It’s been a long road, but we’re finally a few months away from the long-awaited release of Diablo 4. As revealed at IGN FanFest today, we can get a taste of the gameplay even sooner. Diablo 4 will get an open beta next month. Pre-order early access buyers will have access from March 17th to 19th, and general users will have access from March 24th to 26th.
We learned this during an interview with game director Joe Shely at IGN FanFest. He even showed us his cinematic for the opening of Diablo 4. If the central character you’re seeing in that cinematic looks unfamiliar, surprisingly, it’s because the character he’s a custom made character in Creator. Custom characters appear in the Diablo 4 cinematics. One of which he has more than one you can check out in the beta alone, and more in his 30+ hour campaign and side quests in Diablo 4.
According to Shely, this beta consists of “significant looks of the game.” Both the prologue and the first act take place in the “Fractured Peaks” zone, where characters can be leveled up to 25, and there are all main and side quests within the available areas. For Early Access pre-order owners, Beta progress will be transferred between his two Beta Weekends. So if you start on the 17th, you can play the same file again from 24th to 26th March. However, beta progress is final game.
Diablo 4’s full release is June 6th, coming to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, and PC. Beta versions are available for all these platforms. While you wait, catch the latest on Street Fighter 6, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, HBO’s The Last of Us and more at IGN FanFest.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. you can find her on her twitter @duck valentine.
