Diablo III open beta weekend announced

The doors of Sanctuary are opening early to Battle.net subscribers this weekend. Today, Blizzard issued a call to Diablo III fans, inviting them to take part in an open beta event beginning today, Friday April 20, at noon (PDT).

The free trial will run until Monday, April 23 at 10am (PDT), and allow players to get acquainted with the game's five classes up to level 13. No Battle.net membership? No problem. Signing up is easy and free; however, interested beta testers are advised to download the Diablo III client immediately in order to secure their place in the soon-to-be-crowded event. That's immediately, people. Like, now. We'll play this Barbarian trailer while you take care of business.

The surprise Diablo III beta weekend is likely more of a promotion that an actual beta test considering the full release is due out May 15. By all means, send your feedback to Blizzard, but don't be insulted if your complaints fall on deaf ears. But then, why complain about a free beta weekend? Speaking of which...did you register yet?!

Matt Bradford wrote news and features here at GamesRadar+ until 2016. Since then he's gone on to work with the Guinness World Records, acting as writer and researcher for the annual Gamer's Edition series of books, and has worked as an editor, technical writer, and voice actor. Matt is now a freelance journalist and editor, generating copy across a multitude of industries.