By all accounts, including my own, Diablo 4's Season 4 PTR (Public Test Region) was a huge success, and Blizzard seems to think so: Diablo 4 boss Rod Fergusson told IGN that the PTR was well attended, team will consider holding early playtests in future seasons.

Fergusson said that the PTR is "an ongoing story" and that "the success of the PTR in Season 4 points in the direction of what we want to continue to do." However, he said, "No one should take it as gospel that we do PTR every season."

As Ferguson explained, Season 4 is a fundamental change to the way loot works in action RPGs, so he felt that player feedback was essential before launch. But spoiling the excitement of the new season is one of the main reasons Blizzard is not committed to regular PTRs. Ferguson said, "Because sometimes you want the surprise to be more meaningful than the feedback in the moment."

Blizzard excluded most of Season 4's unique features from the PTR, but people still found clues in the game files related to Diablo 2's mercenaries, as well as an abandoned camp added to the map. Fergusson did not directly discuss these findings. Fergusson did not comment directly on these discoveries, but we do know that Blizzard intends to announce more details about Season 4 in the coming weeks.

Fergusson said that some people who skipped all three seasons of Diablo 4 played PTR just to see what the new loot and crafting system would look like. Players spent the week pushing the limits of the game with outrageous builds, like the Barbarian that filled the screen with hundreds of giant cyclones. Now Blizzard is fixing as much as they can within a month.

After the blunders at the launch of Season 3, I think Blizzard will have a hard time convincing people that PTR isn't necessary every season; Diablo 3 had regular PTR before they started reusing seasons, and it seemed to be well received every time. If the PTR is extended beyond PC Battle.net players, feedback will be crucial to ensure that the launch of a new season is not plagued by bugs that impede progress. At the same time, the risk of losing interest in the real season after having gone through the trouble of playing it is understandable.

Season 4 and Diablo 4's massive loot rebuild will begin on May 14.