Diablo 4 was designed "from the beginning" to appeal to newcomers

Diablo 4 is designed to appeal to players who have no familiarity with the series at all.

"That was the goal from the beginning," Diablo 4 general manager Rod Fergusson tells GamesRadar+ about appealing to newcomers. "We wanted to expand the audience," the senior Blizzard developer continues, adding, "We want to be able to bring in new players who haven't experienced [Diablo], and we don't want them to be scared by the number four."

"It's been designed with a lot of meaningful decisions around, 'how do we get new players in', and one of them is the placement of where the story takes place, which is about 50 years after Diablo 3," Fergusson continues. The general manager adds that enough time has taken place between Diablo 3 and 4 that you don't need to know the previous games to enjoy this new story.

Despite this, though, Diablo 4 does have connections to previous entries. While Fergusson wants to reassure newcomers that they don't need to go and read a book or watch a YouTube video to understand Diablo 4's story, there are still links back to previous games that veteran players will recognize and appreciate.

Fergusson even says Diablo 4's tutorial has been designed with newcomers in mind, so they're not "paralyzed with choice" once they step out into the open world. Fergusson says the new game gives players time and room to consider what they're seeing for the first time, like Diablo 4's vast skill trees, which should help newcomers.

Elsewhere in the same interview, Fergusson told us Diablo 4's servers are prepared for launch, but there are going to be some factors you just can't account for, like the sheer number of players trying to access the new game on launch day.

Check out our Diablo 4 Barbarian build and class guide if you're looking to hit the ground running as a Barbarian in early access later this week.