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I don’t know how anyone playing with a controller puts up with the inventory management that makes up so much of an action RPG like Diablo 4. If I couldn’t click and drag my gems and helmets around I don’t know how I’d cope. Much respect for my console siblings who somehow navigate not only inventories but also skill trees with controllers designed for playing Bushido Blade in 1997.
Their anguish will end during Diablo 4’s July–September season, as revealed by the newly published roadmap for 2025. This roadmap details the year’s four seasonal updates, as well as the permanent additions that will be released alongside each one.
There won’t be an expansion in 2025, however. As Diablo’s general manager Rod Fergusson mentioned at DICE Las Vegas, the follow-up to Vessel of Hatred won’t be out until next year. While initial plans were for Diablo 4 to have four seasons and one expansion worth of updates each year, expansion two has been delayed until 2026.
Coming up on the roadmap is the April–July season, called Belial’s Return. As revealed a few weeks ago in a developer campfire chat, the Lord of Lies will be the pinnacle boss in Season 8. The boss ladder system will be revamped, and Urivar and the Harbinger of Hatred will be added to it. Boss-rush events called “apparition incursions” will crop up in the open world, and players will be able to earn 24 boss powers by defeating certain targets. There’s also an “earnable feline pet” and a “new IP collab” on the cards.
The July–September season is called Sins of the Horadrim, which will add Horadric powers, another pet to earn, and “dungeon escalation”. On the permanent addition side, new nightmare dungeon activities are coming alongside the aforementioned keyboard-and-mouse support for consoles.
And then in September–December we can expect the season of Infernal Chaos. Yes, there will be a new variety of powers to earn as part of that seasonal journey, and this time they’re called chaos powers. Which is a bit vague. Expect an update to the wave-based infernal hordes mode, another pet, and another “new IP collab”. We know Final Fantasy 14 director Naoki Yoshida is a Blizzard stan who has said he’d love to do a Diablo crossover, but it could be Overwatch skins for all we know.
Finally, the 2026 section of the roadmap hints at a new ranking system as well as a leaderboard and, yep, that new expansion.
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Kurt Indovina
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