Diablo 4 dev confirms long wait ahead for a competitive system

A Diablo 4 developer confirmed Blizzard is working on competitive play, but such a feature will not arrive anytime soon.

Competitive systems aren’t a foreign concept to the Diablo brand. Blizzard introduced a competitive system to Diablo 2 via the Ladder, which landed about two years after the game’s initial debut.

As a whole, the feature essentially functioned as a leaderboard for all the top players in a Realm. While bragging rights were nice, the real benefit came in the form of items, runewords, etc that were exclusive to the competitive mode.

The Ladder’s return in Diablo 2 Resurrected left many wondering if Blizzard would similarly revive the system for Diablo 4. Apparently, the studio does have some plans in place though they won’t take effect for a while.

Diablo 4 lead confirms competitive play is in the works

Speaking during a roundtable event (via PCGamesN), Associate Game Director Joseph Piepiora divulged that the new Diablo will eventually receive a competitive mode.

He noted, however, that players shouldn’t expect such content to arrive in the near future. The wait could last at least another couple of seasons, in fact.

Piepiora explained: “We have plans for this that we want to bring online in Season 3,” before adding that “it is expansive [and] we want to make sure that we do it correctly.”

Blizzard Entertainment

The Associate Game Director further noted that Blizzard has been in talks with competitive players and content creators about the work-in-progress mode. The goal is “to get a general sense of the sorts of things they’d be looking for in such a feature.”

It remains to be seen if Diablo 4’s competitive system will mirror that of the Ladder from Diablo 2 and D2R. But an estimated Season 3 rollout suggests concrete details won’t surface for quite some time.

Diablo 4 Season 1 launches on July 20, with Season 2 expected to go live three months later. At this rate, Season 3 could become available as early as January 2024.