3,000 Invites Sent to Diablo 3 Players for Reaper of Souls Beta

Blizzard announces a wider closed beta to come later this year.

3,000 "most active" Diablo III players will join Blizzard's Friends & Family beta for the Reaper of Souls expansion, ahead of the closed beta later this year.

This beta includes the entire Reaper of Souls expansion, without the final boss fight.

"In the past, participants in this particular phase of public testing usually only include friends and relatives of Blizzard employees," wrote Blizzard on its Diablo III site.

"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!"

Blizzard also announced that over the next few months they will "continue handpicking community members to invite to the Closed Beta and bringing in additional players through opt-ins to ensure that all of our features like the Crusader, Mystic, and Adventure Mode get the testing they deserve."