Blizzard president Mike Ybarra reveals Diablo 4 unlock times two months ahead of launch
The big new Diablo game is still a couple months away, but Mike Ybarra has spilled the schedule anyway.
Blizzard president Mike Ybarra has fired off a tweet revealing the global release times for Diablo 4, which is set to go live on June 6—unless you spring for one of the fancier editions.
The Diablo 4 product page on Battle.net indicates that the Digital Deluxe and Ultimate editions of Diablo 4 will give owners "up to 4 days early access" to the game. Down in the fine print, it clarifies that time is an estimated, and that "actual play time [is] subject to possible outages and applicable time zone differences."
Ybarra had previously tweeted that Deluxe and Ultimate edition owners could start playing on June 2, but today he corrected that statement, saying that early access will begin at 4 pm PDT on June 1, which works out to 12 am on June 2 in Europe, and 8 am on June 2 in Asia. Of course, Asia has 11 time zones—it's a pretty big place—and Ybarra said in a follow-up tweet that he was referring specifically to Korea Standard Time.
The reference to Europe was also a bit off: Ybarra clarified that actually meant London (that is, British Summer Time), meaning it will go live at 1 am Central European Time.
If you happen to live in a part of the world that isn't included in those time zones, you can save yourself the headache of having to do math by using this simple but handy time zone converter.
If you're not springing for one of the fancy releases, the standard edition of Diablo 4 will actually unlock a little earlier than expected, at least in North America. The launch date is listed as June 6 but Ybarra said it will actually go live at 4 pm PDT on June 5, which means 12 am on June 6 in the UK, 1 am in Europe, and 8 am in South Korea.
Regardless of which version you want to throw your money at, Diablo 4 is still a couple months away, but you can get a head-start on your characters right now with this simple but very handy build planning tool.
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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.