There will be[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/diablo-on-skills-party-help-and-beta-confirmation/] a Diablo III Beta Test, conducted 6 which Jay Wilson estimated will begin around six months before the game's release. When that will take place and what form the beta will take There is still unknownno way to estimate what that time may come, though.
This page covers every common question about Diablo 3 and Blizzard beta tests, with numerous quotes from Blizzard employees inserted where relevant.
::One of the reasons why we actually prefer a really long window before we release a game is because we want a lot of feedback; we want to hear what people like and don't like about it; we want to give them several opportunities to play it before release. We play our games constantly before we release them; we give them to the other development teams and we get feedback. We do very long betas and alphas that we include a lot of people – not just from the fanbase, but from the game industry as a whole. We get a lot of other game developers playing our games – months and months before we release – and I would say, look at the success of Blizzard games. If other companies think it's a risk, a bad idea... obviously it's not, because we've done very well on that front.''
==What's a Beta Test?==
Beta tests are large scale tests of a near-finished video game. To date, all Blizzard beta tests have been semi-public, with website signups drawing in thousands of public testers, who join Blizzard employees, their friends and family, fansite invitees, members of the media, employees at other gaming companies, and others. Beta tests generally scale up in size as they progress; starting with a few dozen testers, then gradually expanding to hundreds and then thousands of testers. In the old days this meant physically mailing out beta CDs; these days with the beta clients being shared via bit torrent, it means passing out more valid beta CD keys.
==How do I register for the Diablo III Beta Test?===
==What's an Alpha TestYou must have a Battle.net account and have completed a Beta profile. [http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&articleId=An Alpha test is run before the beta test, and is usually much smaller. The Alpha client is less finalized than the beta client, and is usually the first game build that's semi-complete and playable. Alpha tests are almost always private, and limited to employees, friends, and family27087 Blizzard maintains a support page] with detailed instructions on accomplishing this.
::In order to be eligible to participate in future beta tests, you must create a beta profile. A beta profile is a snapshot of your current system specifications. It includes such information as how much RAM you have, available hard drive space, your graphics card and driver, and other information about your system. We gather this information to ensure that we are able to test our games on a wide range and distribution of systems.
You can see more information about this in [http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&articleId=What26886 Blizzard's the purpose of a Beta Test?==[[Image:Bnet-betaOpt-cd.jpg|thumb]in FAQ]Beta tests serve multiple purposes, depending on the game.
The original Diablo beta test was called the "Battle.net Beta Test" since it was largely made to test Blizzard's new online gaming service. That the software contained the beta client of Diablo I was almost beside the point, since the game was small enough to be tested internally. The hard part was getting the online matchmaking of Battle.net functional.
All computer game beta tests are chiefly used to fix technical problems. Public ==When will they announce the beta testers test?==No dates have an enormously wide variety of computer systemsbeen given yet, and ironing out all nor will they until much closer to the start of the hardware and software issues keeps test. Blizzardtypically announces their upcoming beta tests some months in advance, but a specific date isn's technical crew very busy. Numerous game bugs are fixed as well, as the influx of new players invariably find ways t set until just a few weeks prior to break the game that the companytest's QA department didn't discoverbeginning.
Beta tests are very useful to companies as Since they work moved to streamline the early player experience as wellBeta Opt-In technology on Battle. Beta tests seldom include the entire gamenet, Blizzard no longer runs major beta test sign up periods, but since they always already have the early portions of the game, including character creation and other opening content, since it's essential (especially for Blizzard games) that their games are immediately involving and enjoyable. This is one reason companies like to pull in a wide variety huge pool of potential testers; noobs and dedicated fans alike. Experienced players will skip past minor glitches.
How much actual game testing goes on in a beta test varies from title to title. RTS games like Starcraft 2 generally feature the entire game, but only the multiplayer portion. They can run for many months, as countless tweaks and changes are made to the unit stats as players find new ways to exploit units, and one race or another seems too powerful, or grows too weak as new techniques are developed.
