Diablo 4 Official Launch Date Revealed At The Game Awards 2022
This year’s The Game Awards featured several noteworthy announcements and reveals, not the least of which is the official release date for Diablo 4. During the show, Blizzard Entertainment dropped a new trailer for the highly anticipated game which shows Inarius, Archangel of the High Heavens, challenging Lilith, the Daughter of Hatred, along with a release date of June 6, 2023.
“The endless battle between the High Heavens and the Burning Hells rages on as chaos threatens to consume Sanctuary. With ceaseless demons to slaughter, countless Abilities to master, nightmarish Dungeons, and Legendary loot, this vast, open world brings the promise of adventure and devastation. Survive and conquer darkness – or succumb to the shadows.”
Diablo 4 will feature the same gameplay mechanics as the previous Diablo games and the same five classes – Barbarian, Druid, Necromancer, Rogue, and Sorcerer – but with significant changes to how the skill tree works. The new skill tree combines those of Diablo 2 and Diablo 3 and will allow for more flexibility and give players more freedom to explore what skills and builds work for them.
“Diablo 2 felt like you were locking in; you had the ability to respec once per difficulty. But with D3 you kind of changed your build like you were changing your clothes. Everything was gear-based as opposed to skill-based,” Executive Producer Rod Fergusson told Polygon.
“I think the fact that we have skills on the equipment [in Diablo 4] is really nice for experimentation — as a sorceress I [might] get Blizzard [on a pair of boots] three levels before I should and I can try Blizzard to see if I actually want it,” Fergusson added.
In line with this new design focus, players will have the ability to respect their skill trees point by point but the respec cost will increase as you level up and gain more skill points. According to the devs, this should encourage players to be more discerning when choosing skills further down the line.
“[…] The in-game currency cost to respect becomes higher and higher,” said Fergusson. “Eventually you’ll get to the point where you have a level 90 Barbarian and instead of completely changing my build it’s better to just roll a new Barbarian and start again.”
Diablo 4 is now available for pre-order on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation starting at $69.99 for the Standard Edition, $89.99 for the Digital Deluxe Edition, and $99.99 for the Ultimate Edition. All pre-orders will include early access to the upcoming open beta along with other perks and rewards.
We’ll let you know as soon as Blizzard announces a schedule for the open beta. In the meantime, you can check out the Diablo 4 official release date trailer below.
