Diablo 4's bringing big changes to its endgame, but a 'significant majority' of players haven't even finished the campaign yet

In the first of a new series of "campfire chats" about ongoing support for Diablo 4, a group of senior Blizzard developers outlined changes coming to the action RPG's endgame—for the few who have reached it already, that is.

"First off, the significant majority of our players haven't finished the game yet," explained Diablo 4 game director Joe Shely. "But many of the people who are watching this stream, and our dedicated players, play through content much more quickly and have been experiencing this situation with the dungeons."

The "situation with the dungeons" is that Diablo 4's normal side dungeons currently make for more attractive endgame grinding spots than the Nightmare dungeons specifically intended to serve as, well, endgame grinding spots. Blizz wants to make the Nightmares into the repeatable post-game activity they were originally intended to be, and to that end Shely revealed that the team will be increasing Nightmare dungeons' XP rewards, while also making them easier to access, all a part of it being "time for the buffs" in Diablo 4.

I guess it hasn't been that long since Diablo 4's release, and in the age of ballooning digital game libraries, most videogames go unfinished anyhow. Still, it's surprising to hear how few Diablo 4 players have finished its campaign appetizer and moved on to its live service, permagrind main course.

And that live service element is 100% Blizzard's focus with Diablo 4. While discussing the balance of endgame dungeoneering, Shely revealed that the Diablo 4 team has internal "loot-per-hour" and "XP-per-hour" telemetry to help balance Diablo 4's various pursuits and rewards. On the one hand, this is an impressive attention to detail in perfecting the loop of making demon guys explode like medieval armament confetti on killing them, but I also now unfortunately have an afterimage of the phrase "loot-per-hour telemetry" burned into my vision.

Diablo 4's first season is slated to start in mid-to-late July. You've got a little time then, to depart the significant majority of players yet to finish Diablo 4's campaign and start the real Diablo 4, the loot-per-hour Diablo 4.

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch.