New Information Revealed about Diablo IV

The Diablo team has really been on a media tour, hyping up the next installment of the long-running ARPG series, Diablo IV. Recently, the team hosted a live Q&A session on Twitter Spaces. If you didn’t happen to tune in to this live session, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered with a transcript of all of the most important information down below. But if you’d like to listen to the full Q&A yourself, you can do so here.

Q&A

First, the presenter, Adam Fletcher (Global Community Lead), introduces all of the other speakers. These include Rod Fergusson - Senior Vice President of Diablo; Joe Shely - Game Director of Diablo IV; and finally Daniela Rodriguez - Director of Marketing for Diablo.

Question: How will cross-play work in Diablo IV? Will it only be available between different generations of consoles; for example players on PS4 can play with players on PS5, or will there be full-scale cross-play where everyone can play with every single platform - PC, PlayStation, & Xbox?

Answer: Cross-play will be full cross-play and cross-progression. So, you can play PS4 with PC, PS5 with Xbox, you can mix and match as you want. But it’s not only cross-playable, you can actually cross-progress as well. So, if you wanted to, you could play on your Xbox at home, and then go into work and play on your PC. You can progress the same character on all platforms. Those characters will exist on all of the platforms that you own the game on.

Question: What can we expect from the Crafting systems during the Beta?

Answer: Diablo IV’s Crafting at launch will be primarily focused around Item Modification. A lot of that Item Modification becomes especially relevant as players progress towards the end game. So, you’ll be able to do some things, such as upgrade the power of your items at the Blacksmith, but a lot of the significant Item Modification systems only become relevant later in the game.

Question: Is there server-region separation, or is it possible to play the Beta from other regions?

Answer: In general, you’re going to come across players who are relatively close to you in terms of latency, since this will result in the best play experience. But you can actually invite anyone from anywhere in the world to join your party and play with them.

Question: What is the Druid Class Mechanic?

Answer: In Scosglen, Druids will be able to interact with four different Spirits, in order to receive a Boon from them. Players will be able to align themselves with one of these Spirits at any given time. Once a player has unlocked all of these Spirits, they will be able to receive one Boon from each of the 4 Spirits, and one additional Boom from any of the Spirits, for a total of 5 Boons at any given time.

Additional Information

It was also revealed that Diablo IV will take place approximately 40 years after the events of Diablo III, and that the storyline will be mostly self-contained. So, any new players to the Diablo franchise will not have to worry about going back and playing through the previous three games in order to understand and enjoy the plot.

Diablo IV’s Early Access Beta will begin at 9:00am PST on March 17th, and will run until 12:00pm PST on March 20th. The Early Access Beta will only be available for players who have pre-purchased Diablo IV. Diablo IV’s Open Beta will begin at 9:00am PST on March 24th, and will run until 12:00pm PST on March 27th. The Open Beta will be available for all players, regardless of whether you have pre-purchased Diablo IV or not. Diablo IV is expected to officially release on June 6th, 2023.