Diablo IV comes to Steam on October 17

Blizzard's hit dungeon-romping sequel Diablo IV is officially coming to Steam on October 17.This is a boon for PC gamers, as it was previously only available on Blizzard's proprietary sales platform Battle.net, and Steam is a more widely-used service. The news should be of particular interest for Steam Deck owners. It was already possible to jump through the hoops required to get the game running on the portable console, but this will radically streamline the process.

Valve hasn't rated the game for Steam Deck compatibility, but that'll likely happen closer to launch. Additionally, you'll still need a Battle.net account to get started, so have those login credentials ready. Just like the Battle.net release, standalone PCs require at least an Intel Core i5 or AMD FX-8350 CPU and 8 GB of RAM, though 16 GB is preferred, to get this running.

The Steam release joins a new DLC called Season of Blood, also launching on October 17. The content drop brings a new questline, updated vampire powers, five new endgame bosses and much more, like the addition of actress Gemma Chan as a vampire hunter.

There's also a big-time patch coming out on the same day. Patch 1.2.0 brings all kinds of quality of life improvements, like faster XP gain, better navigation around Nightmare Dungeons, streamlined character rewards, more durable NPC companions, reduced backtracking and an increase in world boss spawns for loot gathering purposes. That's just scratching the surface. For a full list of improvements, check out the patch notes.

We were impressed by many aspects of Diablo IV at launch, praising the world design for having the most detailed and creative assets Blizzard has ever produced." We also said that it's basically the Diablo game we've been dreaming of ever since" the original title launched back in the hazy Clinton-infused days of 1997.

Blizzard has been protective of its IP with regard to allowing them to flourish on other sales platforms than Battle.net. However, Diablo IV isn't the first high-profile game to migrate to Steam. Back in August, the hit multiplayer shooter Overwatch 2 launched on Valve's storefront. At that time, Blizzard said that several titles would be making their way to Steam, but it didn't say which ones. Obviously, Diablo IV is one, but we're still waiting on more releases.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/diablo-iv-comes-to-steam-on-october-17-154524291.html?src=rss