Diablo 3 fans are waiting patiently for any news about when the first expansion for the game, Reaper of Souls, will be released, and developer Blizzard has taken a critical step in getting the expansion out to fans on the PC and PlayStation 4. The game has now entered the first closed beta stage, called the Family and Friends beta, and now 3,000 lucky players get the chance to check out the expansion for the first time.

Blizzard announced the news to Battle.net, and explained how this Family and Friends beta is different from previous instances of this type of beta.

"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!"

The company stated that the beta will feature most of the Reaper of Souls content, but the final boss battle will not be included in the beta. Blizzard also revealed some details about future closed beta programs for Reaper of Souls that will be available to a wider portion of fans:

"Our Friends and Family Beta is just the first step of public testing, and by the end of the year we will be moving into Closed Beta. Since our Reaper of Souls Closed Beta test will also feature all content in the expansion (again, excluding the final boss fight), invitations will be extremely limited. However, we'll 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."

Finally, Blizzard released news about the beginning of Public Test Region access for Patch 2.0.1:

"Around the same time we begin our Reaper of Souls Closed Beta, we will also be launching our Public Test Region (PTR) for Patch 2.0.1! This patch will feature updates including Paragon 2.0, Loot 2.0, our new difficulty system, the addition of Clans and Communities, as well as balancing and tuning for all five Diablo III classes. Anyone with the Battle.net Desktop App and Diablo III license will be able to participate in PTR testing. If don't already have the Battle.net App, you can download and install it by clicking the button below."