Diablo 4’s 2025 roadmap details upcoming changes to the title, a first in franchise history

For the first time in the history of the franchise, we have a roadmap for Diablo 4, covering 2025’s development activities. The cadence is nothing new — it highlights four major patches coming out in the year, starting with January’s patch 2.1.0 and the Season of Witchcraft. What’s really exciting is the content, as we’re getting a preview of the plans for the entire year.

Let’s review what’s up next on the docket for 2025.

The upcoming seasonal schedule roughly aligns with the quarters of the year — Season 8 kicking off at the end of April and running to July, Season 9 from July to September, and Season 10 from September to December. Described as the Age of Hatred, the seasonal themes and questlines highlight the spread of Mephisto’s influence throughout Sanctuary up to the release of the yet-untitled expansion in 2026. And yes, those seasonal themes (well, their names) are included! We’ve been fighting our way through with our powers of witchcraft in Season 7 and preparing to face Belial’s return to Season 8. But what are these themes in the second half of the year?

Sins of the Horadrim opens up a lot of possibilities — perhaps it’s finally time to see what Lorath has been up to since receiving that letter from Neyrelle. Maybe we’ll read some of those forgotten tomes in the Horadric Vault (remember that from Act 1 of the storyline?) to acquire the Horadric Powers. The patch itself introduces new nightmare dungeon activities to the game as a whole, while in the season players can progress the dungeon’s intensity during their hunt for the barons of the Burning Hell.

On the flip side, we end the year with Infernal Chaos and some associated chaos powers — exactly the theme I had hoped to accompany with the original launch of the Infernal Hordes. The Infernal Hordes themselves are also becoming more chaotic in the season, introducing new choices to the runs and “advanced options between the Infernal Waves.” Chaos powers have a lot of possibility behind them, too. This could mean something incredibly powerful that maybe works only 50% of the time, powers that don’t have ‘fixed’ actions but instead something random from a list occurs when triggered, powers that harness the chaos of the Burning Hells themselves with the possibility of backfiring on the user, or something else we haven’t even dreamt up!

There are also additional planned quality-of-life changes coming, such as keyboard-and-mouse support for console players, as well as two IP collaborations described as “meld[ing]..with universes that complement its dark themes.” But frankly, I’m most excited about the pets. Yes, Season 7’s raven was merely the first in the lineup. Each new season will continue to reward a new cosmetic pet to accompany you along your adventures, picking up gold and materials in your wake. Season 8 will reward a feline, but Seasons 9 and 10 are yet undefined.

The future of Diablo 4 has lots of possibilities, with a new expansion, a new ranking system, leaderboards, and even more not included in the roadmap — is that “new class” obscured by flames on the 2026 banner? Either way, players clearly have content to look forward to, and we shall see how this experiment in additional communication plays out. See you in Sanctuary!