Blizzard releases Diablo 4 Open Beta PSA as players complain about long queues and connection issues
Diablo 4’s first open beta weekend is putting players through long queues and connection issues, and Blizzard has advice for those still waiting to get in: don’t leave the queue.
Wait a minute. Long waiting times? connection problems? error codes? During the open beta launch of a highly anticipated online game? This all sounds like the plot of a movie about every major video game release date of all time.
That’s right, the big Diablo 4 open beta weekend isn’t off to a good start. At the time of writing, my client suggests I have 17 minutes before I can board, but a wordy PSA tells me the timing may not be precise.
“Please note that the countdown may end and exceed the duration specified in the queue timer,” reads the on-screen message. “DO NOT exit the queue as this will restart the queue. We will have more accurate timers for the Open Beta weekend.”
I’m not the only one with this, and many other players are reporting much longer wait times.
“You pay money for the pre-order because you want to play this Friday and weekend and you get disconnected because Blizzard is incompetent,” reads the top post on the Blizzard forums. “Now I have to wait 2 hours to log back in, yes 2 hours… If I knew that was going to happen I would never pre-order the game. That is absolutely unacceptable.”
Other people put up with the troubles, apparently armed with the painful memories of Diablo 3’s launch in 2012. “They perfectly capture the nostalgia of Diablo 3’s launch,” writes a commenter on a Reddit thread pro-Blizzard who roasts long queues. “Don’t people realize that this has happened with every major Blizzard release for about 15 years? Not just Blizzard, but almost every major online gaming launch,” says another.
Blizzard has not only confirmed the problem on the in-game loading screen, but also on its social media channels. The latest tweet Blizzard Customer Service says the developers are “currently investigating” the issues, while a list of known issues posted to the Blizzard forums details the latency and connectivity issues.
Updated 3/17/2023 at 1:44pm MST: For what it’s worth, I was able to get into the Diablo 4 open beta on PS5 just before I published this story. In total I waited about an hour. I was able to watch the opening sequence, create a character and am still logged in at the time of publication. I will update this story if anything changes.
If you can’t wait to see the game for yourself, 34 minutes of Diablo 4 high-level gameplay was recently leaked online.
