Even a poor Destiny 2 season blows Diablo 4 Season 1 out the water

While not perfect, Bungie has set a high bar for live service content with Destiny 2 seasons, and Diablo 4's disappointing Season of the Malignant proves it.

[Jin_Sakai]

Diablo should have never been a live service game to begin with. Thanks Blizzard!

[thesoftware730]

How are you always first on these post? Smh.

Diablo 4 is awesome, and stupid articles like this won't change the massive success, and years of players this game will sustain.

JIN, HAVE YOU EVEN PLAYED THE GAME?

[Angyobangyo]

No one is questioning D4's initial success....yet they keep making the game worse. Season 1 has been a joke, so much so that the play counts have drop drastically. Blizzard's incompetence only makes PoE more appealing where some D4 players started playing PoE for their ARPG fix until Blizzard decides to make the game people expect a Diablo game to be. Everyone forgot about D4 already. Blizzard has no idea how to make any of their games fun anymore. People have moved onto betters games worth their time like Baldur's Gate 3.

[Hypertension140]

@thesoftware730

Stop defending the game because your favorite company purchased them, use your head instead.

[Gameseeker_Frampt]

@Hypertension140

"Stop defending the game because your favorite company purchased them, use your head instead."

The same can be said about Bungie. Destiny 2 was a joke here at N4G but once Sony bought Bungie the forum is filled with Destiny 2 defenders. Bungie just released one of the worst expansions for Destiny 2 for $60 and just officially announced that the only content they care about is the stuff they haven't sold you yet. The core activities of the game have been abandoned and the only new stuff players get they will have to pay $10-12 each. Yet here Destiny 2 is better than Diablo IV because it forces players to buy each season to participate and has more of a "story."

[shinoff2183]

Just like cod diablo has its fans certainly but they won't gain many new ones imo. The online season setup it's just not good imo. I'd rather an ol fashioned single player game. Sorta what baldur gate 3 sounds like. Baldurs gate 3 , they bring that physical version and they've got themselves a brand new player.

Hypertension , idk about that. Destiny still don't look fun no matter who owns it. I think your reaching. Those same defenders were probably into destiny before the purchase. I wish Sony didn't even buy them personally

[ManMarmalade]

I played about 2 hours but it all felt a bit monotonous. Diablo 2 had a better impact when I played it.

[Lostbytes]

I have. I find the game lacking also. It was fun the first play thru, but the season content is not worth the regrind. Limited build options. Lack of fun content. Disappointing endgame. Will pick it back up in 5-10 seasons when there is something to do after level 70. Back to PoE I go

[ModsDoBetter]

@Hypertension

Coming from the guy desperately defending the RDR full price re-release 😂

[Michiel1989]

why not? Basically all current ARPG's are live service and they are doing great/good, this is not on live service being bad, it's on the Diablo team being incompetent.

[thesoftware730]

@Hypertension140

Never me brother, never me.

I played every Diablo game except D2 remaster and Immortal.

And I currently playing D4 regularly.
Lvl 87 barb and lvl 62 Druid...so no I don't need any opinions on what I find fun, I'm not the follow the masses type of guy...if I didn't like it I would say so, don't give a shit who owns them, I paid $70 and MS has nothing to do with it...it's not a MS game, it's on 3 different platforms...so what are you on about? Oh I know, you and Jin feel the need to bash something you haven't played just because MS will soon own them..you showed your hand with that comment...smh.

You should join me on D4 though, and see for yourself, but I don't think that's possible because I'm almost certain you don't own it, but yet feel the need to call out a avid player ,and try to inject some salt of the MS/AB acquisition...again..smh.

[DarthZoolu]

Define started to decrease after I hit level 85 in the eternal realm, but season one has been straight up not fun. Once I finished renowned and hit level 50 in the first few days of the season, I realize that I wasn’t having fun and I started playing Remnant 2

[jznrpg]

Remnant 2 is a fun game.

[Gameseeker_Frampt]

Destiny 2 requires you to pay $12 to play the seasonal content; Diablo IV doesn't require you to pay to play. Diablo IV also was a complete game at launch while the core of Destiny 2 is still rotten and seasons are there to just distract you from that.

[PapaBop]

You obviously haven't played Destiny 2 in a long long time, I have many gripes with it but the core is the best it's ever been. Lightfall sucked big time with the worst storytelling in the franchise which is saying something but it still has retained a large amount of players due to the fact the core gameplay is just that damn good.

[Gameseeker_Frampt]

I've played Destiny 2 today. Why is it that the only defense some can make for Destiny 2 is to claim that anyone who criticizes the game must not play it?

Destiny 2 is at the worst that it has ever been. The story is all over the place and contradicts itself constantly. The "big cutscene" this season undid everything revealed in Witchqueen, with The Witness not being behind The Darkness and the opposite of The Traveler - but just a better version of Eramis. Players get just one new Vanguard strike and new Crucible map each year and zero new Gambit maps and none of the activities will be getting the promised new armor sets each year. Player count is so low that Bungie is removing all solo player nodes from the game in order to improve matchmaking times. Bungie even did away with the world loot pool so now instead of getting just the new weapons from this year, you most likely get something from years ago. The game crashes constantly and have been taken completely offline multiple times just this year.

[remixx116]

Theres alot wrong with your reply to papa

For starters it was common knowledge that the witness was never "behind" the darkness. They confirmed this back before the witchqueen that darkness is just a force, the same as light. Also the lore confirmed this well over a year ago.

