There’s been plenty of chagrin surrounding the launch ofDiablo Immortal, but Blizzard’sDiablo 4is still generating plenty of hype in the gaming community. This mainlineDiablorelease is supposed to be free from many of the pitfalls of the studio’s mobile-first title, and may even end up being a sort of return to form for the legendary hack ‘n’ slash franchise.
Keeping that in mind, it would seem that the long-awaitedDiablo 4beta may be on the horizon at last, as dataminers have just unraveled a series of references to something called “Fenris” in the Battle.net game launcher. Those who’ve kept track of Blizzard’s development schedule may recall that “Fenris” is, in fact, the internal codename forDiablo 4, suggesting that some major preparations are now underway.
RELATED:Diablo 4 Dev Reveals About How Long It Will Take to Beat the Game
Diablofans have had the chance tofor a while now, so the fact that the game would be open for testing has been known for quite some time. Details, however, have been scant, and Blizzard has been keeping the cards close to its proverbial chest, making any and all potential leaks all the more interesting to the community. According to Wowhead’s scouring of the Battle.net configuration files, it seems like the beta might not be that far out. Namely, Wowhead discovered numerous references to the aforementioned “Fenris,” mainly including header images for the launcher and similar items.
Blizzard has already shown offDiablo 4gameplay, of course, so the game isn’t a complete and utter unknown at this point. Still, there’s been no official word on the beta itself, which makes Wowhead’s discovery particularly interesting to franchise fans who may have chosen to skip overDiablo Immortaland its remarkably predatory monetization system. Having said that, it’s exceedingly unlikely thatDiablo 4beta will feature any information about this release’s monetization system, and that gameplay would be the key focus, instead.
SinceBlizzard aims to supportDiablo 4for yearsto come, it seems reasonable to assume that the game would offer a variety of additional purchasing options for players that aim to stick around.Immortalhas shown that Activision Blizzard isn’t likely to forego an excessively convoluted list of monetizations to drive its profit margins forward, and only time will tell whether the company adopts a similar approach with its next flagship RPG.
It may be worth keeping in mind that a leading RPG build crafting website, Maxroll,recently dropped support forDiablo Immortal, signaling just how badly Blizzard had mishandled its monetization scheme. As critical as the core RPG community might be ofImmortal, the game is paying off for its developer and publisher, which is a cause of concern forDiablo 4, too.
Diablo 4will launch in 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
MORE:Diablo 4 Needs to Break Away From D2: Resurrected and Immortal
