Blizzard Issues A Major Warning To ‘Diablo 4’ Players Ahead Of The Open Beta

Diablo IV fans got their first taste of Blizzard’s upcoming action-RPG last weekend during the game’s Early Access Beta weekend. This was limited to pre-order customers and limited promotion deals, including one with KFC. Everybody else has to wait for this weekend, when the Open Beta kicks off.

Last weekend’s beta showed off many of the cool new features we can look forward to in Diablo IV (and some of the less-great changes, too) and reminded us that Blizzard often has problems with big game launches. That was certainly the case with Diablo III’s launch and, more recently, with Overwatch 2. The Diablo IV early access beta had troubles right out the gate, with connection issues, long queues and various other problems making the game virtually unplayable for the first 24 hours or so.

It sounds like, despite updates and patches designed to help create a better experience, players in the open beta should expect long lines to get in and actually play.

“When we open the gates again this Friday to absolutely everyone, we are expecting a lot of people,” Diablo IV’s community manager Adam Fletcher posted in an update. “There will be lengthy queue times, particularly on Friday when we first launch and during peak regional windows.”

Fletcher adds that players should be ready for regular maintenance to the game during the beta, with server downtime. “As we monitor the population or encounter in-game issues to address,” he writes, “there may be times when we will take the game offline temporarily to deploy infrastructure adjustments or fixes.”

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Finally, players should expect bugs and help report these to Blizzard. Writes Fletcher: “When you are in-game, whether you’re continuing to build your character from last weekend or trying Druid or Necromancer for the first time, we want to hear from you. The team will be monitoring the forums, where there are dedicated sections for bug reporting and technical support for PC and console, as well as general discussion, where you can leave feedback around anything Diablo IV.”

Please let Blizzard know that putting a cooldown timer on the dodge-roll is a trash decision that the community will not stand by, no matter how good the rest of the game is. You can report issues at the Diablo IV Blizzard forums.

I’m excited to dive back into the beta this weekend. I still need to finish the available content with my Barbarian and then take the other characters for a spin. I am enjoying it for the most part, though I honestly do wish there was a single-player offline mode that didn’t require an internet connection also. Then we could just download the game and not have to worry about queues and connection drops, or the irritating lag that plagued last weekend’s experience.

You can read all about the Open Beta start and end-times and what to expect right here.