Where did you see this bs about the single player nodes cuz it damn sure wasnt in the sotg, as a matter of fact a quick google search shows the only game mode having its single player node removed is gambit, nothing else so you just made that up.

You gotta fact check your stuff man cuz currently player count is slightly higher than this time last year after witchqueen (as of the start of this season).

Also lol what the hell are you talking about in regards to the world loot pool...they never removed it, hell they just added more guns to it this season as i just got the new strand auto old sterling from the world loot pool.

[Gameseeker_Frampt]

"Where did you see this bs about the single player nodes" Here you go, since you clearly don't even play the game that you are defending. https://www.bungie.net/7/en...
Bungie has already removed the freelance(solo) player nodes from Iron Banner, Trials of Osiris, and Competitive 3v3 and starting next season the last freelance node will be removed.

In previous years, the world loot pool only consisted of weapons released during that year - making it much easier to farm for the new weapons. Now the world loot pool contains all previous world loot weapons, meaning you'll statistically be getting more of the weapons you already own than the new ones you want.

"You gotta fact check your stuff man cuz currently player count is slightly higher than this time last year after witchqueen" https://steamcharts.com/app...
July 2022 - avg. players 54,967.1/peak players 103,075
July 2023 - avg. players 47,402.0/peak players 87,620
The last 5 months have seen a steady decline in average player numbers. Perhaps you need assistance in understanding basic math?

[remixx116]

You got me on the single player nodes thing but you also don't entirely know what your talking about.

You were wrong on the witness lore and you also directly stated above that they got rid of the world loot pool, read your own comment which is false and you clarified as such in your own reply to me.

Also I said as of the start of this season which was in may not as of july, no to mention your only using steam charts where a massive portion of this games playerbase plays on console.

Trust me I think this game is flawed as fuck as well which is why my playtime took a dive as of lightfall.

Also yes I was wrong on the single player nodes

[Gameseeker_Frampt]

Since you haven't been playing Destiny 2, here is the video from My Name is Byf on the final cutscene from The Witchqueen. https://www.youtube.com/wat... From Byf himself "Then unquestionable this is The Witness - the master of The Darkness." He then goes on to talk about how The Witness is The Winnower that Bungie has been talking about for years. The Season of the Deep cutscene shows that none of that is true. The Veil is The Winnower and that there is no conflict between The Traveler and The Winnower, even though Bungie used to say otherwise. The Darkness isn't attacking The Traveler, The Witness is - and The Witness is just the first civilization touched by The Traveler and is now pissed at it for refusing to joined to The Veil and fleeing. Sounds like Eramis to me.

PC has the biggest share of the Destiny 2 player base, at around 40%. If you combine the PS and XBox player bases, then yes more players do play on console. What we do know is that player count on Steam is decreasing and there is no reason to think that the same thing isn't happening on consoles. If you have information that says otherwise, feel free to share it.

They did get rid of the world loot pool - which was a curated list that just consisted of new weapons for the current cycle that was not tied to an activity. Now it is just a loot pool, which has weapons from multiple cycles. Anybody who still plays Destiny 2 would understand what I said.

[GhostScholar]

Facts. Diablo was ruined by the season formula. It didn’t need all that.

[shinoff2183]

Agreed

[jznrpg]

Not a hard thing to do.

[ReZoN]

Agree - D2 miles ahead

[anast]

I still play D2. It's great game even today.

[Themba76]

No it doesn’t. I’ve never felt more free ever since I quite playin destiny I got more time in that game than most ppl close to 8k hours. And I’m so glad I quite I dont miss that game in the slightest. And I’m enjoying the hell out of Diablo 4 probably will kill Uber lilith soon and then try hard core. Also Diablo 4 gives me the freedom to play other games unlike destiny 2 which locks you in to fomo and Diablo 4 doesn’t do that.

[rippermcrip]

Right, Destiny 2 was so bad you only played it 8000 hours.

[Themba76]

Yea I played mainly cause of friends not because I like the game in fact I told them this while I was playin

[GhostScholar]

It’s sort of weird to read that you had 8000 hours but you’re glad you quit. I mean I’m sure after that much time you’re ready to move on, but the games as service aspect of destiny was way less egregious. I never spent a dime in destiny and I still won a lot of games over people that spent money on things. You could completely ignore the purchasable stuff and still excel.

[Themba76]

It’s not just purchasable stuff I’m talking about it’s emblems from solo dungeon runs timed exoctics that you have too wait awhile to get again title gildings and also day 1 raid emblems. So yea the fomo is real on almost every aspect of this game

[Abear21]

Bungie have mastered the DLC game, probably one of if not the best at it for a few years now. Apples and Oranges.

[anast]

Imagine the hate mail the writer is going to get from certain idiots here at N4G. Everyone knows D4 turned out to be a live service mobile game.

[DivineHand125]

We need to have a discussion on what is making Blizzard suck so much lately. Is it Activision's greed and can we expect a pivot back to what made Blizzard great with new leadership. How can we pressure phill to steer Blizzard away from agreesive monitization tactics.

[kryteris]

I kept waiting for the season content to grow with time for diablo, it just ended abruptly. Very disappointing.

[Neonridr]

I have a hard time believing this at all. Destiny 2 is in rough shape and this past season was quite weak aside from the new dungeon. A new game beats that crap any day of the week.