Diablo II: Resurrected will hold a closed beta starting Friday, August 13 for players who pre-ordered the game, and an open beta starting Friday, August 20.
Beta tests will be playable on all consoles and PC, except for Nintendo Switch, according to Blizzard.com. Xbox Live Gold is required for the pre-order beta on August 13 but is not required for the open beta on August 20. PlayStation Plus is not required for either beta test. Both Xbox Live Gold and PlayStation Plus will be necessary for multiplayer features at the game's launch.
- From Friday, August 13 at 10:00 AM PDT to Tuesday, August 17 at 10:00 AM PDT, anybody who has pre-ordered Diablo II: Resurrected or the Diablo Prime Evil Collection will be able to take part in an Early Access beta. Players can preload the beta beginning August 11.
- From Friday, August 20 at 10:00 AM PDT to Monday, August 23 at 10:00 AM PDT, the open beta begins without any pre-order necessary. Preloads for this beta begin for console players on Tuesday, August 17 and for PC players on Wednesday, August 18.
Progress will carry over between the two betas, but no progress will carry over from the beta held earlier this year. Cross-progression will be available during both beta periods, but a separate pre-order is necessary for each platform during the Early Access beta. There will be no level cap for this beta, and it's unclear whether beta progress will carry over into the main game.
Similar to a previous beta test, only Act I and Act II will be playable. The Barbarian, Amazon, and Sorcereress classes from that beta will be playable once again, along with the Paladin and Druid classes which are new for this beta. The game will launch with two more classes, Assassin and Necromancer, but those two classes will not be available during the betas.
This news comes as Activision-Blizzard continues to face criticism from their employees and fans. The state of California sued the company on July 20 for discrimination and sexual harassment towards female employees. In a statement on Tuesday, one of Activision's investors, SOC, expressed their dissatisfaction with Activison's response to the lawsuit. SOC is calling for more diverstiy on the board, paycheck cutbacks to the executives who supported sexist behavior, and other changes.
The first game that Activision-Blizzard will release following their controversy is Diablo II: Resurrected on September 23. A Call of Duty game will also be released by the company this fall.
Activision will also take part in this year's Gamescom. Be sure to check out the full Gamescom 2021 schedule.
Petey Oneto is a freelance writer for IGN.