Blizzard Entertainment is joining the big year-end action-RPG hunt to try to distract attention from Path of Exile 2…

The Microsoft-owned company has made Diablo IV temporarily free-to-play on all platforms, which is no coincidence: two weeks ago, Path of Exile 2 was released in Early Access (with a paid model!), and there has been a lot of interest in it, and comparisons between the two games have been made more than once.

Blizzard has had this free-to-play period before, but this time the company made a big difference. Previously, only the base game could be played this way, but now the Spiritborn character from the Vessel of Hatred expansion can be played this way. While the expansion was not included in the demo, Microsoft has at least given us a chance to try out the new character type.

The free trial is available on Battle.net for PC, the PlayStation Store for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, and the Microsoft Store for Xbox Series and Xbox One. Unfortunately, Steam was left out, which seems like a huge oversight since many people still play on that platform. The free period lasts until January 3rd. This will give us a chance to get a good look at Diablo IV, play through the story of the base game, and then maybe make a fair judgment on whether or not to buy the game. If you do decide to buy the game, you can take advantage of a 40% discount.

If you have an Xbox Game Pass subscription, the base game is available on PC and console, which is no coincidence: since Microsoft was able to pull in Activision Blizzard King after ZeniMax Media (Bethesda), you can choose from the company’s catalog to add to the subscription service, which has, for example, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 since its launch, as Microsoft promised to do to acquire the publisher.

At least Diablo IV can be played this way over the holidays if you have a few minutes to spare.

Source: WCCFTech