Diablo IV is out, at least in Early Access, and while things seem to be going smoothly so far on PC—fingers crossed—loads of PS5 players have run into a wall and can’t access the game.
It’s not a traditional “servers down” or “queue full” kinda deal either: instead the issue preventing them from logging in is a licensing one, with players getting “Unable to find a valid license for Diablo IV” screens, which is an error they should only be getting if Blizzard couldn’t verify their purchase license, but which is currently affecting people who have clearly paid for the game. And not just the game, but the more expensive versions of the game!
The issue is so widespread that only an hour after launch Blizzard had already noted it both on Twitter and the game’s forums, promising they are “looking into this right now and will update once we have more information”. The problem is mostly affecting PS5 players, but there are also isolated reports of Xbox users getting the same message.
While folks have been waiting and endlessly retrying their logins, however, some have stumbled on a temporary workaround. It seems that making a $1.99 currency purchase—you don’t need to login to the game to access its store—kicks something in the backend and is letting some players in.
I’m not recommending you do this—it’s not guaranteed to work, and you’ve paid for the game already, don’t pay more!—just pointing out it is very funny that a full-price game that is already going to try and fleece you with microtransactions is now inadvertently offering another to circumvent a rocky launch.
Well, Early Access launch. Who knows if this will happen again (or continue happening) for the game’s actual launch next week, but if there was ever going to be a time for one last tinker behind the scenes, I guess this is it!
UPDATE 9pm ET – Some users are reporting that downloading a free item/program from the PlayStation Store also works, so you can try that if you’re on PS5, still suck and don’t want to pay the $2.
