During a special episode of the official Xbox podcast, Microsoft announced that Blizzard Entertainment’s 2023 action RPG,Diablo 4, would be heading to Xbox Game Pass in March 2024.Diablo 4was the first Activision-Blizzard game to hit the service, following the completion of Microsoft’s Activision-Blizzard acquisition in October 2023. Microsoft had promised earlier that it intended to bring as many Activision-Blizzard games as possible to Game Pass upon the deal’s completion, just as it did after acquiring Bethesda Softworks in 2021. However, while a lot of people expected Microsoft to drop multiple Activision-Blizzard titles on Game Pass simultaneously, the company decided to release them one by one instead, this time around.
Diablo 4 Has Arrived on PS Plus Sooner than Expected
The addition ofDiablo 4to the PS Plus library is exciting news for PlayStation fans, but it’s also kind of concerning. While it’s great that more people will be able to access the game than ever before, it’s somewhat surprising that it is being added to a non-Game Pass subscription service so soon. Up until now, Blizzard Entertainment has never made any of its games available as a PS Plus monthly title before. Plus, whenAAA games come to PlayStation Plusearlier than expected, that sometimes indicates that they’re underperforming commercially. IfDiablo 4doesn’t get a surge of new players because of this PS Plus release, then it may suffer as a result in the long run.
Despite its Successful Launch, Diablo 4 Has Struggled to Attract Players Recently
Although the game received a relatively mixed reception from fans,Diablo 4was nowhere close to a commercial failure at launch. Just one day after it was released, Blizzard announced that it had becomethe fastest-selling game everin the company’s history.Diablo 4generated $666 million in revenue only a few days later, and it dominated the U.S. sales charts, beating out the likes ofFinal Fantasy 16andStreet Fighter 6. Blizzard confirmed in August 2023 that the game had reached 12 million players worldwide; notably, this was before it was released on any subscription services.
In spite of its successful debut, however,Diablo 4has been struggling to attract players lately, in part because of its highly-criticized seasonal updates. On Steam, the game only has around 4,000 concurrent players at the time of writing, which, while not terrible, is just a fraction of the players thatother ARPGS likePath of Exile 2andLost Epochhave at the moment.Diablo 4’s Steam player counts usually spike at the start of a new season or a free-to-play week, but these jumps aren’t always that significant.
It’s Hard to Say if Diablo 4 Will Be Supported by Blizzard for as Long as Diablo 3 Has
The last mainline game in theDiabloseries, 2012’sDiablo 3, didn’t have nearly as successful a launch asDiablo 4did. However, it was still able to enjoy a healthy and long lifespan, without being released on any subscription services. To this day, in fact,Blizzard Entertainment is supporting the game with seasonal updates. Although most of them are filled with recycled content nowadays, it’s honestly impressive thatDiablo 3has lasted this long. SinceDiablo 4has been added to PS Plus so early in its lifespan and is already struggling to compete with its ARPG rivals, it’s hard to say if the game will be supported as long asDiablo 3has.
Diablo 4
WHERE TO PLAY
Diablo® IV is the ultimate action RPG experience with endless evil to slaughter, countless abilities to master, nightmarish dungeons, and legendary loot. Embark on the campaign solo or with friends, meeting memorable characters through beautifully dark settings and a gripping story, or explore an expansive end game and shared world where players can meet in towns to trade, team up to battle world bosses, or descend into PVP zones to test their skills against other players – no lobbies necessary – with cross-play, cross-progression, and couch co-op on Xbox.This is only the beginning for Diablo® IV, with new events, stories, seasons, rewards, and more looming on the horizon.
