https://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/20635661/seasons-on-console-3-20-2017
Just learned about this. Like the PC version, I haven’t touched the PS4 version for awhile now (according to my last USB game save backups, early 2015 or several months before I stopped playing on PC).
PS4 and Xbox One only makes sense since item/character editing took place on prior generation consoles and were imported over.
The biggest question that is naturally being asked is whether or not actual game play will require being online all the time (seasonal character creation requires being logged in to each consoles respective gaming network; PlayStation Network or Xbox Live).
Considering Blizzard has been purposely vague about those details, I personally believe that game play won’t be 100% online like it is with the PC version. Seasonal progress will be periodically uploaded (in similar fashion to how the game auto saves progress locally). In other words, there will probably still be a local game save (encrypted of course) but any seasonal and leaderboard progress will require that data to be checked in periodically. It’s a design compromise since the console version was designed with the “couch co-op” experience in mind.
Additionally, online only game play means that someone will need to operate actual game servers. Both Sony and Microsoft require paid subscriptions to their networks just for multiplayer so there is no way they would operate Diablo III game servers for free. The other possibility is Blizzard operating those game servers similar to the PC version. This also doesn’t make fiscal sense for just one specific game mode for the console version where unlike the PC version, its entire front end as well as netcode, takes into account that the game engine itself is directly on the system itself. The PC version is a client that communicates to the server backend and all data is validated server side. The console version doesn’t need all of that overhead and would require something similar if seasonal game play is online (server side saves).
And if there was such a setup, cross console seasonal play would be something they would promote. The fact that seasonal play will remain console specific is a good tip off that this isn’t the route Blizzard is taking (completely online).
Since the encryption hasn’t yet been broken on either the PS4 or Xbox One, the issue of actual hero editing isn’t a problem. What might still be an issue is item duplication (items can be duped by force closing the game at certain points). With seasonal play on console just a week away, much of this will be answered then. Seasonal leaderboards are going to be in the context of game play on consoles (which is still going to be much faster paced since action combat on the console still rewards kill streaks in greater rifts unlike the PC version where some of this was changed).
While I’m not a huge fan of the seasonal ladder implementation in Diablo III on the PC versions, it might be something I will give a try on the PS4 since I did find the console version of the game a bit more fun.
