Blizzard is Letting Everyone Play Diablo III All Weekend
Happy Friday, everyone!
With the May 15 launch of Diablo III nearly upon us, the excitement levels are reaching new heights. After 12 years, the newest Diablo title is almost within reach. However, the game is still three weeks away from launch, and there's not a whole lot you can do to make that time go faster, is there? Well, perhaps there is. Blizzard is looking to put the servers through its paces ahead of the launch and last night announced that the company would eb for this weekend only, there'll be a free open beta for all PC and Mac users with a Battle.net account.
Starting today, at 3:00 p.m. PDT, Battle.net account holders can log in, team up with friends, and play each of the five heroic classes to level 13. The open beta will officially close at 10:00 a.m. PDT on Monday morning (just in time for you to go back to work).
To get started you'll need to log in or create your Battle.net account. Then you'll need to create your BattleTag and download and install the game client. Blizzard said that stress test participants will not have access to post in the beta forums and will not be provided Beta Bucks for use in testing the currency-based auction house.
The beta is open to everyone except those in Korea. Blizzard said it will be conducting a separate invitation-only closed beta test that will give players in Korea a chance to try out the game, along with players in the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. This is expected to happen sometime next week.
Follow @JaneMcEntegart on Twitter.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.
-
southernshark I haven't been too impressed with this game so far. They don't even let you customize your characters looks. Its 2012... not 1998.Reply -
sporkimus What this means is that they are stress testing their servers for when the madness begins on May 15th.Reply -
stingstang southernsharkI haven't been too impressed with this game so far. They don't even let you customize your characters looks. Its 2012... not 1998.This is a great point. We should be able to customize the characters in every way, including skill sets and such. I've always been thinking that the gamer world has moved on since the first Diablo with it's top-down approach to dungeon crawling.Reply -
neon neophyte Although the graphics of this new installment of the Diablo series hasnt sat well with me thus far I must admit that there is a gap in my gaming line-up for some new clicky-pow-loot.Reply
I am not impressed by this download speed though, you would think the battle.net servers would be better prepared for a digital download. Steam and Origin are both flawless in that regard.