Blizzard has quietly opened pre-registrations for a Diablo 4 closed beta, allowing players to opt-in for a shot at the closed beta when testing starts. To do so, all you need to do is head to the Diablo 4 website and click a little "Pre-Register" button, then log in to your battle.net account for a chance to get picked as a tester. As of now, no date has been announced for the closed beta.
It's the first we've heard about someone outside of Blizzard actually playing Diablo 4 in a bit, but does track with the suspected release date of 2023.
It's a pretty low-key announcement for what should be one of Blizzard's tentpole series, but the Diablo brand name has been tarnished by association with Diablo Immortal. The recently released mobile game has attracted massive backlash due to its microtransactions, many of which can be described as predatory at best.
This follows a tumultuous few years for Activision-Blizzard at large as a multitude of lawsuits attending harassment and abusive workplace allegations, as well as a theoretical acquisition by Microsoft, have made a once-flawless reputation, now, well, quite flawed indeed.
