Blizzard Entertainment told NME that while Diablo 4 faced a number of “disappointing” technical issues during its first beta, this experience “will make the actual launch of the game much better.”
On Friday (March 17) The first beta test of Diablo 4 has started for everyone who pre-ordered Diablo 4 or received a beta code for a promo campaign.
Nevertheless, the test was accompanied by technical problems — long queues and server downtime were noticeable on the first day, and on Saturday (March 18) regional problems affected European servers.
The beta is coming to an end today (March 20), and although the issues have mostly been resolved, some fans have not been able to pass beta testing to the extent they expected.
In an interview with NME correspondent Jake Tucker, Diablo General Manager Rod Fergusson talked about how the beta version will be used to prepare for open beta testing next weekend, as well as for the full launch of the game.
“The word ‘beta’ is currently being misinterpreted when people start calling beta what is [actually] a marketing beta, and it’s just another term for demonstration,” Fergusson shared. “This is not our case at all. Our beta version is actually testing our technology, especially on the server side. We had a bit of a rough start on Friday.”
“Over the weekend we released six fixes, solved dozens of problems, and all this work will pay off next weekend, and then we will prepare it for launch,” he continued. “Sometimes as a player it can be a little frustrating, but they have to admit that they help us make the launch of the game much better.”
The open beta testing of Diablo 4 will begin on March 24 and will last until March 26. After that, the full launch of the game will take place on June 6.
Elsewhere in our interview, Fergusson said that game classes don’t always have to be equally balanced.
