Yesterday, Blizzard unveiled the official dates for the upcoming Diablo IV Open Beta. Fans will get to play the game for the first time from March 17th to 19th if they pre-ordered the game or the following week (24th to 26th) if they haven't.
The Diablo IV Open Beta includes the Prologue and the entire Act I of the game. The first zone, called Fractured Peaks, will be explorable at the players' leisure. Blizzard put a cap in place at level 25, though, and of course the progress won't be saved for the full game, where you'll have to begin anew.
The developers noted there might be performance issues, server problems, or bugs during the Diablo IV Open Beta. They also said they would collate feedback from this brief testing phase to further improve the game ahead of its final release, planned for June 6th across PC and consoles (with cross-play).
The Diablo IV Open Beta announcement in-game cinematic first appeared as part of IGN's Fanfest. The full game's in-game cinematics will dynamically include your own character and what they're wearing, by the way.
Ahead of the Open Beta, Blizzard is going to hold another developer update live stream on the official YouTube and Twitch channels. On February 28th at 11 AM Pacific Time, Lead World designer Art Peshkov, Lead Systems Designer Meng Song, and Game Director Joe Shely will reveal details on the Stronghold and Armor systems while also talking about the upcoming Diablo IV Open Beta.
Lastly, Diablo megafans might want to take a look at the 26-inch Inarius Premium Statue, now available for purchase via Blizzard Gear at the stunning price of $1,100. The statue was sculpted by Brian Fay and Laurent Pierlot, while Lewis Villamar took care of the handpainting.
The renegade angel Inarius is said to be one of the central characters in Diablo IV, opposite Lilith, his former lover.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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