This game is gonna be BIG, BIG, BIG!
I don’t think that confirms anything really. June 29th is close enough for an unspecific comment to not exclude it.
They were supposed to have two alphas and yet they already seem to be jumping into a beta next. Some betas are short. D3 barely had a beta at all and it was a brand new game (though they were probably trying to hide the fact that it was story-mode only and knew people were not going to be happy). The beta was also basically a demo and not a real beta. Public testing isn’t a requirement of a game being released.
The game is also a re-master, it doesn’t require extensive testing the way a brand new game would. They already know the base game is what it is. The testing is just to catch bugs and mistakes.
Considering people managed to test all the unofficially available classes and go to other areas of the game they weren’t supposed to, it doesn’t seem like the game needs several months more development unless there’s a lot of issues on the online side.
I am still optimistic for a June 29th, 2021 release. It is just 2 days before the start of the 2nd half of the year so it could still be likely that it could release on June 29th, 2021!
In both of these PCGamesN interviews with the Devs, Chris Lena says that they’re going to start with a single-player technical alpha(which we already know that happened on April 8th through April 12th). After that he says they’re going to have a second technical alpha which is for multiplayer and stress testing(we know that it won’t be a second technical alpha because it has changed to the beta opt-in already). This beta opt-in is probably going to be the last test before release. The Devs have stated before that they have been working on D2R since 2019. The game is pretty much finished since it is just a remaster, and not a remake. Just needs a few tests for tweaking and the game will be ready for release!
Is there a timeframe on when we’ll get to play the beta or when the game will release?
CL: It’s pretty much what’s been revealed so far. We’re going to start with a single-player technical alpha, and then we’ll have a second technical alpha after that, which is [for] multiplayer and stress testing. Launch is this year, but that’s all we have in terms of specifics.
There will be at least one more alpha after this. “We’re going to start with a single-player technical alpha, and then we’ll have a second technical alpha after that, which is kind of multiplayer and stress testing,” lead producer Chris Lena told us in an interview back at BlizzCon Online.
In a new FAQ posted alongside today’s news, the devs hint at the possibility of further alphas ahead of launch, though only the single-player and multiplayer alphas have been confirmed so far.
Beta this month or early next month at the latest.
Release date announcement a month after (in July)
August-September release.
This is my prediction. Mark it and ship it.
Keep in mind that WoW TBC Classic is getting released soon and there is no way in any capacity they will release anything else during 2-3 months period inbetween. August-September is the most obvious date.
w00t w00t. i knew June 27th was hardcore wishful thinking. But Summer release baby! cmonnnnnn.
I guess not a whole ton of people demanding change then. 
inb4 microRNA objects 
Bu but… its a 21 year old games remaster? how could it possibly beat any other major titles that have been tested? Its not like Diablo has a built-in fanbase in the tens of millions and will sell millions on release. /s
Guys just accept it already. I told you so. If they would be releasing in June, they would say so there.
Not to really be downer on the good news, because it is good news, but when you consider test was for acts 1 and 2 normal, not really much you can critique yet in terms of game mechanics. The common complaints (and yes, there were criticisms) was about the animation of the blizzard skill, the cold color effects, lightning effects (which look fine to me), and some other minor skill animations. Auto gold bug, telekinesis bug causing game crash, loading issues, etc…all within what the game was supposed to find on testing.
The main person I watched was Dbrunksi, but did watch a little of Llama, Krip, Rhyker, Lord Fluff and a couple of others, and I know Dbrunski was mentioning he was going to ask for a loot filter, and I think he mentioned something about charm inventory (he made a poke at Llama about the “makes game too easy” comment). Not saying I agree with him, but I can imagine “some” suggested changes through the streamer direct line.
You are living in a fantasy.
I understand you want to play it now, but the fact you are so blown out about it, my guess is you’ll play a short time and forget about it.
Beta most likely September at earliest.
