Diablo 4 game director believes it's 'normal' for most action RPGs to undergo major reworks: 'Friction points that we could never imagine suddenly rear their heads over the course of 10,000 hours'

Diablo 4 game director believes it’s ‘normal’ for most action RPGs to undergo major reworks: ‘Friction points that we could never imagine suddenly rear their heads over the course of 10,000 hours’ | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these RPG Dealing trillions of damage in Diablo 4 isn’t a problem worth worrying about as long as ‘there’s something that makes it meaningful’, game director says: ‘I know a lot of it is from fear’ RPG Blizzard wants Diablo 4’s outrageous damage numbers to mean something again in Lord of Hatred, so it’s letting you crank the difficulty up to near-impossible levels: ‘It’s going to be really f*cking hard’ RPG Thanks to Diablo 2, Blizzard might’ve found a way to fix Diablo 4’s loot fatigue in its next expansion RPG Blizzard says ‘There’s actually millions of people that still play Diablo 3’ and those players have the right idea Action Blizzard says it’s open to even more Diablo 2 expansions and reworks unless people get really mad at it about this one: ‘We’re going to have to see what the players say’ RPG Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred’s new crafting system will bring back season 11’s sanctification and gives bad loot the potential to be legendary RPG Competitive demon slaying is about to take over Diablo 4 as its next update finally adds official leaderboards RPG Casting demons like they were spells with Diablo 4’s warlock rules, but now I’m dying to see how Lord of Hatred will transform the other classes RPG Path of Exile’s next expansion overhauls a beloved endgame system that hasn’t seen major changes for 10 years RPG Diablo 4 will let you transform into its most fearsome demon, the Butcher, in an experimental mini season before Lord of Hatred drops MMO The Elder Scrolls Online’s director says doing the same-old yearly patch cycle wasn’t ‘going to cut it’ if the MMO developer ‘wanted to have a shot at reaching that 30-year mark’ RPG OG Diablo 2 devs are ‘proud’ their classic is still getting love, even as they compete for attention with a new ARPG: ‘We feel the pressure, but I don’t hate them for it’ RPG Diablo 4’s second new class is a summoner who commands demons to fight demons RPG Warlocks have taken the throne as Diablo 2’s best class 26 years later, and Blizzard seems to be OK with letting them have their fun for now RPG Path of Exile’s next update might prevent your cursor from killing you, and it has a bunch of QoL changes that even PoE 2 doesn’t have yet PopularNEW: PC Gamer Clips!MarathonGDCBest PC gearQuizzes Games RPG Diablo 4 Diablo 4 game director believes it’s ‘normal’ for most action RPGs to undergo major reworks: ‘Friction points that we could never imagine suddenly rear their heads over the course of 10,000 hours’ News By Tyler Colp published 19 March 2026 The game’s paragon system is on the list of things to change. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Blizzard) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter PC Gamer Get the PC Gamer Newsletter Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday GamesRadar+ Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you’re going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. 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From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter The story of Diablo 4 for the last three years is one of constant reworks and reinventions of its basic systems. Loot was “reborn” in its second season, then changed yet again last year. Even the max level you could reach was knocked down from 100 to 60 when the first expansion came out.For anyone not logging into every season, it probably looks like Blizzard can’t figure out what it wants Diablo 4 to be. And while I think there might’ve been some merit to that early on given the reports about its rocky development, it seems like things have settled now that we’re three years out from when it was released.But that doesn’t mean major overhauls won’t happen again, game director Zaven Haroutunian told PC Gamer in a recent interview. “It’s almost like a meme at this point about action RPGs in general [that] go through this transformative arc, and, well, we can’t escape it any more than any other action RPG can for the same reasons,” he said.Article continues below You may like Dealing trillions of damage in Diablo 4 isn’t a problem worth worrying about as long as ‘there’s something that makes it meaningful’, game director says: ‘I know a lot of it is from fear’ Blizzard wants Diablo 4’s outrageous damage numbers to mean something again in Lord of Hatred, so it’s letting you crank the difficulty up to near-impossible levels: ‘It’s going to be really f*cking hard’ Thanks to Diablo 2