Diablo Immortal Beta Might Be Soon + Wyatt Cheng joins Diablo Immortal Discord
Diablo Immortal Alpha for internal company-wide playtest started on August 24th, when the Diablo Immortal App in Google Play was updated. The Diablo Immortal app had not been updated since October 28, 2018 (days before BlizzCon).
Thereafter, there have been at least 6 updates to the Diablo Immortal App, listed below:
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The latest Diablo Immortal App updates were made in October 15, then again in October 16 (possibly to fix a major bug or server issue).
I know what you are thinking: "Why are there so many updates but the page still looks the same?"
The answer is that all Blizzard employees who pre-registered have had their email accounts flagged to participate in the playtest. Therefore they can see the INSTALL app button or UPDATE app button, while we don't.
Once Diablo Immortal goes Beta, everyone who pre-registered will be able to see the installer button.
The very exact date the last Diablo Immortal App was updated, I was in the Diablo Immortal Reddit's Discord channel rambling my thoughts with other fellow fans... when suddenly, the flashing of activity in the Discord channel's members list (to the right) made me look.
There I saw a very familiar username that immediately caught my attention.
This is the same username handle used by the Diablo Immortal Lead Designer Wyatt Cheng in Twitter.
What followed 3+ hours after I pointed it out caused us joy: Wyatt Cheng responded.
Three hours later, he posted again after reading our discussion. One of the discord channel moderators said candlesan had been lurking on and off since the BlizzCon 2019 update. Wyatt Cheng (candlesan) said the following:
I sent a private message to the channel moderator to verify whether he was Wyatt Cheng. Eventually, the moderator reached out to him and confirmed, tagging him with the blue username.
For measure, Diablo Lead Community PezRadar jumped in to cheer in.
I really hope this friendliness from the Diablo Immortal team continues to grow as Diablo Immortal Beta nears and starts, and beyond. If you wish to join the Diablo Immortal community and plan to play the game or at least "lurk" around to read the latest news and discussions here are some links. Don't forget to subscribe to the Reddit channel:
Blizzplanet Twitter: @blizzplanetcom
Blizzplanet YouTube (Subscribe)
As soon as Diablo Immortal Beta starts I will upload gameplay videos to the Blizzplanet YouTube channel. Go subscribe there too.
Now, what happens if you don't have a mobile device? Can you still play Diablo Immortal?
I don't have a mobile device
Blizzard hasn't made any comments against Android emulators. There is a precedent I reported a year ago where NetEase representatives said during an interview that they are alright with Android emulators on the PC/Mac.
So it wouldn't hurt to install the NetEase developed Android Emulator known as Mumu.
Once you launch it, open the Google Play app and type Diablo Immortal. Click the pre-registration button to signup with your email account. This guarantees that when Beta starts you have access to the installer. Those who don't pre-register usually get locked out from accessing the installer when Beta starts.
Alternatively, if you don't need a phone, recently Apple announced (read full transcript) the new iPad 2020 -- currently on sale for $300 while it lasts. (affiliate link offers a sale commission % to Blizzplanet. Thanks for your support).
When is Diablo Immortal Beta?
No date at the time of this post, but as I said a few weeks ago, if Diablo Immortal follows in the footsteps of Hearthstone or Call of Duty: Mobile -- Beta shouldn't be too far away.
A few days ago, I reported that Blizzard Entertainment filed to trademark "Diablo Immortal" in USA, UK, Europe, México, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and China.
In that article, I presented several dates comparing when Blizzard filed a trademark, how soon Beta started afterwards, and when the game shipped.
Hearthstone's precedent tells us that Beta testing began 1 month + 9 days after the "Hearthstone" trademark was filed.
Call of Duty: Mobile's precedent tells us that Closed Beta testing began 7 days after Activision filed the "Call of Duty: Mobile" trademark.
If we could use that precedent to theorycraft or guesstimate when Diablo Immortal Beta might start -- and I am not saying it is accurate to do so -- then we could extrapolate any day between today and Tuesday, November 12 (or 1 month + 7 days as Hearthstone did).
There is another way to more or less guesstimate based on Blizzard games' data.
For example, I have gathered data from various Blizzard games and expansions in the past 5+ years. I have participated in several Technical Alpha and Beta testings.
Usually, it takes anywhere between 76 days up to 90+ days for Alpha testing to be transitioned into Beta testing.
We already know when Diablo Immortal Alpha (company-wide playtest) began. So it can be extrapolated that Day 76 of Alpha translates into Sunday, November 8, 2020.
Day 90 translates into November 22, 2020.
That gives us a rough formula of November 8 - November 22.
Activision Blizzard Investors Call Soon
The next Activision Blizzard investors call will take place on October 29 (as reported) -- a week earlier than usual -- to discuss the latest earnings of Q3 2020.
The last two investors calls have given a brief update on Diablo Immortal development status (May 9 and August 4).
So we are hoping to have at least a brief mention of Diablo Immortal on October 29 at 1:30pm (U.S. Pacific).
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