Diablo Immortal Alpha for internal company-wide playtest started on August 24th, when the Diablo Immortal App in Google Play was updated. The Diablo Immortal app had not been updated since October 28, 2018 (days before BlizzCon).

Thereafter, there have been at least 6 updates to the Diablo Immortal App, listed below:

DIABLO IMMORTAL - UPDATE HISTORY
INTERNAL ALPHA
1. Mon, August 24 2020
2. Wed, August 26 2020
3. Mon, September 14 2020
4. Mon, September 21 2020
5. Thurs, October 15, 2020
6. Fri, October 16, 2020 Approximate time Internal Alpha ended (Referenced at ATVI Q2 investors call -- oct 29)
REITERATION TIME
7. Mon, October 26, 2020
8. Thurs, October 29, 2020
9. Fri, November 6, 2020
10. Tue, November 10, 2020
11. Thurs, November 12, 2020
12. Fri, November 20, 2020
13. Thurs, Dec 3, 2020
14. Mon, Dec 7, 2020
15. Tue, Dec 8, 2020
16. Thurs, Dec 10, 2020
17. Fri, Dec 11, 2020
TECHNICAL ALPHA
18. Mon, Dec 14, 2020 (Technical Alpha streamers secretly invited)
19. Thurs, Dec 17, 2020 (Technical Alpha begins in Australia, plus press/fansite/streamer invitations go out)
20. Tue, January 5, 2021 (Technical Alpha ends) Android at 3pm PST / iOS at 5:48pm PST
POST-TECHNICAL ALPHA UPDATES
21. Thrus, January 7, 2021 (client updated: Necromancer & Crusader datamined)
22. Thrus, January 21, 2021
23. Thrus, January 28, 2021
24. Thrus, February 26, 2021
25. Thrus, Mar 5, 2021
26. Thrus, Mar 11, 2021
27. Fri, Mar 26, 2021
28. Mon, Mar 29, 2021
29. Tue, April 6, 2021
30. Thurs, April 8, 2021
31. Fri, April 16, 2021
32. Mon, April 19, 2021
CLOSED ALPHA
33. Wed, Apr 21, 2021
34. Tue, May 11, 2021
35. Tue, May 17, 2021 (Added Japanese and Korean language)
36. Thurs, June 10, 2021
Closed Alpha Test ended in USA, Japan and South Korea on June 30, 2021. In USA/Australia it lasted from Apr 21-June 30.
37. Thurs, July 8, 2021
38. Thurs, July 15, 2021 Closed Alpha begins in China
39. Thurs, July 22, 2021
40. Fri, July 30, 2021
Mon, Aug 2, 2021 -- Diablo Immortal China test ends
41. Thurs, Aug 5, 2021
42. Thurs, Aug 13, 2021
43. Fri, Aug 20, 2021
44. Fri, Aug 27, 2021
45. Fri, Sept 3, 2021
46. Mon, Sept 13, 2021
47. Fri, Sept 17, 2021
48. Fri, Sept 24, 2021
49. Wed, Oct 6, 2021
50. Wed, Oct 13, 2021
51. Mon, Oct 18, 2021
52. Thurs, Oct 21, 2021
Diablo Immortal Beta started October 28, 2021 - in Canada and Australia
53. Thurs, Nov 11, 2021
54. Fri, Nov 12, 2021
55. Sat, Nov 13, 2021
56. Sat, Nov 19, 2021
57. Thurs, Nov 23, 2021
Diablo Immortal Beta started on China, Japan and South Korea on November 25, 2021
58. Fri, Dec 10, 2021
59. Wed, Jan 5, 2022
60. Thurs, Jan 6, 2022
Diablo Immortal Beta ended January 7, 2022
61. Thurs, Jan 20, 2022
62. Thurs, Jan 27, 2022
63. Tue, Feb 15, 2022
Wed, Feb 23, 2022 (Closed Beta Learnings blogpost)
64. Tue, Mar 8, 2022
65. Fri, Mar 11, 2022
66. Thurs, Mar 17, 2022
67. Thurs, Mar 24, 2022
Mon, Mar 28, 2022 - Diablo Immortal pre-registration opens in iOS App Store (2 blogposts)
68. Wed, April 6, 2022
69. Fri, April 8, 2022
70. Fri, April 15, 2022
71. Thurs, April 21, 2022
Mon, April 25, 2022 - Diablo Immortal release date announced: June 2
72. Thurs, April 28, 2022
73. Wed, May 11, 2022
74. Fri, May 13, 2022
75. Tue, May 17, 2022
76. Mon, May 23, 2022
77. Wed, May 25, 2022
78. Thurs, May 26, 2022
79. Fri, May 27, 2022
June 1, 2022 - Diablo Immortal Live
80. Tue, June 7, 2022
81. Wed, July 6, 2022
82. Wed, July 27, 2022

The latest Diablo Immortal App updates were made in October 15, then again in October 16 (possibly to fix a major bug or server issue).

