Last week Blizzard held its annual BlizzCon event in Anaheim, California and during the keynote the studio revealed the first Diablo IV expansion called ‘Vessel of Hatred.’ Alongside it was a newly released teaser trailer and a few pieces of information about the game. This included the expansion’s title as well as a release window. The trailer also revealed the location of a new zone.
Outside of the teaser, Diablo IV devs took stepped in front of the camera to offer up a few more details. Such as the introduction of a new class. And it’s now clear that a big focus of the expansion will be positioning Mephisto as the antagonist. Continuing where the story left off in the base game as Neyrelle took off with Mephisto trapped in the soul stone to parts unknown. With the teaser we also know where she was headed. Or at the least one of the locations – Nahantu, previously known as Torajan. Blizzard revealed the new location in a post-keynote campfire chat during the first day of BlizzCon.
The first Diablo IV expansion will launch late 2024
There’s no exact launch date yet but it is confirmed when the general launch time frame will be. Blizzard says it’ll be coming in late 2024. This could mean that the expansion will launch sometimes more towards the Fall or even closer to the holidays. However it’s also worth keeping in mind that Diablo IV launched in early June. So there’s still a chance that the expansion launch gets moved up. Blizzard will no doubt share more details about the official launch date in the coming months.
But for now the studio is targeting late next year. That leaves quite a few months in between now and then for Blizzard’s first crack at a live service Diablo title. And to keep players engaged the studio will be pushing out additional seasonal content to bridge that gap. The game officially launched season 2 called “Season of Blood” back on October 17. And in January it plans to launch the game’s third season where it will introduce weekly leaderboards as part of The Gauntlet – a non-linear dungeon where players can test their skills against each other.
Those who rank among the highest on the leaderboard will have their names immortalized in The Hall of the Ancients coming in the same season.