Blizzard delays Diablo 4's Gauntlet and leaderboards amid Season 3 backlash
Diablo 4's long-in-development Gauntlet dungeon and its associated leaderboard have been pushed back to an unknown date.
One of Diablo 4’s upcoming features, which is anticipated by many in the core community, will not be in the game soon as initially planned. Before the launch of Season of the Construct, Blizzard talked about implementing leaderboards, which will be tied to the new Gauntlet endgame dungeon.
The plan was for Season of the Construct to launch, give everyone time to explore the new mechanics and content, then launch the Gauntlet. In other words, it was expected to arrive fairly shortly after Season 3 kicked off.
This remained the message as recently as two weeks ago, when Diablo boss Rod Fergusson appeared on the Xbox podcast to discuss the state of the game, and to announce that the Gauntlet and leaderboards will both arrive on February 13.
This is no longer the case, because Fergusson has now tweeted that the features are being pushed back so the developer could “polish a few things up.” While the Diablo GM didn’t provide a new release window, he did reiterate that they will arrive during Season 3, which ends on April 16.
Season of the Construct has unexpectedly created another rough patch for Diablo 4. We called it a step backwards in our review, and the community’s response has so far been negative. So much so that Blizzard released multiple patches to lessen the effects of the big new seasonal mechanics, and boost the power of the new companion after many complained it was nigh on useless.
While the Gauntlet/leaderboards are welcome additions, they mainly target a set of players that like to min-max their builds, not to mention those who like in-game titles and bragging rights. Most Diablo 4 players likely won’t reach that point in the endgame, let alone care about a feature made for finely-tuned builds.
Diablo 4’s Lunar Awakening in-game event kicks off later today, and the reception to its reveal has been a lot better, so that will be something to hold players over until whatever other announcement Blizzard will be making in the future.