Developers and players are less than impressed with how easy it is to accidentally activate Diablo 4's Battle Pass, and are accusing Blizzard of purposely designing it that way.
Diablo 4 streamer Rurikhan recently took to Twitter to share their frustration at the game's menu design after they inadvertently redeemed their own Premium Battle Pass while trying to view their progress in the Season menu. As the accompanying video clip shows, all it takes is a single click, and the transaction goes through. "What a f**king scam," the streamer said after realising the paid content had been activated. "It was deliberately and maliciously designed that way."
So Blizzard placed the 'Activate Premium Battle Pass' button right next to the button you have to constantly press to check your Season Journey. Guess what happened to me and at least 5 others on my stream. This is straight up Malicious Design. @Diablo pic.twitter.com/99KhTR51adJuly 21, 2023
In a follow-up tweet, they explain that "when you go to the Season tab, the default selection is always 'Activate Premium Pass,'" adding that Blizzard "knew exactly what they were doing."
Having opted for the Digital Deluxe Edition, the Battle Pass had (in essence) already been paid for, but as further tweets show, Rurikhan was planning on "saving it for a more interesting season." As Battle Passes are linked to Diablo 4's seasons, if the streamer does want to get the premium content in a future season, they'll have to purchase another pass.
Others who've seen the footage have come out in support of Rurikhan. "Single click interaction lol," tweeted Obsidian's Josh Sawyer, adding, "Absolute dogshit." Glauber Kotaki, an artist on Vampire Survivors, wrote, "Blizzard is using freaking dark patterns in their game." Twitter user @envinyon said, "It's really impressive how developers come up with ways of designing games that feel like they should be illegal."
Responding to Rurikhan's tweet, Diablo 4's global community development director, Adam Fletcher, says Blizzard is currently working on a way to fix the issue. "We have a temp fix in the works that will at least ensure the cursor isn't defaulted there [on Activate Premium] and will instead be defaulted on Season Journey," Fletcher says.
Just had a powwow with people on this post stream. We have a temp fix in the works that will at least ensure the cursor isn’t defaulted there and will instead be defaulted on Season Journey.July 21, 2023
This comes after a rather frosty reception from fans to Diablo 4 Season 1. Blizzard acknowledged that the game is less fun following the update and has made some big promises for the future, including faster levelling, fewer player nerfs, and a better endgame.
Check out our Diablo 4 Battle Pass guide for a closer look at seasonal progression.
