Diablo 4 has a 2026 roadmap, but some fans are concerned it's all the same each time – we caught up with Colin Finer, Design Director for Systems and Deric Nunez, Season 8's Lead Seasons designer, to talk about what's newTech19:00, 29 Apr 2025Diablo 4 Season 8 is all about the bossesDiablo 4 recently received its first ever roadmap of seasonal content, but some fans felt the updates could have gone further.While the game's second expansion will launch in 2026, some have been concerned Blizzard is being a little too cautious with its updates in the interim (especially since the franchise seemingly has a ten-year roadmap).‌We put the question to Diablo 4's Design Director for Systems, Colin Finer, and the game's Lead Seasons designer for Season 8, Deric Nunez, to ask how Season 8 shakes things up.‌Here's what they had to say ahead of Season 8, which launches today.Even Belial's 'smaller' form is pretty unsettling"Every season, we always look for new opportunities to make big swings. And I think Season 8 is kind of a representation of us going big and bold. We're not just bringing some seasonal favourites like questlines, we're also bringing back major characters like Belial," Finer explains.Article continues below"In Season 8, we're focusing on the Lair Boss system, and bringing Belial back as 'top dog' of the entire ladder in his big 'supreme' form, but also in his smaller form that's going to be stalking you throughout the course of the season," he adds, pointing out that Belial has a chance to ambush you after players defeat a Lair Boss."I think beyond that it's just the focus that we have on utilizing the seasonal pipelines to make permanent enhancements to the game, and Season 8 is going bold with expanding the roster [of the Lair Boss system] and every single boss in the system has received a facelift to bring them up to the level of challenge we want them to be".Season 8's big new mechanical addition is the option to steal the power from bosses, and Finer says this will lead to greater "power expression" for players.‌"These aren't subtle powers, he jokes. "These are pretty big and flashy."2025 could be big for Diablo 4, even without a new expansion‌"One of the challenges, or rather opportunities, is Belial, Lord of Lies," Nunez explains when describing how things are changing this season."Mephisto is currently walking the Earth and creating the perfect distraction for Belial to come back to Sanctuary. So I think one of the fun opportunities that Belial specifically offered us was him being the master of illusion, as he controls reality.""He's a very versatile character that is perfect, not just from a narrative standpoint, but also from a mechanical standpoint. So when we're looking at enhancing the boss ladder, we knew that we wanted to have a new 'Top Dog'," he explains, also pointing to Belial appearing during the seasonal questline in a smaller form.‌Season 8's big focus is on using powers from bossesThat questline will be more "curated", too, Nunez explains." I would definitely say it falls more on the side of the curated quest line," he tells the Daily Star, acknowledging that some Diablo seasons have been more open-ended, and again points to Belial as the anchor point for the upcoming narrative.‌"He took on the form of Emperor Hakan II and cast the Iron Wolves out [in Diablo 3] so we know how dangerous it is if you give Belial an inch, and I think one of the cool things about the Season 8 storyline is the player is effectively in a cat and mouse chase to try and prevent that."And, while some fans felt Season of Witchcraft didn't hit the heights of some of the game's updates, Finer says they received a lot of positive feedback from the community, too."I think Season 7 has been an awesome season," Finer admits.‌"We've heard a ton of positive feedback, a lot of folks were able to just jump into the action right after the holidays - it's a great time to jump back into Diablo 4 and we were very generous with the loot and progression.""Some of the builds I saw just kind of wrecked the game, like Bloodwave Necromancer, and it's cool to see the Ultimates actually being used in Season 7. We took a huge swing to really buff all of the Ults," he explains, while also acknowledging the team "probably overdid it a little bit".Belial sits atop the Lair Boss ladder‌"We've learned a lot going into Season 8 in terms of 'Where do we wanna pull back? How are we feeling about the game speed? We've heard a ton of feedback that the game speed was just too fast, you blink and it's over in a second, where you're already max level, you're already geared to the teeth."Finer says the PTR (Public Test Realm) is a great "safe space", but that the team won't always commit to the changes made there."We've pulled back a little bit from the PTR to slow the game down, so we think it's in a good Goldilocks-like state where it's challenging enough that the reward feels really good, and we think that it'll be in a good spot for Season 8."Article continues belowWe'll have more on Diablo 4 later this week, so be sure to return to Daily Star in the coming days for more on our chat with Finer and Nunez.For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.‌‌‌