Diablo IV is zero for two when it comes to smooth launches. While the new expansion, Vessel of Hatred, seemed like it had all the kinks ironed out, a last-minute delay upended those plans. Worse, however, is a bizarre licensing bug that’s locking some players out of the new content, including its Spiritborn class. Comments like “Help, I own the game and expansion it says I don’t?” immediately started flooding the Blizzard forum and Diablo IV subreddit.
I ran into this exact problem myself the first time I loaded the game up after its extended downtime. Despite a code for the expansion provided by Blizzard for coverage and both that and the base game already installed (via Game Pass), I wasn’t able to access Vessel of Hatred. The in-game menu kept telling me to purchase it, despite showing me as already owning it once I clicked through to go to the store.
I thought maybe this was limited to Xbox or Game Pass players, but plenty of people on PlayStation 5 have logged similar issues with being locked out. Others were able to start the expansion, but then got locked out from exploring the new area if they left the game at any point.
Fortunately, Blizzard appears to have discovered the source of the issue, but a fix is still in the works. “We have seen the reports of players losing access to Vessel of Hatred randomly through their play sessions on consoles,” global head of community Adam Fletcher wrote on the Blizzard forum today. “We have identified the issue and have a fix in flight for testing. The plan is for this to be in our next hotfix.”
It’s unclear when exactly that hotfix will go live, but for now there are workarounds, though not everyone seems to be having the same level of success with them. For those who can’t access Vessel of Hatred at all, these workarounds include going back to the manage installs screen on Xbox and making sure you have a small 10mb update installed. Those on PS5 seem to be having luck with going to the menu setting for restoring all game licenses. And players who were able to play a bit of the expansion but were later locked out are advised to change characters, and then try logging back out and in again as their new Spiritborn character.
It’s a mess that recalls the dreaded Code 315306 error from Diablo IV’s original launch last year. At least things seem to be going more smoothly on PC.