Diablo 3 ladders “definitely” being looked into by Blizzard

The new game director of Diablo 3, Josh Mosqueira, took to the game’s official website today to outline Blizzard Entertainment’s plans for the future of the action RPG. According to Mosqueira, that includes a focus on making items feel more meaningful and reducing “the impact of the Auction House” in Diablo 3.

Speaking during a game stream, the company’s Wyatt Cheng and Travis Day said the ladder – if added – would separate new and ranked characters from existing characters. “We wouldn’t take away anything from what people have accomplished,” said Cheng. “People have a lot of investment in their current characters, so you’d still keep those.”

Day continued on to say that a competitive ladder would give incentive to players to keep playing the game, even long after they stop supporting it. ”Five years from now, you’re probably not going to see us making huge content patches, or class updates,” he said. “At some point we’ll set the game aside, sort of leave it as a work that we’ve completed, and move on to like Diablo 4, or whatever, right? Ladders are absolutely one of the things that helps the game stay fresh for people 5 years from now, or 3 years, or 2 years, or whatever.”

Mosqueira goes further in discussing the future of Diablo 3 in his post, explaining that Blizzard will be “focused on preserving the core fantasy by cultivating the roots of the Diablo storyline, fine-tuning the heroes for what lays ahead, and creating new monsters and demons that will once again plant the seed of fear in your hearts.”