RPGs sometimes include the entire game client, but are usually more limited. Diablo II's beta only included Act One, and only the character skills up to level 18. The D2 team knew they'd need to make changes and tweaks and balances to items and character skills and monsters post-release, but they knew players would need longer than they wanted ==How long will the beta test to run to get deeply enough into ?==[[Jay Wilson]] has estimated that the game to offer valuable input on overall game/item/spell balance. The D2 Diablo III beta was chiefly used to test out will begin about six months before the new Battlegame launches.net features, and to test the early aspects of D2 itself. They wanted to perfect Beta tests generally run until a few weeks before the fun factor, leveling speedlaunch, early items, skills, monsters and quests. Larger game balance changes were made in post-release patches and were based on so it seems that Blizzard expects the input and play choices of hundreds of thousands of players, rather than just a few hundred Diablo III beta testersto last for about 5 months.
==How long =When will the beta test runDiablo 3 Beta Start?===How long a beta test runs depends on what they're using it Unknown. As with all dates related to test outBlizzard games, nothing is definite. Like Blizzard might include all of Diablo III in the beta client and run a long and exhaustive test of the entire game. Or they might only include the first Act and the low level skillsgames, much as they did in Diablo II's Blizzard beta. The latter type of test would obviously not take as long as the former. It does seem likely that tests begin when they'll be testing out all of the [[Battle.net]] features, such as (potentially) shared stashes, trading via email, friends lists, special rare quests, not to mention the entire basic online gaming infrastructurere ready.
[[BattleBlizzard likes to have their games well-polished and nearly complete before they begin the beta test.net 2They do not rush to finish content while the test goes on; they merely polish and refine, largely based on tester input.0]] is scheduled Do not expect the beta test to launch with [[StarCraft II]], which begin until the game is scheduled to be released before Diablo III. In theorynearly finished, SC2 will guinea pig the new service and find all the bugsas of Blizzcon, October 2010, which should streamline the Diablo III testing process. Read more on the [[Diablo III Release Date]] articlegame was nowhere near that state.
As of Blizzcon 2010, the more optimistic fans are hoping for the beta to begin in early 2011. More conservative estimates are for late 2011, or into 2012.
==When will they announce the beta test?==
No dates have been given yet, nor will they until much closer to the game's release. Blizzard typically announces their upcoming beta tests some months in advance. They also give at least a month's notice on the date they'll start allowing interested parties to sign up for the test. Their sign up periods usually run about a week, and there's no preference given to people who sign up first, though you'd never know this from the massive crush of fans who flood the site the instant the sign up forms go live.
The time frame for everything varies from test to test, but a hypothetical time line runs something like this:* January: Upcoming ==Will there be an open beta test announced. No time frame given.?==* March: Beta sign up date announced for next month.* April: Beta sign up runs for one week. Several hundred thousand fans sign up.* May: Beta start date announced for next month.* June 1: Beta test begins with the client being made accessible via bit torrent. A small number of Blizzard ran open beta keys are sent out, chiefly to friends and family and media.* June 10-30: More beta keys are sent out, dozens or hundreds every few days, depending tests on the stability of the hosting serverstheir earlier games, how many hours the when they needed additional testers are logging, how far behind the programmers are running on their bug fix lists, etc.* July: Many more beta keys are sent out as a pared down version of the game simply to stress test scales up in sizethe Battle.net servers.* August-?: More testers are added, the game This is constantly tweaked not something they've done in recent years; it wasn't done with patches and fixesany of the World of Warcraft betas or Starcraft 2, rinse and repeatso it's unlikely that we'll see it for Diablo III.
===When will the Diablo 3 Beta StartWhat's an Alpha Test?===An Alpha test is run before the beta test, and is usually much smaller. The Alpha client is less finalized than the beta client, and is usually the first game build that's semi-complete and playable. Alpha tests are almost always private, and limited to employees, friends, and family.
As with all dates related to Blizzard games, nothing is definite. [[Kevin Martens]] and [[Julian Love]] wwere asked about this during an interview at Blizzcon 2009, and flatly refused to give any info at all. [http://www.diii.net/blog/comments/exclusive-blizzcon-interview-julian-love-and-kevin-martens/]
::==What'''''Diii.net: '''Speaking of the beta test, what’s the date on that? Can you give us any loose estimates a Beta Test?==::'''Kevin: '''We’re still working on content and doing Beta tests are large scale tests of a lot of iteratingnear-finished video game. It’s hard to know when the game is ready for testingTo date, all Blizzard beta tests have been semi-public, since just because something is with website signups drawing in the game doesn’t mean it’s good enough to ship. The thousands of public testers, who join Blizzard secret is endless iteration. Go over employees, their friends and over until something is perfect. How any given feature works with family, fansite invitees, members of the media, employees at other features, classesgaming companies, and all the contentothers. We never know exactly where we are Beta tests generally scale up in the process since we’re working on everything at once. Juliansize as they progress; starting with a few dozen testers, how do you describe when we’re done?::'''Julian: '''We know we’re ready when everyone is spending their time playing instead then gradually expanding to hundreds and then thousands of workingtesters. That In the old days this meant physically mailing out beta CDs; these days with the beta clients being shared via bit torrent, it means it’s time to shippassing out more valid beta CD keys.
