Diablo IV doesn't officially launch until June 6, but Blizzard allowed owners of the Deluxe and Ultimate editions of the game to start their journey to hell during the early access period, which began on June 1. At least, it did for most players. Many who bought the enhanced games on PlayStation 5 report seeing an "invalid license" error that keeps them from playing. There might be a workaround, but it involves spending even more money.
Diablo IV is essentially a known quantity after a pair of beta tests and a "server slam" weekend. The game's always-online nature means you'll have to log into Battle.net to verify the game license, and that's a problem for PS5 players. When the appointed hour arrived, those on PC and Xbox had relatively little trouble getting into the game—we tested Diablo IV early access on PC, and the login queue was less than a minute. However, a sizeable proportion of PS5 players were not so lucky.
This wasn't simply a matter of the servers being busy. Blizzard tested the infrastructure to death, but apparently, the bug in the PlayStation version of the game escaped notice. Blizzard issued a statement shortly after early access opened, saying it was looking into the problems on PlayStation. Judging from the number of angry forum comments (more than 1,500!), many PS5 owners were affected and still are as of this posting. The latest comments on Blizzard's forum feature PS5 gamers angry they cannot access the game almost 24 hours after launch.
The situation is particularly galling because of the financials. Diablo IV already costs $70 for the base edition, but the more expensive Digitial Deluxe and Ultimate include some bonus items and skins. They're also required if you want to play during Early Access. So, PS5 gamers paid $20-30 extra with the expectation they'd be able to play on June 1.
Things get worse, too. It appears that some of those "invalid license" errors can be cleared by paying even more money. A few gamers say after spending $1.99 on the smallest bundle of in-game currency, their license suddenly started working. We don't recommend you do this—not only is it not guaranteed to work, but giving Blizzard more money when it screws up seems counterproductive.
For now, PC and Xbox are the only reliable way to explore the realm of Sanctuary in this latest installment of the series.
