Diablo 4 Season 4 is experiencing an unprecedented delay to test a massive overhaul

Diablo 4 Season 4 has been delayed until mid-May, marking the first time Blizzard has postponed a major content update for the action role-playing game.

Diablo 4’s Build Season was dangerously close to the end of its three-month lifespan with no sight of the recently announced public test realm (RTP) for Season 4. We were quietly worried that it might not having enough time to properly implement test feedback before release.

Diablo 4 Season 4: An exceptional delay to experience a complete overhaul

It seems Blizzard came to the same conclusion and announced a Diablo 4 Season 4 delay as well as a Season 3 expansion in the latest Campfire Chat. “Season 3 will now end on May 14, and of course with that, Season 4 also begins on May 14,” community manager Adam Fletcher revealed.

“We’re pushing it back a few weeks to make sure we get all the feedback from that RTP, and we’re rolling that into Season 4 to make sure all these new system changes we’re making are correct and working for the community,” detailed Fletcher.

Usually, delays to anything video game related are a cause of irritation in fan communities, but gamers want Blizzard to take as much time as possible with Diablo 4 Season 4. The game’s subreddit is flooded with posts praising this decision while the developers promised a complete overhaul of several item customization mechanics.

This includes changes to drop rates and a facelift to Legendary Skin mechanics to reduce the frustrating amount of resources needed to increase your character’s power. These new features will be front and center in the RTP and Blizzard wants to make sure they work properly. Hence the delay of Diablo 4 season 4.

The RTP will launch on April 2, 2024 and run until April 9, 2024, allowing players a full week to gather and give their thoughts. Fletcher revealed that Blizzard will moderate a dedicated RTP forum to streamline the feedback process.

Lilith in Diablo 4 — Blizzard Entertainment

At the moment, the Diablo 4 Season 4 RTP will only be accessible on PC via battle.net, but the developers are considering options for console launches in the future. “We’re going to try to explore other ways to be able to bring RTP, when we have an RTP, to players on [console] in the future,” Fletcher clarified.

The development team revealed that full instructions on how to access the RTP will be available on the Blizzard blog “sometime next week.”

Hopefully the sheer volume of changes that have been detailed will be enough to justify the delay of Diablo 4 Season 4.