Diablo 4 players have been asking the developers at Blizzard for some way to help shape the future of the game. And now, the devs have finally answered this call with a long-awaited public test realm (PTR) coming soon.
The first Diablo 4 public test realm will go live in the current season, season three or Season of the Construct, and will allow players to “extensively” test some of the new features and changes that will be coming in season four.
In the season three Campfire Chat for February, the developers said they’ve heard player calls for a PTR over the past few months. And given what’s supposedly coming in season four, according to the Diablo 4 team, now’s the best time to finally implement the PTR. The devs did admit there may not be a PTR for every season, but there should be one for the seasons featuring bigger changes.
“Because of the changes that are coming in season four, and the amount of changes, the team felt like we need a PTR,” said community lead and Campfire Chat host Adam Fletcher. “Does that mean we’ll have a PTR every season? Maybe not, it would depend on the scale of changes. But for season four, we most definitely plan on having a PTR.”
Itemization via stats and attributes as well as the rewards system will be huge focal points of the next season, and the Diablo 4 team at Blizzard says they’ve been working on “a lot of changes” for months. The team is hopeful that a PTR will help uncover any issues or balance concerns with the upcoming changes.
The PTR will only be available to players playing on the Battle.net platform on PC so the developers can properly manage the service. The PTR will be getting its own “beefy” Campfire Chat presentation in roughly two weeks.