Blizzard confirms: You cannot play Diablo 4 in Germany without a subscription

To play Diablo 4 in Germany, you need a subscription on consoles.

There was already a lot of confusion surrounding the Diablo 4 Open Beta as to whether a subscription was required to play the “Always On” RPG in Germany – or not. To finally settle the issue, we reached out to Blizzard and received a final response that may seem obvious, but many of you may not like:

You definitely need a PS Plus Essential membership on PS4/PS5 or an Xbox Live Gold subscription or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate on Xbox One/Xbox Series X/S. It doesn’t matter whether you play the campaEsports Extrassolo or in co-op with others.

Blizzard statement causes confusion

Finally, the topic is about a subscription requirement for Diablo 4 by a Tweet from Blizzard developer Adam Fletcher boiled up, who made the following statement: “You can play without a subscription, but mechanics like chat, co-op, and PVP require a membership“

Statement does not apply to Germany: In this country, however, the clocks tick differently, which is not surprising, for example, with a view to Free2Play games or betas with a USK rating of “from 16 years of age” upwards on PS4 and PS5. Here the PS Plus subscription is used for age verification.

Diablo 4 is an online-only game that requires PS Plus Essential.

The statement in the Microsoft Store leaves room for interpretation.

The statements in the respective Sony and Microsoft stores also cause further confusion. While the PS Store clearly states that a PS Plus subscription is required for online play, the Microsoft Store notice is less clear. It just says that online multiplayer requires a subscription.

Diablo 4 is also a solo multiplayer game

The catch, however, is that Diablo 4, with its MMO approach and shared world, is considered a multiplayer game even if you’re ripping through Sanctuary solo. And here we finally come back to the official German statement from Blizzard, which reads as follows:

So if you were hoping until the very end to avoid an online subscription, you only have one option in Germany: the PC version. Do you want to find out in general how well the final version of Diablo 4 did in the GamePro test, this way:

No two subscriptions for couch co-op

However, we can still give you the all-clear regarding the obligation to subscribe. If you plan to play Diablo 4 in couch co-op, you will need a Battle.net account for each player, but you will not need a second PS Plus subscription or a second Xbox Live Gold membership.

Diablo 4 will start in Early Access on June 2nd at 1am before the game will be released on June 6th for buyers of the standard version.

Did you already expect the subscription for Diablo 4 in Germany, or were you just a little caught off guard?