AlthoughDiablo 4is in the middle of its Sins of the Horadrim season, there has been some renewed excitement for future content, thanks to a recent closed presentation for content creators that teased the future of the game. 2025 has been a slower year forDiablo 4after its next expansion following Vessel of Hatred was delayed until 2026. The scope is still unclear, but the fact that thesebigDiablo 4changesare being hyped up by content creators has fans optimistic about the game’s future.
With severalDiablo 4content creators, including Wudijo and Maxroll’s Lucky Luciano, expressing their pleasure with what was shown to them, it’s hard not to get excited aboutDiablo 4’s future. For as great as a lot of the content the past few seasons has been, the game still lacks some highly-requested features like the return of Leaderboards forDiablo 4. However, fans may want to temper their expectations as they speculate on what these big changes may entail, because the game has a history of charging players for the most complete package of new content.
Diablo 4’s Best Future Content May Be Locked Behind a Paywall
Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred Made Some High-Requested Features Exclusive to the DLC
Vessel of Hatred’s release marked a significant overhaul to many ofDiablo 4’s core systems, such as the level cap change from 100 to 60 and Paragon levels becoming split from standard levels.Season 6 also removed The Gauntlet and its Leaderboardsfrom the game due to an exploit that allowed players to break the game mode to achieve high scores. While these were welcome and necessary changes made available to all players regardless of whether they purchased the Vessel of Hatred expansion, some of the best content added that season was locked behind the paid DLC.
Diablo 4’s Mercenary systemwas a long-requested feature that fans ofDiablo 2wanted to see adapted for the game, and it was finally introduced in Vessel of Hatred. Similarly, the Dark Citadel co-op dungeon was another Vessel of Hatred-exclusive feature that aimed to strengthenDiablo 4’s endgame co-op activities, which had been somewhat lacking prior to the expansion’s release. While both of these features were fantastic additions to the game, players who had not purchased Vessel of Hatred were barred from experiencing crucial pieces of new content.
Some Future Mechanics Will Likely Still Be Free to All Diablo 4 Players
It’s possible thatDiablo 4’s next expansionwill take a similar approach to its new content additions. While there will likely be plenty of overhauled mechanics for players to enjoy for free, the meat ofDiablo 4’s future mechanics may be exclusive to its next DLC. Blizzard has already teased that the most necessary improvements are planned to be free seasonal content, butDiablo 4players' dream features may only be available as part of the game’s next paid expansion.
Season 4: Loot Reborn is a good example of what players can expect a freeDiablo 4overhaul to look like, where systems are tweaked but entirely new features are sparse.
Quality-of-life improvements like the return of Leaderboards seem like a feature that’s bound to be in a free seasonal update. However, new bosses and game modes forDiablo 4’s endgame contentare more likely to be among the bulk of the new content that is added in the next expansion. Looking at Vessel of Hatred is a good way to gauge what players can expect from this next paid DLC, since Blizzard will likely want to deliver a product on par with the previous expansion. If this is the case,Diablo 4players can expect at least a few DLC-exclusive features to be used as selling points for the expansion, beyond a new class and a new region of the map.
