How would you want to pay for Diablo 4?

[Strawberry]

I have played every other Diablo-like game. From western to Asian. And not even its biggest competitors like Path of Exile and Grim Dawn can compete because one is F2P with some really idiotic decisions and the other one is missing that visual appeal with animations and different characters. You can play a necro, a mage or a warrior and you basically look the same.
Torchlight 2 is the most Diablo game I have played, but still not quite there.

Diablo 3 is simply the best ARPG out there. What bothers me about Diablo 3 however, is that it's buy once game and it's not getting that steady cash income to give a bigger support for the game.

I am obviously very against F2P games. I mean, PoE is content wise, great. Everything else about it sucks, but the worst part is the armor customization. It's nearly non existent just like in Black Desert. And it's all because both games are F2P that are heavily dependant on costume sales. Your character and drops are not varied enough and look like shit unless you shell out money.
That ruins the gameplay for me.

I don't want Diablo 4 to be buy once game. Historically, it has been so. But times change. Diablo 2 was released way before mmorpg and dlc time.
Diablo 3 tried with real money auction house. We all know how that ended. The only reason why it's still being supported is because it has a legacy and a big following. Blizzard won't let it die, but let's face it, we're not getting any content because everyone who wanted to buy the game already bought it and the game is not generating much income, while the server and personell upkeep costs every month.

I don't want Diablo 4 to be buy once. I don't want Diablo 4 to be F2P with micro transactions. I don't want it to have tons of low quality DLCs.
I would however gladly pay $15/month to play it. I want to support the game I love, and I love Diablo very much.

How would you prefer to pay for Diablo 4?

[Unholyground]

Grim Dawn is pretty much better than D3 in every way except class fantasy, and I love D3. So that part of your argument/question is moot.

Full game unlimited access one fee.

[Strawberry]

Grim Dawn is pretty much better than D3 in every way except class fantasy, and I love D3.

It's a personal preference.
I bought Grim Dawn in early access and have both DLCs. It's just not making me come back to it as often as Diablo 3.

[Tojara]

Micro-transactions.

Honestly I don't care as long as the game gets semi-frequent updates, and the only way I see that happening is with micro-transactions. Diablo 3 despite it's inherent flaws would have been way more fun to return to every season if they did real updates every season, or even every second season. Imagine how much more fun the game would've been if every second season had the impact that the Kanai's cube season had? If that were the case, I doubt people would have as many issues with it.

I'm not a fan of Path of Exile for a few reasons, but the way they both update the game and how micro-transactions are done should be admired. Not the same genre, but Warframe is another game that does micro-transactions well (even though that system wouldn't fit into an ARPG as well).

[PedroloGeo]

Diablo 4 with a sub? Well, I should get a lot more than with D3 to pay it. I mean, continuous stream of new things, new monster models with new habilities, new scenery, new gear models, new gameplay features, new char habilities, new classes... If they could keep up with all of this maybe a sub would be worth. But paying a sub for the sake of love to the franchise... nop.

[Noxina]

I'd like a pay once type. Then have cosmetics we can buy at later dates for extra income, if they feel like that is needed to keep it alive. Then pay for every expansion released after.

[Mamut]

Buy once, free forever. I would not pay a sub for ARPG game and I basically play almost all of them more or less (most of the time PoE, hooked for years, also GD and now Last Epoch).

[Shadowsgrace]

I have played every other Diablo-like game. From western to Asian. And not even its biggest competitors like Path of Exile and Grim Dawn can compete because one is F2P with some really idiotic decisions and the other one is missing that visual appeal with animations and different characters. You can play a necro, a mage or a warrior and you basically look the same.
Torchlight 2 is the most Diablo game I have played, but still not quite there.

Diablo 3 is simply the best ARPG out there. What bothers me about Diablo 3 however, is that it's buy once game and it's not getting that steady cash income to give a bigger support for the game.

I am obviously very against F2P games. I mean, PoE is content wise, great. Everything else about it sucks, but the worst part is the armor customization. It's nearly non existent just like in Black Desert. And it's all because both games are F2P that are heavily dependant on costume sales. Your character and drops are not varied enough and look like shit unless you shell out money.
That ruins the gameplay for me.

I don't want Diablo 4 to be buy once game. Historically, it has been so. But times change. Diablo 2 was released way before mmorpg and dlc time.
Diablo 3 tried with real money auction house. We all know how that ended. The only reason why it's still being supported is because it has a legacy and a big following. Blizzard won't let it die, but let's face it, we're not getting any content because everyone who wanted to buy the game already bought it and the game is not generating much income, while the server and personell upkeep costs every month.

I don't want Diablo 4 to be buy once. I don't want Diablo 4 to be F2P with micro transactions. I don't want it to have tons of low quality DLCs.
I would however gladly pay $15/month to play it. I want to support the game I love, and I love Diablo very much.

How would you prefer to pay for Diablo 4?

Tbh, I prefer buying a game and not having to pay extra down the line, so buy once, as you put it.