::'''''Diii.net: '''And how long will that be?
::'''Kevin: '''(Losing patience.) It’s indeterminate.
==Will there be an open beta testWhat's the purpose of a Beta Test?==[[Image:Bnet-beta-cd.jpg|thumb]]Beta tests with valid beta keys required to play are referred to as closed or private betas. (Most games run truly private betas before they get to serve multiple purposes, depending on the closed public beta, in which only company employees and some of their family members participategame.)
Open betas are often referred to as The original Diablo beta test was called the "stress tests,Battle.net Beta Test" since the goal is not it was largely made to test Blizzard's new online gaming service. That the software contained the gamebeta client of Diablo I was almost beside the point, but to test since the game hosting software and hardwarewas small enough to be tested internally. The game client is usually about hard part was getting the size online matchmaking of a demo, but it can only be played online. Open betas are almost always freely available to anyone who wants to download themBattle. Beta keys may or may not be required, but if they are they're made very widely available, in numbers that scale up as the test continuesnet functional.
Diablo II ran such a stress test for several weeks after the closed All computer game beta test, since they needed tests are chiefly used to see how the Battlefix technical problems.net servers would hold up with tens Public beta testers have an enormously wide variety of thousands computer systems, and ironing out all of simultaneous connections. There's no telling if Diablo III will run such a test. World of Warcraft had both a stress test the hardware and an open beta to test its servers. Diablo IIIsoftware issues keeps Blizzard's Battletechnical crew very busy.net set up is going to be similar to Diablo II'sNumerous game bugs are fixed as well, with just a few realms worldwide, and millions as the influx of new players on each. Blizzard may therefore feel it's necessary invariably find ways to run such a stress test for D3, though they've said nothing about break the game that publicly. They might also run an open beta because itthe company's good publicity for their titleQA department didn't discover.
Beta tests are very useful to companies as they work to streamline the early player experience as well. Beta tests seldom include the entire game, but they always have the early portions of the game, including character creation and other opening content, since it's essential (especially for Blizzard games) that their games are immediately involving and enjoyable. This is one reason companies like to pull in a wide variety of testers; noobs and dedicated fans alike. Experienced players will skip past minor glitches.
==How are Beta Testers Selected?==Blizzard passes out much actual game testing goes on in a beta keys test varies from title to their friends and familytitle. RTS games like Starcraft 2 generally feature the entire game, to media, and to others in but only the industrymultiplayer portion. They also give out beta slots to various fansitescan run for many months, who may redistribute them as they see fit. Blizzard has also taken countless tweaks and changes are made to including a slot in an upcoming Blizzard beta in the goodie bags they give out at Blizzcon unit stats as players find new ways to exploit units, and their various WWI events. Fans do not know which game beta their codes one race or another seems too powerful, or grows too weak as new techniques are good for at the timedeveloped.
At Blizzcon 2010RPGs sometimes include the entire game client, but are usually more limited. Diablo II's Closing Ceremonybeta only included Act One, and only the character skills up to level 18. The D2 team knew they'd need to make changes and tweaks and balances to items and character skills and monsters post-release, but they knew players would need longer than they wanted the beta test to run to get deeply enough into the game to offer valuable input on overall game/item/spell balance. The D2 beta was chiefly used to test out the new Battle.net features, and to test the early aspects of D2 itself. They wanted to perfect the fun factor, leveling speed, early items, skills, monsters and quests. Larger game balance changes were made in post-release patches and were based on the input and play choices of hundreds of thousands of players, Paul Sams announced that 1000 free Beta Keys will be randomly distributed amongst those attendingrather than just a few hundred beta testers.
