
Diablo 4 game director says it's 'liberating' to be done with expansions as Blizzard can continue the narrative through seasons instead — 'We completed the story, but the butterfly effect can take us anywhere'
THE SO WHAT
Killing boxed expansions in favor of narrative seasons is a bet that live ops and battle-pass economics beat one-off DLC spikes. Studios should model whether their content pipeline and retention loops can sustain this cadence before copying the move.
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