When former Diablo Immortal Closed Alpha testers launch the app today, they will encounter a new message that wasn’t there before: “This account has expired. Do you want to create another account?”
Answering “OK” will prompt a Battle.net EULA and Agreement page that you can reject or agree to. Once you agree, you are taken to the lobby as usual, but there is a second change.
Up until now, Diablo Immortal Closed Alpha characters were still present in our phone files — those of us who participated in the testing. If you had your Google Play setting to auto-install new Diablo Immortal updates, then when you launch the game, and click on servers you will notice “My Characters” tab no longer exists. This means there was a character wipe pushed in a recent update.
BEFORE
NOW
But there is more to this. There is precedent of this happening before. Read after the break.
During the Activision Blizzard Q2 2021 investors call, president and chief operating officer Daniel Alegre informed that Diablo Immortal release date had been pushed to the first half of 2022. This time range can land anywhere between January 1, 2022 and June 30, 2022 (which is the lapse of time covering the first half of 2022). You can read the full transcript.
Daniel: “Recent testing reveals some exciting additional opportunities the team is going to pursue to make the title even more engaging for a wider audience. While that means the game is now planned for release in the first-half of 2022, we believe these efforts will set the title up for even greater contribution next year and beyond.”
About 20 minutes before the investors call, Blizzard Entertainment posted a Diablo Immortal developer update explaining further what they plan to do during this extended development cycle.
Rhykker recently posted a video with some interesting interpretations from the Activision Blizzard Q2 2021 investors call.
Daniel Alegre started his operational highlights across business units with a shocking revelation (read full transcript):
The launch of Burning Crusade Classic in June marked the start or what is intended to be a very significant 18 month period for content releases. MAUs was 26 million.
Well, what does this really mean? (Read after the break)
During the Activision Blizzard Q2 2021 Investors Call, Diablo Immortal has been delayed to the first half of 2022. Twenty minutes before the event, Diablo community manager PezRadar shared with us at the discord channel a link to a developer blog detailing what the team is doing to improve the game based on the closed alpha testers’ feedback.
I have not found any Diablo Immortal announcements or reveals, but my radar just detected Blizzard Entertainment is participating in a unknown capacity at Chinajoy 2021. As you might have heard a few hours ago, the Diablo Immortal closed alpha test in China is coming to an end in August 2.
Chinajoy 2021 is taking place through July 30 – August 2. Why is Chinajoy of any relevance?
The Diablo Immortal closed alpha (China) test will come to an end on August 2, 2021. According to SnowTyrant, the test was meant to last 15 days, but it was extended.
Former Diablo community manager Nevalistis opened up about her experience working at Blizzard Entertainment. The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) vs Activision Blizzard lawsuit reported by Bloomberg isn’t exclusively about sexual harassment, but there are other complex situations that affect women employed at Blizzard and in the gaming industry as a whole.
Nevalistis wasn’t specifically subject to sexual harassment, but there were practices by male employees with higher positions than her that made her life filled with hardships. To the point that she kept her associate title for 6 years without a promotion to a higher position and pay; where other males who were new to the job were promoted ahead of her.
Several streamers have been sharing with their Youtube / Twitch audience the DI Team shipped a Diablo Immortal box with goodies:
Diablo Immortal Hoodie
Diablo Immortal themed external battery
mobile power cord (90 degrees)
Personalized card written and signed by Wyatt Cheng
Among those who got this gift are ECHOgaming, Scrappy Academy’s Captain Nemo, Lexyu, and Domino Jack. Let me know if you have seen other streamers get one.
Diablo Immortal closed alpha begins today in China. There is no way for people outside of China to play this test, so please don’t install anything from people who claims otherwise. VPN and emulation won’t work because it is invite only for those who pre-registered locally in China.
Diablo Immortal is not optimized or supported in emulators until launch or until further notice by Blizzard Entertainment.
For those who live in China and pre-registered, you will get an email from NetEase with a code to redeem access to Diablo Immortal closed alpha.
iOS DEVICES
Install the TestFlight app from the Apple App Store.
The official Diablo Immortal (China) website posted a list of mobile devices supported in the July 15 closed alpha test. This is not the final supported devices list.
This is a very optimistic glimpse at what Blizzard is doing behind-the-scenes to optimize the game in an effort to support as many mobile devices as possible. As of the USA closed alpha (April 24-June 30) the minimum requirement for Android devices was the 2019’s Snapdragon 710.
This updated list shared by China today goes as far down to the 2017’s Snapdragon 625; 2014’s Snapdragon 801 with Adreno 330; the 2014’s Snapdragon 400; and even adds support for a few 2015-2017 Mediatek and Intel chips.
This list gives hope to thousands or millions of mobile users who haven’t upgraded in a long time. But remember, this is not final. More devices will be added by the time the game launches (some time within the second half of 2021 postponed until first half of 2022).
I posted below the translated table of supported devices. However, I researched each one and added the CPU and GPU model to give us a perspective of how far down this new update went to in the minimum requirements rabbit hole.
