Diablo IV leaks send Blizzard into damage control

It’s been a week since diablo 4 Beta test startedand players are already leaky recordings of the game on the internet. What’s funny is that the screenshots have the tester’s identification number stamped all over them, meaning Blizzard probably already knows who these people are.

The leaks were obtained from a beta test for Blizzard friends and familyto the Bloomberg Reporter Jason Schrier says they are under nondisclosure agreement. This means that they are legally obliged not to share any information from the build. However, that didn’t stop some testers from uploading screenshots and videos to the web.

They appear relatively unfussy character creatorthe five classes (they have already announcedincluding the returning rogue and wizard classes Diablo I and II), difficulty selector and the specifications of the game. The test build is currently just over 67GB, but that could change once the full version of the game comes out. Beta testing is for the developers to make final changes. And we’re at least months, if not a year, away from that DiabloIVrelease date.

Listen, I don’t have a horse in this race. But it’s both appalling and hilarious to me that these leakers have uploaded screenshots and videos with watermarks all over them. These watermarks point to a specific build number, which is likely associated with a real name somewhere in Blizzard’s database. For the editor, the leaks might as well have attached images that say “Private test setup John Smith.”

One of the leakers even said, “I really don’t know if I can even stream this.” Uh. Good luck with the next beta test invite, John Smith.

Since the DiabloIV Beta testing is not open to the general public, it’s hard to say what the exact consequences are. That Diablo Reddit moderators speculate These consequences may include bans from the Activision Blizzard Game Store. But there’s no official word on what will happen to beta testers who posted this DiabloIV leaks. kotaku has reached out to Blizzard but has not received a response at the time of publication.

DiabloIV doesn’t have an exact release date yet, but it’s currently planned for sometime in 2023. It was originally announced in November 2019 after that years of uncertainty about the future of the series. The players were concerned about this DiabloIV would have the same type of monetization as Immortala concern that Blizzard addressed directly in a stream: “[Diablo IV] is coming out as a full-price game designed exclusively for PC and console audiences.”