I know what you are thinking: “Why are there so many updates but the page still looks the same?”

The answer is that all Blizzard employees who pre-registered have had their email accounts flagged to participate in the playtest. Therefore they can see the INSTALL app button or UPDATE app button, while we don’t.

Once Diablo Immortal goes Beta, everyone who pre-registered will be able to see the installer button.

The very exact date the last Diablo Immortal App was updated, I was in the Diablo Immortal Reddit’s Discord channel rambling my thoughts with other fellow fans… when suddenly, the flashing of activity in the Discord channel’s members list (to the right) made me look.

There I saw a very familiar username that immediately caught my attention.

This is the same username handle used by the Diablo Immortal Lead Designer Wyatt Cheng in Twitter.

What followed 3+ hours after I pointed it out caused us joy: Wyatt Cheng responded.

Three hours later, he posted again after reading our discussion. One of the discord channel moderators said candlesan had been lurking on and off since the BlizzCon 2019 update. Wyatt Cheng (candlesan) said the following:

I sent a private message to the channel moderator to verify whether he was Wyatt Cheng. Eventually, the moderator reached out to him and confirmed, tagging him with the blue username.

For measure, Diablo Lead Community PezRadar jumped in to cheer in.

I really hope this friendliness from the Diablo Immortal team continues to grow as Diablo Immortal Beta nears and starts, and beyond. If you wish to join the Diablo Immortal community and plan to play the game or at least “lurk” around to read the latest news and discussions here are some links. Don’t forget to subscribe to the Reddit channel:

As soon as Diablo Immortal Beta starts I will upload gameplay videos to the Blizzplanet YouTube channel. Go subscribe there too.

Now, what happens if you don’t have a mobile device? Can you still play Diablo Immortal?

I don’t have a mobile device

Blizzard hasn’t made any comments against Android emulators. There is a precedent I reported a year ago where NetEase representatives said during an interview that they are alright with Android emulators on the PC/Mac.

So it wouldn’t hurt to install the NetEase developed Android Emulator known as Mumu.

Once you launch it, open the Google Play app and type Diablo Immortal. Click the pre-registration button to signup with your email account. This guarantees that when Beta starts you have access to the installer. Those who don’t pre-register usually get locked out from accessing the installer when Beta starts.

Alternatively, if you don’t need a phone, recently Apple announced (read full transcript) the new iPad 2020 — currently on sale for $300 while it lasts. (affiliate link offers a sale commission % to Blizzplanet. Thanks for your support).

When is Diablo Immortal Beta?

No date at the time of this post, but as I said a few weeks ago, if Diablo Immortal follows in the footsteps of Hearthstone or Call of Duty: Mobile — Beta shouldn’t be too far away.

A few days ago, I reported that Blizzard Entertainment filed to trademark “Diablo Immortal” in USA, UK, Europe, México, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and China.

In that article, I presented several dates comparing when Blizzard filed a trademark, how soon Beta started afterwards, and when the game shipped.

Hearthstone’s precedent tells us that Beta testing began 1 month + 9 days after the “Hearthstone” trademark was filed.

Call of Duty: Mobile’s precedent tells us that Closed Beta testing began 7 days after Activision filed the “Call of Duty: Mobile” trademark.

If we could use that precedent to theorycraft or guesstimate when Diablo Immortal Beta might start — and I am not saying it is accurate to do so — then we could extrapolate any day between today and Tuesday, November 12 (or 1 month + 7 days as Hearthstone did).

There is another way to more or less guesstimate based on Blizzard games’ data.

For example, I have gathered data from various Blizzard games and expansions in the past 5+ years. I have participated in several Technical Alpha and Beta testings.

Usually, it takes anywhere between 76 days up to 90+ days for Alpha testing to be transitioned into Beta testing.

We already know when Diablo Immortal Alpha (company-wide playtest) began. So it can be extrapolated that Day 76 of Alpha translates into Sunday, November 8, 2020.

Day 90 translates into November 22, 2020.

That gives us a rough formula of November 8 – November 22.

Activision Blizzard Investors Call Soon

The next Activision Blizzard investors call will take place on October 29 (as reported) — a week earlier than usual — to discuss the latest earnings of Q3 2020.

The last two investors calls have given a brief update on Diablo Immortal development status (May 9 and August 4).

So we are hoping to have at least a brief mention of Diablo Immortal on October 29 at 1:30pm (U.S. Pacific).

Hope you enjoyed this article. Please, support Blizzplanet on Patreon (monthly) or PayPal (once), and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch for daily Blizzard games news updates.
BlizzCon 2019 Panel Transcripts