During the hotly anticipated Xbox Business Update delivered by executives Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond, and Matt Booty, Microsoft announced that Diablo IV will be the first Activision Blizzard game to land on Game Pass.
Blizzard’s latest iteration in the hack-and-slash action RPG franchise will be available through the PC and console subscription service (which now has 34 million subscribers, according to Microsoft) starting on March 28. No further news was shared regarding Call of Duty, although it’s likely Microsoft will wait until later in 2024 for that one.
Diablo IV recently launched the third Season of its live service. Called Season of the Construct, it added a new Dungeon type called Vaults and a seasonal robotic Seneschal Companion. The Gauntlet feature was supposed to launch two days ago, but Diablo General Manager Rod Fergusson revealed a delay was needed, although it’s still on track to launch during Season 3. The Gauntlet will be a fixed dungeon that changes weekly where players can compete for the top spot on the leaderboards, with the top weekly scores earning their permanent place in the Hall of the Ancients.
This week brought the new Uber Unique Crafting system to Diablo IV, which allows players to salvage Uber Unique items to get Resplendent Sparks. With five of these Sparks, players can now transmute an Uber Unique item of their choice. The drop chance of Uber Unique items has also been increased across the board (with the exception of the Uber Duriel encounters), but players reckon it’s still too low to take advantage of this new system.
Additionally, Blizzard found itself some new controversy with the new Dark Pathways bundle for Diablo IV. Priced at $29.99, it includes five stylized portals, one for each class, and 1000 Platinum (the in-game currency). The portals are class-locked, and fans really aren’t enjoying that.
