All Articles: Diablo III
Diablo III Review: Welcome Back to Tristram
It was a long time coming, but the mythical day finally arrived: Diablo III was released on May 15 to much fanfare. Over the ensuing weeks, I’ve poured less time than I wanted to into the game, deterred by my inability to sign into the servers and play the game. You must be online at all times and signed into Battle.net in order to play, so when servers crash, even your solo campaign is brought to a grinding halt. In spite of the constant server maintenance, annoying lag, and abrupt changes made to gameplay, I still had plenty of fun. But the question remains: was Diablo III worth the long wait? (more…)
Diablo III scores biggest PC launch ever
Blizzard has announced that more than 3.5 million copies of Diablo III were sold in its first 24 hours of availability, setting a single-day sales record for PC games in the process. An additional 1.2 million copies of the game were given to World of Warcraft players who signed up for the Annual Pass promotion.
In the week since its launch, more than 6.3 million people have purchased a copy of Diablo III or received one as part of the Annual Pass offer. And that’s not all. The title has taken the South Korea’s Internet game rooms by storm, with a record 39% of all users joining the fight for Sanctuary.
“We’re definitely thrilled that so many people around the world were excited to pick up their copy of Diablo III and jump in the moment it went live,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We also regret that our preparations were not enough to ensure everyone had a seamless experience when they did so. I want to reaffirm our commitment to make sure the millions of Diablo III players out there have a great experience with the game moving forward, and I also want to thank them for their ongoing support.”
I guess you could say that Diablo III has made a lot of “scratch” since it launched.
Diablo III launches with a growing list of errors
Perhaps Blizzard overreached with Diablo III. In development for over four years (and possibly as far back as 2001), the game is more ambitious than anything the series has seen before.
Naturally, that has lead to a variety of error messages plaguing players on the game’s launch day.
Blizzard currently lists five errors in the game’s official forum, with Error 3006 being the most serious. Joystiq describes it as a game-breaking bug that occurs if a player swaps an equipped item with a Templar. After the error occurs, players are unable to log back in to Battle.net, even if they restart the game.
Blizzard is looking into to these errors and will hopefully have a fix ready soon.
Blizzard is still unsure if Diablo III will come to consoles
Remember a few months back when Blizzard “confirmed” that a console version of Diablo III was in the works? Yeah, it turns out that definitive yes may have been less definitive than we were lead to believe.
Speaking to Gamasutra, Director Jay Wilson revealed that the console version is still very much in the theoretical stage and that the developer still isn’t ready to announce it:
Gamasutra: Are you still experimenting and exploring the console version of Diablo III?
JW: Yeah. We haven’t officially announced it, because we’re not “experimenting.” We tell people that basically we’re experimenting, because it helps us hire people. The better people we hire, the better chance we have to actually make it. That’s why we haven’t kept it super secret, but we also haven’t confirmed it, because we’re not sure yet whether we think it will work, and whether we think we have the resources to do it.
I hope they don’t cancel it. I’ll forever wonder if the devil made them do it.
New Releases: Diablo III, Max Payne 3, Game of Thrones, More
It’s finally time to give the devil his due, Diablo III will be available in stores this week. With a whole mess of big releases, this marks the end of the “new game drought” that has been plaguing gamers all throughout the month of April. And Diablo III isn’t even the only long-awaited return this week…
- Max Payne is back for another round of stylized neo-noir action in Max Payne 3 for the PC, PS3, Xbox 360.
- George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones makes the jump to the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 courtesy of Atlus.
- The Test Drive series returns to its roots in Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends (PS3, Xbox 360).
- Rising Star Games makes it US debut with Cave’s sidescrolling shooter Akai Katana (Xbox 360).
- And there’s Battleship, the game-based-on-the-movie-that-was-based-on-the-board-game is now available for the 3DS, DS, PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360.
This week is so chock full of new releases, there’s even more after the break! (more…)
Diablo III Beta Impressions: Your Idle Hands Will Soon Belong to Diablo
For those of us who have been pouting and kicking dirt around, complaining about how Diablo III looked too much like World of Warcraft, or how it was taking oh so long to have a release date, I’ve got some news for you. It’s coming, and it’s spectacular. From what I saw in the beta (that ended May 1) – a beta that comprised roughly 3% of the game, if you can believe what you read on the Internet – I can safely say that I’m about to lose a chunk of my life in the next few weeks. Forget blacking out from drinking: I’m about to go on a full Diablo III binge. (more…)
Diablo III beta is open to all this weekend
Diablo III is less than a month away and Blizzard wants to ensure the launch goes off without a hitch. So this weekend, they’re opening up the game’s beta to everyone so they can “stress test” the servers.
If you haven’t already done so, head over to Battle.net and download the Diablo III beta client now. The open beta weekend begins today at 3 PM (Eastern Time) and will remain accessible until Monday, April 23 at 1 PM (also Eastern Time).
Diablo III has a release date: May 15
According to Blizzard, the end is nigh! Diablo III will be available in stores and online on May 15, 2012.
“After many years of hard work by our development team and months of beta testing by hundreds of thousands of dedicated players around the world, we’re now in the homestretch,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We look forward to putting the final polish on Diablo III over the next two months and delivering the ultimate action-RPG experience to gamers worldwide starting on May 15.”
And if you absolutely can’t wait, Blizzard has begun offering digital pre-orders through the Blizzard.com website.