There's been plenty of chagrin surrounding the launch of Diablo Immortal, but Blizzard's Diablo 4 is still generating plenty of hype in the gaming community. This mainline Diablo release is supposed to be free from many of the pitfalls of the studio's mobile-first title, and may even end up being a sort of return to form for the legendary hack 'n' slash franchise.
Keeping that in mind, it would seem that the long-awaited Diablo 4 beta may be on the horizon at last, as dataminers have just unraveled a series of references to something called "Fenris" in the Battle.net game launcher. Those who've kept track of Blizzard's development schedule may recall that "Fenris" is, in fact, the internal codename for Diablo 4, suggesting that some major preparations are now underway.
Diablo fans have had the chance to sign up for the upcoming Diablo 4 beta for a while now, so the fact that the game would be open for testing has been known for quite some time. Details, however, have been scant, and Blizzard has been keeping the cards close to its proverbial chest, making any and all potential leaks all the more interesting to the community. According to Wowhead's scouring of the Battle.net configuration files, it seems like the beta might not be that far out. Namely, Wowhead discovered numerous references to the aforementioned "Fenris," mainly including header images for the launcher and similar items.
Blizzard has already shown off Diablo 4 gameplay, of course, so the game isn't a complete and utter unknown at this point. Still, there's been no official word on the beta itself, which makes Wowhead's discovery particularly interesting to franchise fans who may have chosen to skip over Diablo Immortal and its remarkably predatory monetization system. Having said that, it's exceedingly unlikely that Diablo 4 beta will feature any information about this release's monetization system, and that gameplay would be the key focus, instead.
Since Blizzard aims to support Diablo 4 for years to come, it seems reasonable to assume that the game would offer a variety of additional purchasing options for players that aim to stick around. Immortal has shown that Activision Blizzard isn't likely to forego an excessively convoluted list of monetizations to drive its profit margins forward, and only time will tell whether the company adopts a similar approach with its next flagship RPG.
It may be worth keeping in mind that a leading RPG build crafting website, Maxroll, recently dropped support for Diablo Immortal, signaling just how badly Blizzard had mishandled its monetization scheme. As critical as the core RPG community might be of Immortal, the game is paying off for its developer and publisher, which is a cause of concern for Diablo 4, too.
Diablo 4 will launch in 2023 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Wowhead
