Highly Requested Diablo 4 Feature Is Being Held Back Due To Performance Concerns, Blizzard Says

Diablo IV's lack of inventory space is a problem, but the most straightforward solution creates an entirely new problem, according to developer Blizzard.

Anyone who has spent time in Diablo IV has quickly realized that the ARPG's relatively small inventory space is a bit of an issue. Players at any given time are drowning in items, Legendary Aspects, gems, elixirs, Nightmare Sigils, and now with the introduction of Season 1, Malignant Hearts. Thankfully, some improvements are on the way. Gems will be turned from items that take up space into a currency in the future. Blizzard will additionally be granting all players a new stash tab as part of the game's next update, patch 1.1.1.

But that raised the question: why just one stash tab? Couldn't Blizzard solve the problem once and for all by giving every player multiple new stash tabs? According to Diablo IV associate game director Joe Piepiora, the answer isn't that simple.

As Piepiora explained on Twitter, giving every player more stash tabs takes a toll on game performance. Every time a player encounters another player out in the world, the game loads that player's entire inventory and stash, creating "a lot of memory overhead." Piepiora said the team is working to improve how the game handles memory so that more stash tabs can be added "ASAP."

"Basically this isn't a storage concern it's a performance concern," Piepiora said.

Blizzard recently responded to negative fan feedback regarding Diablo IV's major Season 1 update, which widely nerfed numerous aspects of the game that players had relied on for damage and survivability. The developer has vowed to never do an update similar to the Season 1 update "ever again," and stated "We know ourselves know it's not the greatest experience for players out there."

Diablo IV Season of the Malignant kicked off July 20 and introduced the game's first battle pass, alongside new Malignant enemies and dungeons. Even the addition of the battle pass hasn't escaped controversy. Players noticed the in-game button to purchase Diablo IV's premium battle pass was situated extremely close to the "Season Journey" tab players consistently check throughout the season for updates on various objectives. This led to reports of players accidentally misclicking and buying the battle pass by mistake, as there is no purchase confirmation screen. Blizzard said it is working on a fix to make it so in-game cursors don't default to the purchase battle pass button, but didn't elaborate on whether other changes would be made.

Players are required to create a new seasonal character to participate in the season and need to have completed the main Diablo IV campaign at least once in order to experience the game's seasonal content. Blizzard has previously stated that in addition to new seasons every three months, Diablo IV will receive expansions in the future that will continue the game's core storyline. Diablo IV already has two expansions in the works.