==Will there be a public Diablo III beta sign up?==
Possibly, but nothing is definite until Blizzard announces it. All previous Blizzard beta tests had public signups, but that changed with the World of Warcraft expansion, Wrath of the Lich King. There was no public beta signup for that game; a beta code was given to all of the 6000+ attendees at the 2008 Paris WWI show, and the hundreds more added through fansites and Blizzard's friends list.
It's expected that ==How are Beta Testers Selected?==Blizzard passes out beta keys to their friends and family, to media, and to others in the 15industry. They also give out beta slots to various fansites,000 fans attending the 2008 BlizzCon convention will get who may redistribute them as they see fit. Blizzard has also taken to including a beta code for slot in an upcoming Blizzard beta, but that's in the goodie bags they give out at Blizzcon and their various WWI events. Fans do not for sure. Those know which game beta their codes could be are good for Starcraft 2 rather than Diablo III. If they do, that might be all Blizzard thinks they need to test Diablo III, once they add in friends and family and hundreds more gathered from fansite contestsat the time.
It's likely During the closing ceremony of Blizzcon in October 2010, Paul Sams announced that Diablo III will have a public signup, but it's not for sure1000 beta testers would be selected from the Blizzcon attendees. [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/1000-beta-key-winners-selected-from-blizzcon-2010-ticket-buyers/]
==What countries are included in the Beta Test?==
This isn't known in advance. Past Blizzard tests have initially been US or North America only, since they usually start with just some hosting servers in the US. As greater server stability is achieved, more testers, from more locations, are allowed in. Blizzard has also been known to run beta servers in other countries where they expect a lot of players. It's quite likely they'll run a Korean Stacraft 2 beta, for instance.
==Can I sign up multiple times?==
Blizzard usually limits Each Battle.net account entered in the sign ups Beta Opt-In is eligible to one per householdbe selected. They want a wide variety of players to try out the betaSo if you have multiple accounts, and have no way to know if there are ten people with different computers in yes. You can't submit the same house or notaccount more than once, though.
==Are Previous Blizzard Testers invited to Diablo III Beta Test?==
Only if you are already on the Blizzard's friends list. They do keep a list of good testers from past games, and add people to it when they reliably report numerous bugs, but the names on this list are kept private.
==How to get in to the Closed Beta?==
Aside from marrying a Blizzard employee or becoming one yourself, you could try attending BlizzCon or other such conventions, since they've been giving out cards good for future beta test slots at such events. Admins of popular fansites and employees of major gaming info sites usually get beta slots as well; sometimes they even have extras to give out to site regulars. There's no way to increase your odds of being chosen from the public sign up period though, since the criteria Blizzard uses to pick such people varies, and is largely random.
==When will and how Will the Selected be Notified?==This varies greatly. There's usually at least Blizzard notifies a tester by sending an email with a month or two between sign up valid CD-key and a link to download the client. Since they start of their tests small and ramp them up over time, you might be in from the first day, or have to wait several weeks or months. [http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_US&articleId=26886] ::In the event you are selected to participate in a beta test, you will receive an e-mail informing you and selected testers only find out when they get their beta key emailsdirecting you to Battle. Since these notifications are sent out in wavesnet Account Management, some testers where you will necessarily find out long before othersbe able to download the beta client and obtain a beta key.
==Will I have to pay for the Beta?==
Blizzard has never charged does not charge for players to Beta beta test their productsslots. They are sometimes sold, but eBay and other online auction services do not generally permit this.
==How much of the whole game will be in the beta?==
Unknown. The D2 beta included Act One, and all 5 characters, but only half of their skills.
==Does Blizzard Expect Testers to Play a Minimum Number of Gameplay Hours?==
No, though they'd appreciate it if you played enough to find some bugs and give some useful feedback. Players who can't play, for technical or other reasons, are useful as well, since Blizzard wants to know what's stopping you.
==How long will the Beta Test last?==
Unknown. It depends on how much of the game Blizzard is testing, how well Battle.net 2.0 is running with Starcraft 2 before the D3 beta begins, etc. At least two or three months is a conservative estimate. Some betas run for half a year or longer.
==Do I get keep my beta character in the final release?==
No, beta characters are always wiped from the servers before the final game. The clients are incompatible, items and skills change, it's not fair to give some players a headstarthead start, etc.
