All Articles: Diablo III

Blizzard “very, very serious” about bringing Diablo III to consoles

Posted on August 19, 2011 by John Scalzo

The PC version of Diablo III still doesn’t have a release date, but Blizzard has dropped their biggest hint yet that the game is coming to consoles as well.

Speaking at Gamescom, Lead Designer Josh Mosqueira revealed that Blizzard is “is very, very serious about bringing the Diablo III experience to the console.”

This is good news by itself, but Mosqueira would go on to practically confirm the existence of a console version of the game, even going so far as to declare it awesome:

“Today, we’re trying to build the best console team at Blizzard. We’re looking for programmers, designers, artists who think their dream job would be to bring Diablo to the console. Trust me, it is a dream job. All I can say is it’s going to be awesome. Stay tuned.”

Blizzard’s last foray into console development, the stealth action game StarCraft: Ghost, is still officially on “indefinite hold,” but it’s been as good as dead for the last five years.

[Source: Eurogamer]

Posted in News, PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One | Tagged

Blizzard wants to release Diablo III in 2011, won’t commit to a release date

Posted on August 4, 2011 by John Scalzo

Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime took the stage during Activision’s quarterly financial briefing to talk a little more about the developer’s big upcoming game, Diablo III. There’s been a ton of speculation about D3’s release date and Morhaime stoked the fires a little bit by revealing he wants to release the game in 2011. However, he was quick to point out that Diablo III still doesn’t have an official release date:

“Diablo III is still on track to go into external beta testing later this quarter. And we are still working hard to ship the game before the end of the year. However, we’re not ready to commit to a release date at this time.”

After all the hints that the real release date would be sometime in 2012, it would be amazing if Blizzard could get Diablo III out in 2011. But then I remember the rules of being a kid and whenever the adults said “we’ll see” it always meant “no.”

Prove me wrong, Blizzard, prove me wrong.

Posted in News, PC | Tagged

Customize Skills with Runestones in Diablo III

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Mark Casino

Blizzard wants players to be able to have the option to highly customize their characters in Diablo III. In order to accomplish this lofty goal, Blizzard has introduced Runestones. Runestones are used in order to augment your skills. Each class has 20+ Skills and players are allowed access to seven of those Skills at any one time.

There are five types of Runestones: crimson, indigo, obsidian, golden, and alabaster. In addition to the different types of colors, Runestones also come in different ranks of power. The higher the rank, the better effect on the skills it is attached to. Each of the Runestone’s effects vary depending on what skill you actually attach it to. For instance, the crimson Runestone will enhance a barbarian’s Whirlwhind Attack to cause rocks to fly in every direction, dealing area of effect damage. The same crimson Runestone will cause the witch doctor’s Acid Cloud spell to cause immediate damage instead of its original damage over time effect.

To see videos on how Runestones alter your Skills, head on over to the official Diablo III website.

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Activision: No Diablo III in 2011, Call of Duty 8 will be awesome

Posted on May 10, 2011 by John Scalzo

Activision held their quarter financial call yesterday and laid out a few more details about their 2011 slate of games. The company’s executives stressed that any real information about these titles would have to wait for E3, they did reveal a few juicy tidbits of information.

First off, it looks like it’s unlikely that a new Blizzard game will be released in 2011. That means no Diablo III and definitely no StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm. Instead, the publisher’s COO, Thomas Tippl, said to expect both games in 2012: “[O]ur outlook at this time does not include a new game from Blizzard in 2011. Should Blizzard not release a major title this year, we would expect, for planning purposes, to launch a minimum of 2 Blizzard titles in 2012.”

Mike Morhaime, the CEO of Blizzard, was a tad more optimistic, saying the team wants to release Diablo III in 2011, but that they’re not ready to confirm an official release date yet: “The development team is working hard to try and launch Diablo III this year. But I want to be clear that we do not have an official release date or window yet. As always, we will not compromise the quality of the game in order to hit a window.”

While a 2011 release date is still a question mark, A Diablo III beta is being planned for the Summer.

One Activision title that does have a confirmed 2011 release date is the currently unannounced Call of Duty 8. The publisher still hasn’t shared any new information about the next entry in the mega-selling series, but Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing, is pretty convinced it’ll be awesome: “By any measure, Call of Duty is one of the biggest entertainment franchises in the world and we expect this year’s game will set a new standard for this incredible franchise. The creative excellence and sheer scale of the game we are making and the unprecedented online universe that will accompany it will reset the bar for this genre, giving players a new level of immersion, connectivity, community and of course epic action. The game today has exceeded every internal milestone and we look forward to sharing this with you soon.”

Hirshberg also confirmed that a new James Bond game is in the works for 2011. But again, it looks like we’ll have to wait until E3 to learn more about it (and all of these titles).

Posted in News, PC, PS3, Wii, Xbox 360 | Tagged , , , ,

BlizzCon returning in 2011 in Anaheim

Posted on February 7, 2011 by Mike Gutierrez

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, but Blizzard Entertainment announced today that BlizzCon will be returning for its sixth annual extravaganza of tournaments, panels, previews, and overall geeking out for a large segment of our culture. BlizzCon 2011 is returning to the home of the team formerly known as the Mighty Ducks and will be hosted at the Anaheim Convention Center from Friday October 21st to Saturday October 22nd.

This year’s Con will feature hands-on play time with the latest versions of Blizzard Entertainment games, the unveiling of Diablo III‘s fifth and final playable character class (the demon hunter), an epic closing concert featuring Tenacious D and more.

Pricing and ticket availability will be announced as the event draws nearer, but you may want to watch their official website as BlizzCon 2010 sold out within minutes.

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