A fan asked about this on Battle.net, and got a splash of cold water from a developer. Wyatt Cheng: No Plans for Season 5 Bonus Weekends
Wyatt Cheng: Hey guys – just wanted to pop in and say that we don’t have any community buffs planned for this season.
The main reason is the one highlighted by other members of the community – while 2x buffs are super exciting while they’re active, they have negative effects at other times. The biggest is how demoralizing it can feel if you miss out on the community buff. One of the strengths of Diablo is when players feel they can play on their own schedule, when they feel like it. The 2x buffs really detract from a sense that any time is a perfectly good time to play. It can also cause people to burn themselves out trying to get the most out of the buff.
I’d translate that as, “Of course we’re going to do some bonus weekend events, but 1) not any time soon, and 2) we won’t announce them in advance since you guys would plan too much on it.”
You guys thinking along the same lines? I think Wyatt’s got a point in that people who miss out on a double weekend feel screwed over, and that’s a big deal this early in a season, since every little bit counts. A couple of months into a season however, lots of players are drifting away and the devs need to throw out some bells and whistles to give a kick to the gameplay. We can hope, anyway.