Image: Blizzard
It’s been a week since Diablo 4’s beta test began, and players are already releasing gameplay footage online. The funny thing is that the screenshots have the testers’ IDs all over them, which means Blizzard probably already knows who these people are.
Diablo IV | Developer Game Showcase
The leaks come from Blizzard’s friends and family beta test, which Bloomberg reporter Jason Schrier says is under an NDA. This means they are legally bound not to share information from the build. However, that didn’t stop some testers from uploading screenshots and videos to the internet.
They show a relatively simple character creator, the five classes (which have already been announced, including the returning Rogue and Sorcerer class from Diablo I and II), difficulty selectors, and the game’s specs. The test build is currently just over 67GB, but that may change once the full version of the game is released. Beta tests are meant for developers to make some final changes. And we’re still at least months, if not a year, away from Diablo IV’s release date.
Look, I don’t have a horse in this race. But I find it both horrifying and funny that these leakers uploaded screenshots and videos that have watermarks all over them. These watermarks indicate a specific build number, which is likely attached to a real name in Blizzard’s database somewhere. To the publisher, the leakers may have also attached images that say “John Smith’s Private Test.”
One of the streamers even said, “I really don’t know if I can even stream this.” Hmm Good luck getting invited to the next beta test, John Smith.
Since Diablo IV’s beta test isn’t open to the general public, it’s hard to say what the exact ramifications are. Moderators on the Diablo Reddit speculate that the fallout could include shutting down Activision Blizzard’s game store. But there is no official word on what will happen to the beta testers who posted Diablo IV leaks. Kotaku reached out to Blizzard, but did not hear back by the time of publication.
Diablo IV doesn’t have an exact release date yet, but it’s currently slated for sometime in 2023. It was originally announced in November 2019 after years of uncertainty about the future of the series. Players were concerned that Diablo IV would have the same kind of monetization as Immortal, a concern Blizzard addressed directly in a stream: “[Diablo IV] is released as a full-priced game built strictly for PC and console audiences.
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