Release date mentioned in November with date set for Xmas or early January.
the only streamer blizz would listen to is Llama because he personally knows the Devs and was the streamer presented at blizzcon. And as far as what Llama was asking for? hes specifically asking NOT to change anything, besides of course the Blizzard and lightning animations. they looked pretty weak.
Clearly if blizzard received glowing praise from the vast majority of testers, there was not a huge demand for change from them. not bug fixes, change. You can test quite a lot of the game in just the first 2 acts. The beta will really be the test that receives the most feedback and since its so late into production, even if there IS tons of demand for change it wont go far. They would have to delay the game a year to actually do a lot of the changes/balances people are asking for. Despite wanting balancing and a charm inventory myself, i literally wouldn’t bet a single cent on them becoming reality. Even post-launch.
Lol no, i am D2 moder and plenty of changes can be done super fast, in matter of minutes or hours.
Then you just test it for few days.
Blizzard hosted a Q&A at Blizzcon with multiple (>10) streamers.
Rob Gallerani - The other really great thing was that we got a lot of very specific low level feedback. It wasn’t like there was one giant problem that kind of got in the way and overshadowed all of these other things.
True for many changes but not all of course.
Llama is not the major representative of the Diablo 2 community. He is more well known due to his speedrunning skills, and being one of the major grailer streamers, but Blizzard has used streamers plenty for Blizzcon events. I believe both Kripp and Rhyker were pretty big during early D3 (I remember the names being tossed out a lot early D3, though never watched streamers for Diablo games until last few years). Developers are also professionals, so personal friendships do not dictate design decisions.
Yup. In the 1.10 patch notes, it is even stated by devs that skills and monster stats were streamlined for ease of change, to which they noted would make modders happy. The whole process they used to make that streamlined process also resulted in most any skills being able to be used by any class.
I would also add that dbrunski was one of the selected focused D2R streamers on the battlenet splash page after mrllama. Dbrunski advocates for multiple changes.
Extensive testing isn’t needed to persay, add a 2% buff to a skill with no buffs, outside of “Does it work properly?” If you rebalance the entire game, sure…make appropriate changes, ptr for a couple of weeks, fix and release. I doubt they would go the route of complete rebalancing. If they balance, it’ll be a few skills here and there with some buffs, maybe some nerfs.
Balancing game is matter of minutes and hours. If single modder can do it fast as i said, team of devs can do it even faster. They work with already created game. They are not programing new game. Only deep big changes in how things work would take more time. I get it you understand programing, but if you werent Modding in D2 you dont know what you talk about. That game is actualy super easy to mod. Balance changes would be super fast, only testing would take some time for example. But again with full dev team it is piece of cake.
In terms of launch date, it seems that the beta will start sometime this month.
J. Allen Brack: With Diablo, there is a lot of strong momentum right now. We have public testing that had taken place in both April and May for both Diablo Immortal and Diablo II: Resurrected; and we also have a lot of community interest around the development of Diablo IV as you mentioned.
What D2R streamers have been featured on the battlenet splash page?
This is not true.
Really, if you think about it, complete rebalance would actually be pretty easy. PVPers might not like it, but could be done fairly easy. Look at the 1.09 monster hp levels, look at the 1.10 monster hp levels, scale hitpoints to the 30%-40% mark between the two patches, rescale synergies to lower numbers while direct buffing certain skills that the synergies created (Blessed Hammer), with lower percentage towards those skills that have set damage factors by skill levels, slightly higher for those use weapon damage. Use the lower percentage for classes that have skills for natural critical damage (barb, zon).
So guys… i posted this to reddit and instantly got flamed/downvoted by people saying “i didn’t read it” because nowhere in the investor call do they actually discuss a D2R release date or even window. They only discuss Diablo Immortal and give no other indication of when D2R is coming out. I just read the entire thing and can’t find anything. Unless i missed it? please advise. lol
If I recall it was in the Q&A both games will launch 2nd half of 2021.