Warlocks, barbarians, witch doctors, wizards, monks, and demon hunters: The waiting is almost over. Diablo III is opening for public play today.
Diablo III is officially slated to be released on May 15, but beginning today at 12:01 p.m. EST, Blizzard Entertainment is opening the gates for late-stage public beta testing. The game was originally expected to ship in early April, but just last month was pushed back to May 15. Longtime fans of the game have been waiting over three years for the upcoming installment.
"From Friday, April 20 at 12:01 p.m. PDT (noon), until Monday, April 23 at 10:00 a.m. PDT you'll be able to log in, team up with friends, and play each of the five heroic classes to level 13 as you fight to save the world from the impending demonic invasion," the company wrote on its website.
Gamers can begin
downloading the Diablo III client from Blizzard right now.
Why the weekend-only preview? Blizzard is stress-testing the demon-chasing environment and wants to monitor live play in a range of system capacities.
"After many years of hard work by our development team and months of beta testing by hundreds of thousands of dedicated players around the world, we're now in the homestretch," Blizzard chief executive and co-founder Mike Morhaime said in a March 15 statement . "We look forward to putting the final polish on Diablo III over the next two months and delivering the ultimate action-RPG experience to gamers worldwide starting on May 15."
Sorry, Korea, you are not part of this beta, but the company plans to open up the game to invitation-only users on Arpil 23rd. Speaking of invitations, only those with private beta testing status are allowed on the beta forums, so for this weekend, it's game-play only.
What do you need to play this weekend? A Battle.net account. And there's a bonus: If you're a World of Warcraft annual pass member, you are able to get Diablo III for free on May 15.
Blizzard Entertainment is a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard who owns some of the largest subscription-based MPPORG and gaming franchises in the industry including World of Warcraft and the Call of Duty series.
Happy demon hunting.
