Diablo 4 boss finds Battle Passes to be an "antiquated system"

Modified Mar 07, 2025 17:55 IST

Rod Fergusson recently opened up about Diablo 4 Battle Passes - is something better on the horizon? (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Diablo 4’s Rod Fergusson recently spoke to Game File’s Stephen Totilo about the game’s Battle Pass system, and how it feels a bit stuck in the past. The concept of the Battle Pass is a fascinating one. Most people look at them and assume it all came from Epic Games and Fortnite. The first Battle Pass I can remember is from my days grinding out Lich matches in DOTA 2, all the way back in 2013.

Unfortunately, Battle Passes haven’t changed much since then — there’s not a lot of innovation going on, and that includes Diablo 4’s system. However, that could change in the future. The developers are at least keenly aware that something should change. Don’t expect it anytime soon though, even though Season 8 is delayed.

Note: Parts of this article reflect the writer's opinions.

Rod Fergusson feels there’s a better way to do Battle Passes than the way Diablo 4 does it

While discussing Battle Passes in general, Diablo 4’s Rod Fergusson talked about the whole system being a little antiquated. It’s true, too. Battle Passes really evolved over the last decade, and perhaps it’s time for that to change. Fergusson appeared to be teasing something major changing in the Battle Pass system in the future:

“There are different ways to gamify and to give the players more agency. So I think what I would say is, watch this space for us. I think we're going to be introducing some interesting things.”

There has to be a better way to do a Battle Pass system - the one Diablo 4 runs is mediocre at best, and perhaps Rod Fergusson has the solution (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

However, he did point out Call of Duty’s Battle Pass as an improvement. Their map is divided into sectors. This gives players more agency in the types of items that they’re going to unlock. I don’t think an identical system would work in Diablo 4, but it’s certainly time to update Diablo 4’s Battle pass.

What can be done to update the Battle Pass system in Diablo 4?

Perhaps using a system similar to what WoW is using will help (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

So what exactly can be done to make an interesting Battle Pass system for Diablo? I think if we combine what we’ve seen in Call of Duty, with a system Blizzard has already put together, we could get something interesting — or at least, be on the right path to solving this problem.

Creating a map of really cool cosmetics, emotes, portals, and so on would be a good place to start. Give it a bit of an ancient, dried-up map aesthetic, and let players know what they’re hunting for.

Put point values on the rewards, and then use a similar system to Blizzard’s Trading Post system. Offer players a large variety of tasks — of varying difficulty and style — to complete.

Doing Hell Tides, showing up in specific places and doing emotes, all that sort of stuff. Put point values on them, but fix one thing from World of Warcraft’s version. Don’t make it so you cannot possibly unlock everything in one season — there are certainly months when a player cannot quite get everything, unless they saved up Trader’s Tenders (points) from the previous months.

I think a blend of the two systems would be pretty fun, and offer players a chance to do stuff they might normally skip out on across D4. It’s just a thought, Blizzard, but I think we might be on to something here.

Check out our other Diablo 4 guides and features

Edited by Abhipsito Das