Blizzard just announced that Diablo 4 is coming to Steam on October 17. This will bring Blizzard's latest entry in their long-running action-RPG franchise to a PC platform not called Battle.net a mere four months after its initial launch.
The Steam release of Diablo 4 will include support for cross-platform play with all other versions of the game. This includes cross-play with the Battle.net release, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5. Steam Achievements will be supported, as well Steam friends list integration. Yes, Diablo 4 will also be playable on the Steam Deck.
The October 17 release on Steam coincides with the beginning of the second Diablo 4 season, Season of Blood. It is this second season in which Blizzard hopes will be the start of a redemption arc after some pretty big missteps in the first season. Missteps that included several unnecessary nerfs to abilities and loot, plus some poor balancing near the start of the new season. In short, it made Diablo 4 very much not a whole lot of fun to play, especially when compared to the pre-season version that was actually quite enjoyable.
The release of Diablo 4 on Steam will be the second Blizzard title in as many months to hit the platform. In August, Blizzard released Overwatch 2 on Steam. Of course, that game was quickly decimated in user reviews, sitting at "Overwhelmingly Negative" after almost 194,000 reviews. Overwatch 2 currently sits as Steam's worst rated game of all time, despite the game itself being largely fine. The issues users seem to take issues with include anger over microtransactions, some matchmaking issues, the "unnecessary" sequel aspect, and anger over how Blizzard has treated employees.
It really isn't hard to imagine that a similar fate will befall Diablo 4. Let's be real here: People are still very much holding onto that anger from the start of the first season, despite Blizzard's efforts to fix things. Then you obviously throw in the fact that there are also cosmetic microtransactions in Diablo 4, plus the whole issue of Blizzard's history of how they treat employees, and well... We all know where this is headed.
Season of Blood for Diablo 4 will add in a new questline to play through. There are also some new vampiric powers, five additional endgame bosses, and more.
