‘The Division 2’ Removes ‘Diablo 4’ Seasonal Character Idea After Player Revolt

Back when Diablo 4 came out, I got a lot of flak from Diablo veterans because I wished the Eternal Realm characters could participate in seasons in some way, rather than being left behind. “That’s not how it works!” they all said. And while I’ve changed my mind now, I introduced that concept to a game that doesn’t Having it for years is a problem. Enter The Division 2.

A month ago, Ubisoft announced that future seasons of The Division 2 would be moving to a seasonal character model, meaning you’d start fresh, level up, gear up, and participate in season-specific activities. In the history of The Division 1 and 2, there’s never been anything like this, and it didn’t seem very good. Now, it’s going backwards.

Ubisoft absorbed the immediate reaction and attempted to write a lengthy FAQ addressing the concerns, which included explanations such as:

“The main idea behind Seasons 2.0 is to break away from the current repetitive seasonal model by transforming the experience as a whole. With your main characters, we have to take into account different progressions and power levels, which makes it nearly impossible to create a well-balanced and enjoyable experience for everyone. Starting all players at level 1 ensures that we have a clear understanding of their progression when faced with specific challenges. Simply put, in order to design challenges accurately, we need a fresh start.”

They said that progression would be accelerated and that your main character would also be able to join the last two weeks of a given season to farm for items. You also wouldn’t have to complete the entire campaign again. My favorite question they ask in the FAQ is “What’s the point of keeping your main character if you can’t use them for 90% of the game’s future content?” The answer to that question was that both types of characters would have “meaningful roles”, with main characters always having the ultimate priority. Agreed.

But after a month, no one took the bait and the idea was abandoned. They created an “apology/game delay” text image on Twitter to relay this:

“We hear you and want to assure you that we have carefully considered your feedback following the announcement of Season 2.0. After careful consideration and discussions with the team, we have decided to re-evaluate Season 2.0 with a special focus on Seasonal characters with the goal of moving forward without them. This change will not impact the previously announced Year 6 plans, but it will require us to evaluate the changes needed for the new Seasonal experience, which will be integrated into Year 6 Season 2 this fall. Once we have more specific details, we will return with more information, a livestream, and a PTS.”

This will undoubtedly delay plans, as the initial reason they did this was because they said the game was becoming unbalanceable and it was hard to keep progression alive, but… they’ll try to do it, one way or another.

The problem here is pretty clear, and you simply can’t change an established system like this in the blink of an eye. Division 2 players have likely been using the same roster of characters since 2019, when the game came out, through good times and bad, through substantial seasons and sparse seasons. This is very different from Diablo, which had the seasonal character system in place for eons for Diablo 3, so no one was shocked when it was still in place for Diablo 4 with little change (aside from my brief protest). Even though The Division’s explanation was that the main characters would still be able to do a few With the progress made, it’s easy enough to see why players rebelled against this idea. But I’m certainly wondering how exactly this changes the plans.

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