So this week’s Diablo IV announcement is good news and bad news. The good news is Blizzard is moving to what it’s calling a “closed end game beta.” The bad news is you’re probably not invited, and the people who are will be under an NDA so strict that nobody can talk about it you’ll just have to wait for leaks on Reddit.
Invitee accounts will be picked through Battle.net based on “significant amounts of time playing the end-game experiences of Diablo II: Resurrected, Diablo III, and Diablo Immortal,” and it sounds like it’ll start in the back-half of November, with the public test phases slated for “early next year.”
“We have decided to focus the Closed Beta on Diablo IV’s end-game offerings for a few reasons,” Blizzard explains. “The full story of Lilith’s return to Sanctuary is not something we would like to spoil prior to release—players will experience a post-campaign Sanctuary during the Closed End Game Beta. Also, for many, the end game is their favorite aspect of Diablo—we want to ensure it feels satisfying, and with no shortage of challenging variety to experience across many, many demon-slaying gaming sessions.”
Selected testers will be trying to break five specific systems relating to endgame: Helltide, a nightmare-tier region event; progressively difficult Nightmare dungeons; the rotational Whispers of the Dead quests; Fields of Hatred PvP zones; and the level-capped progression mechanic in Paragon Boards.