[Khallid]

I would like it if the next Diablo can be played offline, so one-time purchase for me.

The only reason I stopped playing Path of Exile was the connection would die all the time. The game is good, but it pissed me off to no end how my connection would drop all the time, then respawn at a city which was even more laggy, and often disconnect again. At least Diablo 3 limited the amount of players inside a game to 4, so it never gave me any significant lag or disconnection issues. Forced online play seems pretty unnecessary for a dungeon crawler, but I don't expect Diablo 4 to have an offline mode.

[BreathTaker]

Any payment method if it is worth it.
If it has constant updates - a fee would be fine.
If not - pay once.
Microtransactions - only if they're not mandatory to compete.

[Clozer]

i want them to do it like overwatch. Buy the game and then sick skins for money.

This keeps d4 alive with tons of regular updates and gives us cool cosmetics.

[Omedon]

I trust Blizzard to monetize fairly and realistically, and that means something different than it did 10 years ago.

"Buy once, never even be tempted to spend again" is essentially dead in AAA space. Especially in publicly traded AAA space.

If you want Blizzard quality, expect to fund D4 regularly, or that someone next to you is doing so using options you are likely welcome to ignore.

The game cannot live on box prices and expansion prices unless those expansions are like... maybe annual. Likely more often than that if that's the model they go with.

So yeah, I'll buy it. I expect a box purchase. If I get into it, I'll likely spend regularly. The options will be there. Bank on it.

[Skorpionss]

Buy once, but release constant content that you pay for, like 10$-20$ for small DLCs (new armor sets, new models, maybe some game modes), as well as bigger content dumps like expansions, with full story, classes and mechanics to complement the main game. With free balance patches throughout ofc.

Or maybe a seasonal subscription, provided they release a season with enough content to make it actually worth it. Like how PoE does their season, for like 10$-15$ a season or something, you can still play if you don't pay u just can't make seasonal characters, older seasons become integrated into regular play and free for those that bought the game.

[mojojojo202]

Preferred would be an initial purchase with medium size DLC's every few months. Maybe rotate 1 story / mission based then 1 new class based so you get 2 a year. Not that fussed about larger expansions.

I don't want to see a sub and I REALLY don't want to see microtransactions... even cosmetic ones. I don't want to see a bunch of bullshit currencies like HotS has either.

[Clone]

By once with optional micro expansions.

[Kumorii]

If Diablo 4 will revitalize my love for the series, the grinding nature of it doesn't do it for me in the long run anymore. I expect 1 time fee as usual. IF they add more contents, like classes and places, monsters items and modes I wouldn't mind micro-transactions since that's essentially means I get content others pay for.

[Yunaqt]

Purchase price, with micro transaction (skins or someshit)

[GreenJesus]

I would like it if the next Diablo can be played offline, so one-time purchase for me.

The only reason I stopped playing Path of Exile was the connection would die all the time. The game is good, but it pissed me off to no end how my connection would drop all the time, then respawn at a city which was even more laggy, and often disconnect again. At least Diablo 3 limited the amount of players inside a game to 4, so it never gave me any significant lag or disconnection issues. Forced online play seems pretty unnecessary for a dungeon crawler, but I don't expect Diablo 4 to have an offline mode.

Especially when some people bought completely over the top graphics that the game can't render without killing your FPS so I have to lower the graphics. Why should I have to lower my graphics because someone ELSE has some weird micro-transaction appearances?

[Biomega]

Microtransactions for sure.

What we need is incentive for devs to keep pushing content for the game. Just look at PoE - the speed at which they release new content is quite impressive. Whereas D3 is... slow to say the least. New seasons are slivers and fractions of actual content. The only thing we've seen since RoS, really, is the Necromancer. There were a few new zones here and there but nothing substantial by any stretch.

I have absolutely no problem with microtransactions if they're limited to cosmetics and convenience, and it's not egregious (like SWTOR, where you can't even raid without paying). In terms of cosmetics especially I think there would be a WORLD of possibility. If the game is designed from the start with it in mind, you could do so many things - none of which would have any real impact on the competitive/progression side of things. But it would still generate profit and keep the game rolling as a revenue source in the long run, and therefore make it attractive for the devs to invest in. Imagine if we got a new RoS-level expansion every year or so! Or even every two years, like WoW. We've been playing the same game with D3 forever, and still enjoy it. If there was more money involved, it could be so much better.

[God Save The King]

I prefer games with continual revenue streams. It's very difficult for any AAA $60 game to provide any kind of continual support without a continual revenue model. That was the issue with D3, after the RMAH closed, they had no revenue stream, so the support and game died. Versus something like PoE where it's riddled with microtransactions (some very useful like stash tabs and auto-sorting tabs).

I mean, ideally I'd like D4 to have a single purchase and have support like PoE, but since we don't live in fantasyland, I'd be fine with a $60 upfront fee and something like Overwatch lootboxes or PoE cosmetic microtransactions. Alternatively they could go the EA/Bethesda path and just spam us with DLC every 6 months that costs $20-$40.