The launch of Diablo IV was among the smoothest seen in recent times among triple-A online games. With the launch day (June 6th) now firmly behind us, Blizzard may have thought they'd be in the clear, but the servers finally buckled under pressure yesterday.
The queue-based login system of Diablo IV reported huge waiting times, but even when it didn't, the game would not load. Blizzard's Customer Support division quickly acknowledged the issue and provided Twitter updates.
1/4 - We are investigating reports of login issues affecting #Diablo4 and working to resolve these as soon as possible.
2/4 - We apologize once again for the inconvenience caused by today's outages. We're working to resolve this as quickly as possible!
3/4 - We've reduced login rates in order to alleviate pressure on the servers. Players will see extended login queues while the work is ongoing.
4/4 - The login issues have been resolved. Thanks for your patience and sorry for any inconvenience.
The Diablo IV login issue appears to be resolved for now, but it prevented many European players (including some in my clan) from getting into the game during primetime yesterday.
Still, Blizzard must be pretty happy with the game's launch. A few days ago, it was revealed that Diablo IV had broken the company's sales records, with players recording over 93 million hours of gameplay just in the few days of early access.
Blizzard didn't provide specifics on how many million units were sold. However, we know Diablo III launched to be the best-selling PC game with 3.5 million units, only to be surpassed by World of Warcraft: Shadowlands (3.7 million units). That record was eventually taken away from Blizzard by CD Projekt RED's Cyberpunk 2077, but Diablo IV may have sold enough to get the throne back.
In my review of the game, I noted that it is a return to form for the Californian company, even though it doesn't include many innovations.
Ultimately, Diablo IV is a success at launch, albeit one that stems from an obviously safe approach. However, as with any live service game, whether it will continue to attract players for a long time solely depends on the studio's ability to provide regular content and feature updates that address the player's feedback.
On that note, Blizzard has been fixing bugs (such as the Fly Host monsters being farmable for endless experience) and tweaking various aspects of the game. The level range of World Bosses in Tier III and IV has increased; the damage dealt by the level 100 Pinnacle boss has increased (though its health is reduced); and the spawn rate of Elite foes in dungeons has been adjusted.
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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