.