Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024 brings us a fresh look at Diablo 4's Vessel of Hatred expansion

As promised, Blizzard brought a few of its games to Gamescom 2024 to celebrate the show, and bring us new nuggets to munch on. Now that the studio is part of the larger Microsoft family, Blizzard’s games occupy this awkward spot where they can clearly stand on their own, but also need to bolster Xbox’s line-up.

Game industry politics aside, what the studio brought today was certainly worth tuning in for, especially when it came to Diablo 4.

The focus, of course, was on Vessel of Hatred, the first Diablo 4 expansion. Vessel of Hatred was properly unveiled in June at Summer Game Fest. We got treated to its opening cinematic, and learned of its October 8 release date. Since then, Blizzard has been revealing more and more of the expansion, including, of course, the new Spiritborn class.

During Opening Night Live, plenty of suffering and horror was shown in a new trailer for the expansion. There's a new class to look obviously forward to and plenty of new Mercenary companions to accompany you, who all look interesting enough; a butcher, a shield-bearer, a nomadic woodland archer, and an imp-like child were just a few in the mixer.

Game Director, Brent Gibson also made an appearance to discuss Merceneries and new gameplay modes. Fans can expect an all new multi-layer dungeon that gives you control over your challenges and rewards, as well as a new co-op PvP dungeon that provides a gauntlet of multiplayer puzzles and mechanics. There's more on Vessel of Hatred to come during Gamescom, too.

Diablo 4 is currently in its fifth season. Season of the Infernal Hordes is going to be a little shorter than previous seasons so that Season 6 can begin with Vessel of Hatred’s release. Season 5 has been well-received thus far, and Blizzard continues to build on it with new patches that continue to perfect the core game of Diablo 4.