Diablo 4 hotfix coming this week ahead of game-changing 1.1.1 patch
Activision Blizzard is expected to offer more small fixes to Diablo 4 bugs and glitches prior to the next big update’s arrival.
Activision Blizzard has been licking its wounds ever since update 1.1.0a nerfed all five of Diablo 4’s character classes, just as the Season of the Malignant hype was taking full effect. However, the Diablo studio has apparently learned its lesson, vowing not to implement a patch quite as drastic again following swells of fan outcry. As a result, patch notes for update 1.1.1 are set to be published before – instead of after – release, as revealed in last Friday's campfire chat, but not before more small fixes are rolled out later this week.
“We have some hotfixes & a small client patch that will be hitting this week to address some bug issues,” Diablo global community director Adam Fletcher said in a tweet, before clarifying that these hotfixes would include no balance changes. It’s unclear exactly what bugs these hotfixes will address, but Activision Blizzard did let players know they were aware of lockups and crash errors in a support site post late last week.
Even in Fletcher’s brief update on Twitter, there’s the sense that the team is being more careful in terms of what they say and how they say it. A worthy endeavour, given how irritated certain people commenting on his post appear to be. Fletcher also revealed that there would be another Friday stream this week to discuss what’s included in the update 1.1.1 patch ahead of time, including “Sorc/Barb changes, bug fixes, features” and almost certainly other factors.
Afraid to fail
While it’s great that Activision Blizzard is committed to ironing out any outstanding bugs and glitches still plaguing Diablo 4, the real story here is in how future updates to the community will be handled going forward. We already knew that update 1.1.1’s patch notes would be coming ahead of the patch (for the first time ever), but setting aside a whole live stream dedicated to discussing what’s included in them? This is very different to how updates to live-service games are typically handled.
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Of course, Diablo 4 players will no doubt be looking forward to hearing more about the upcoming changes to the Sorcerer and Barbarian update 1.1.1 will bring. The latter in particular was absolutely savaged with reduced damaged output after the disastrous 1.1.0a update, so the hope is that it will be better balanced before Diablo 4 Season 1 ends.
Fletcher gave no indication as to what time the Diablo 4 live stream discussing 1.1.1 will take place, but judging by past streams we can estimate that it will occur on Friday, July 28 at 7pm BST/ 2pm EDT / 11am PDT. Just bear in mind that Activision Blizzard itself is yet to confirm this specifically. Until then, Diablo 4 players can look forward to small hotfixes rolling out at some point later this week.
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