The former head of Path of Exile has commented on Diablo 2 and its birthday update. He believes that the developers made a clear mistake that he had to learn himself.
Who is it about? Chris Wilson is one of the former heads of Path of Exile and was for years the face of Grinding Gear Games for the fans. Some time ago, however, he left the company and has since been sharing his analyses of video games on his YouTube channel.
In his new video, he talks about the birthday update of Diablo 2. Here, with the Warlock a new class was introduced via Shaddowdrop and surprised the fans. However, for the expert, the patch was missing the most important thing.
Here you can see the new class from Diablo 2:
The content is missing
What does the expert criticize? The ex-head of Path of Exile is well-versed in attracting players back to their own ARPG with new patches. Thanks to his decisions, Path of Exile developed over the years into a constant success on Steam.
However, it is clear to him that Blizzard forgot the content with the update. He explains in his video that while the developers sparked the players’ interest with the new class, there are no new things to explore.
Quality of Life
-updates, like the improved inventory, are nice features, but without real new areas, they hardly motivate anyone to return. Moreover, Blizzard made the mistake of showing the class beforehand already at the absolute endgame, which led many fans to feel that they had already experienced everything.
I think that could have been a strategic mistake […] My problem with this update is that it essentially comes down to a new character class, some quality of life features, and some new endgame content without an Act.
Chris Wilson
Here you can watch the video about it:
What should Blizzard have done, in his opinion? For him, it is clear: Diablo 2 should have received a new Act for its birthday alongside the new class. With new places to explore and bosses to fight, many more players would have returned.
He is sure: “A new Act would have almost guaranteed that everyone who had the opportunity to engage with Diablo 2 again would have bought and played the update.”
But Chris Wilson also has a theory about why Blizzard did not add an Act. The developers would have clearly received the birthday as the release date, while a new Act would have required an “additional year of development.”
Chris Wilson’s analysis shows: Blizzard could have had a greater success. Thus, Diablo 2 and its new update primarily remain a concern for the biggest fans. But the price of the DLC also caused discussions among our readers: Fans of Diablo 2 defend the price of the new DLC after a strong start on Steam: “A bargain”
