Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls closed beta will be expanded before year's end, says Blizzard

Diablo 3: Reaper of Soul's closed beta phase will be expanded beyond Blizzard's typical 'friends and family' remit, with 3,000 beta invites going out to the most dedicated of players before the year is through.

In a post on the Battle.net forums, Lylirra wrote, "In the past, participants in this particular phase of public testing usually only include friends and relatives of Blizzard employees.

"With Reaper of Souls, however, we've decided to buck that trend and extend invites to valued media contacts and key members of the Blizzard community. We're also inviting 3,000 of our most active Diablo III players from around the world who've opted in for beta testing—something we've never done for any Friends and Family Beta test before!"

You can opt-in to join a queue of potential players to be added after the initial 3,000 people take part, although opting in is no guarantee that you'll be successful.

PCGamesN adds that the closed beta will offer the full expansion except the final boss encounter. It will be missing a few, undisclosed features however.

At the same time as the 3,000 players enter the fray, Blizzard will also pop Diablo 3's 5.0.1 patch on its Public Test Realm for people to try out. It'll offer fans a chance to experience the game's Paragon 2.0 and Loot 2.0 systems, a new difficulty format, Clans and Communities, as well as new class balancing efforts.

What do you make of the above? Stay tuned for Phil's big Diablo 3 next-gen and Reaper of Souls interview with Blizzard right here tomorrow.