Diablo 4 is set to launch on Steam four months after the PC version released exclusively on Blizzard’s Battle.net.
The action role-playing game launches on Steam October 17. Those who play Diablo 4 for the first time via Steam need to first buy the game on Valve’s platform, then connect it to a Battle.net account. This is required of all Blizzard games to enable cross-platform play, the company said. Steam players do get access to Steam achievements, their Steam friends list, and the option to invite those friends to play in-game.
Diablo 4 is the second Blizzard game to hit Steam after hero shooter Overwatch 2 launched on the platform in August. Blizzard will be hoping for a better reception from fans this time around. Overwatch 2’s Steam launch was met with a backlash from players, and became the worst-reviewed Steam game ever.
After years of dogged commitment to its own PC launcher, Blizzard finally caved by releasing Overwatch 2 on Steam with the promise of more games to come. Blizzard has insisted its decision to release select games on Steam was driven by a desire to “break down the barriers” between gaming communities.
“It’s our goal at Blizzard to listen to players and try to exceed their expectations in everything we do,” Blizzard president Mike Ybarra said in July. “While Battle.net remains a priority for us now and into the future, we’ve heard players want the choice of Steam for a selection of our games, starting with Overwatch 2 on August 10th. We’re happy to work with Valve to make that happen.”
In today’s announcement, Blizzard pointed to Diablo 4’s Steam launch coinciding with the start of Season 2, called Season of Blood. Diablo 4 is Blizzard’s fastest-selling game of all time with over 10 million players and $666 million in revenue after just five days on sale. Its June launch even propelled Blizzard’s financials to record levels. But since then interest has plummeted, with a series of update missteps from Blizzard and a lack of endgame content adding to the sense Diablo 4 is struggling. On Twitch, Diablo 4 is now regularly outperformed in terms of viewer numbers by rival action role-playing game Path of Exile and even other, older Diablo games.
Blizzard will hope the Steam launch as well as the launch of Season 2 provides Diablo 4 with a much-needed boost as it works on annual expansions, two of which are confirmed to be in development.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
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