Today, during Blizzard’s Diablo IV Developer Update livestream, members of the game’s dev team dove right into the myriad changes expected to arrive with the game’s next big update: Season of Blood. But tweaks to loot drops and XP rewards won’t be the only new experience for PC players, as the game is now confirmed to arrive on Steam on October 17, 2023.
Originally released on June 5, 2023, for consoles and PC, Diablo IV initially required use of Blizzard’s well-known Battle.net launcher. But like Blizzard’s Overwatch 2 before, the latest entry in the classic ARPG will also coexist on Steam. During the developer stream, Associate Director of Community Adam Fletcher said that Diablo IV will go live on Valve’s marketplace alongside season two’s launch and will feature full cross-play and cross-progression right out of the gate. The Steam page for the game is now live.
Diablo IV on Steam means better Steam Deck integration
As Fletcher stated during the developer stream, one benefit of all this is that those of us who’ve wrangled with the back-end process of getting Diablo IV on Steam Deck won’t have to struggle as much anymore.
Diablo IV runs surprisingly well on Steam Deck (provided most of the graphics settings are scaled down to the lower side of things), but since Valve’s mini PC doesn’t run Windows natively, Blizzard’s ARPG isn’t as easy to jump into as other games are on the platform. That said, since Diablo IV is an always-online game, you’ll still be restricted to wherever you can snag a wi-fi connection should you want to take the fight to Lilith on the go.
A Steam version of Diablo IV opens the door to user reviews
While Battle.net pages for games can link you directly to a game’s forum page, there isn’t a way to leave or read user comments on the service. Steam, on the other hand, is often desired for its detailed user reviews, which sometimes possess a refreshing level of honesty and sometimes see players unite over common gripes, justified or not. Overwatch 2, another Blizzard live service title, exemplified this, as it’s taken a beating from gamers on Valve’s marketplace. The game currently has a status of “Overwhelmingly Negative,” based on some 193,000 reviews.
Read More: Overwatch 2 Steam Reviews Are Predictably Brutal, Say Porn Is The Best Part
Diablo’s transition to a live-service game hasn’t been without significant road bumps. Over the summer, Blizzard took to apologizing for some devastating changes to the core gameplay after angering fans.
Now that the game will be on Steam, potential criticism might feel a bit louder.
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