If you've been hankering to return to Sanctuary and pop demonic loot balloons, today could be your lucky day. Posters on the official Diablo 3 forums found they could download and play the unannounced, Diablo 3 Starter Edition early this morning (without beta codes). The unexpected kill-loot-level-equip-repeat high was short lived, though, because Blizzard hastily closed Battle.net for maintenance at roughly 8:45 a.m. EST. But there are two nuggets to glean from this blip: 1) all signs indicate there will be a free Starter Edition of Diablo 3, and 2) Blizzard could be preparing to open it to all for public testing, perhaps as soon as today.
We've reached out to Blizzard for comment, but have yet to hear back, so for now consider the Diablo 3 Starter Edition public beta pure speculation. However, that a number of gamers were able to jump in and actually play it proves that it is a thing.
It's unclear at this point how the Starter Edition will be limited, but a number of Diablo 3 forum posters who jumped in this morning report all five character classes were playable. The only discernible difference was a number of prompts encouraging them to upgrade to the full game.
Blizzard launched the World of Warcraft Starter Edition in July 2011, giving everyone unlimited time in Azeroth up to level 20. The studio then followed up with a similar StarCraft II Starter. It's a safe bet Diablo 3 Starter Edition will be similarly limited by level, not play time.
