Buried in this morning’s frankly disastrous Activision-Blizzard quarterly financial report is some actual good news for gamers (and Blizzard itself, which could use a win): Even if you don’t have phones, you can play Diablo Immortal when it launches on June 2nd. That’s because Blizzard has announced that the game will in fact also be playable on PC, albeit in beta.
“Blizzard Entertainment today announced that beginning June 2, players in most regions across the world will take up the call to defend against the Burning Hells in Diablo Immortal, the first Blizzard game designed from the ground up for mobile, with the remaining regions in Asia-Pacific gaining access a few weeks later. In addition to offering an uncompromised AAA experience on mobile, the most ambitious game released in the Diablo franchise’s 25-year history will enter into Open Beta on Windows PC at launch. Diablo Immortal supports both cross-play and cross-progression, allowing Sanctuary’s heroes to join the fight with each other regardless of platform while being able to seamlessly transition between mobile and PC gameplay. The Open Beta on PC will contain all game features, including cross-play and cross-progression, and upon conclusion all progress will be maintained.”
In case you’ve forgotten, Diablo Immortal will include six classes (Barbarian, Crusader, Demon Hunter, Monk, Necromancer, and Wizard), eight zones, Westmarch, and no less than Deckard Cain himself “in an epic all-new story taking place between the events of Diablo II and Diablo III.” Blizzard is calling it an “MMOARPG social experience” (acronym usage: approved); multiplayer here means groups of eight, guilds of 150, and multiple PvP modes. It’s also free-to-play, but like most mobile games, expect plenty of in-app purchases. Apparently, over 30M people have already pre-registered to play on iOS and Android, and now add PC to that list.
