After the August 4 update, by Wyatt Cheng, we learned that Diablo Immortal had reached the milestone of entering the internal company-wide playtest phase.

That means that Diablo Immortal is now playable by members of the World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo 4, Hearthstone, and Classic Games teams; as well as satellite offices: Texas, New York, Shanghai, Taipei, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Sydney, and Tokyo.

Blizzard Entertainment currently has over 4,000 employees around the world. That is the target for the Internal company test.

As per Wyatt Cheng:

“The Diablo Immortal team is eager to see how our Blizzard colleagues around the world experience our game… we’ll be soliciting feedback to guide our decisions as we iterate on the game before it goes beyond Blizzard’s walls.”

Once that Internal Playtest is over, the development team will re-iterate the game based on their internal feedback to get the Alpha build ready for testing beyond Blizzard’s walls.

It is unknown how long it will take for Alpha to become available. But, I think we can at least figure out other phases based on Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty: Mobile.

It doesn’t mean that Diablo Immortal will follow the same pattern, but this info might be relevant or at the least of some interest.

CALL OF DUTY: MOBILE (ALPHA)

Call of Duty: Mobile was originally named Call of Duty: Legends of War.

The Call of Duty: Legends of War (Closed Alpha) was originally available to all pre-registered players only in Australia on December 15, 2018. I found a gameplay video marked December 13, however.

Activision Blizzard released the Call of Duty: Legends of War Alpha to Android Google Play around May 16, 2019 — source: TheSixthAxis

The Alpha build was available only in select countries. In the case of Call of Duty: Legends of War Alpha, everyone in those countries who had pre-registered to play, had access to download and install the game.

So I suggest you go to DiabloImmortal.com to pre-register if you haven’t… because once Diablo Immortal is available for testing, you won’t be able to login to the servers unless Blizzard has your account email pre-registered.

CALL OF DUTY: MOBILE (BETA)

The Call of Duty: Mobile Closed Beta (I) was available ONLY in India on May 16, 2019. Ended in India on June 6, 2019.

The Call of Duty: Mobile Closed Beta (II) for Android was available only in Australia on June 10, 2019. On June 14, 2019 the iOS version was available for testing. Ended in July 3, 2019.

There was a Soft Launch in Canada and Australia by July 18, 2019.

Another Soft Launch in Peru by August 15, 2019.

Closed Beta (III) was launched only in Southeast Asia countries and Taiwan by September 16, 2019.

Closed Beta (IV) in Korea by September 25, 2019. Ended in September 27, 2019.

CALL OF DUTY: MOBILE GOES LIVE

The official launch of Call of Duty: Mobile took place worldwide in October 1, 2019 — except for Belgium, Mainland China, and Vietnam.

It went live in Vietnam in April 20, 2020.

As for China, Call of Duty: Mobile was approved by the Chinese National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA) this recent August 6. So a launch in China will be announced soon.

DIABLO IMMORTAL ALPHA

There are many things we don’t know about Diablo Immortal. Many questions without answers.

  1. Will Diablo Immortal follow the same pattern as Call of Duty: Mobile?
  2. Is the Internal company playtest considered Diablo Immortal Alpha?
  3. Will the Diablo Immortal build that goes into the hands of the first pre-registered players be labeled as Diablo Immortal Alpha; or Diablo Immortal Closed Alpha; or Diablo Immortal Technical Alpha; or will it go straight into Diablo Immortal Closed Beta?
  4. When?

We don’t know the answers to these, yet.

But if we take a look at how Activision Blizzard managed Call of Duty: Mobile, Closed Alpha transitioned into Closed Beta 5 months later.

Closed Beta had several testing waves at different dates in different countries: India, Australia, Canada, Peru, Taiwan, Korea, and other Asian countries.

Closed Beta transitioned into global launch approximately 4 months and some weeks later.

So between Closed Alpha and Beta alone, it took Activision Blizzard 9 months and a half to launch the Call of Duty: Mobile globally.

We don’t know when Diablo Immortal Closed Alpha (or whatever fancy name it gets) will launch in one or two second market countries, but if it takes that long until release, then we can place the Diablo Immortal launch somewhere between Summer/Fall 2021. Hopefully, earlier.

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BlizzCon 2019 Panel Transcripts