It seems no amount of preparation was quite enough for Diablo 4’s launch day to go off without at least a slight hitch. While Deluxe Edition pre-orders were able to play during Diablo 4’s early access period, the flood of players on launch day was just too much for Blizzard’s authentication servers.Blizzard announced it was "investigating an issue affecting our authentication servers" early this morning "which may result in failed or slow login attempts." Diablo 4 community director Adam Fletcher noted the login issues and promised that the "team is on it," with "some improvement" being felt a few hours later. But still, players are experiencing failed login attempts as Blizzard's authentication servers struggle under the flood of players trying to play on launch day.It's a struggle that those who pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition didn't have to deal with during the early access period. They have been playing largely without issue since June 1, barring the one balance patch that nerfed quite a few builds. Now that the gates to Sanctuary have been flung open to all, a curious class war has developed between those who ordered the Deluxe Edition and those who didn't.
"Cant rich people have anything nice anymore?" asked Reddit user noahgs. "Now that Diablo is allowing Pauper edition players to bask in the glory that is us ultimate (and I do mean ultimate) edition players, can we not have but a small concession now that we must share with disgusting plebeians? I feel that in any times of Queue the game should recognize the greater tithe that we have paid, recognizing us as the true Diablo fans.
"In addition to that," they wrote, "perhaps a damage multiplier against players with lower editions in the PvP zone. (thinking 10 percent per lower edition, nothing unfair or unreasonable) I also feel as if we should be able to collect tax from these welfare edition folk, perhaps in the form of gold each time we high-end players have the misfortune of crossing their paths."
The thread is clearly written in jest, but it might not be such a joke to everyone else. There's at least one meme on the Diablo 4 subreddit that also makes light of the fact Blizzard's servers were fine during early access, but they're definitely not fine now.
And while the suggestion for Deluxe Edition players to get special consideration is a joke now, it might not be forever. Diablo 4's cosmetic store is clearly priced for the rich, with everyone else forced to wait for a sale in order to buy even the cheapest horse armor.