Diablo III Coming on May 15
by Craig Getting on March 15, 2012 9:29 AM ESTAfter a few delays and many recitations of Blizzard's "We'll release it when it's ready" mantra, Diablo III finally has a release date: May 15th. On that date, Blizzard's click-heavy action RPG will be available on PC and Mac for $59.99 USD in almost every region. Latin American and Russian players will need to wait until June 7th.
Digital presales for Diablo III start today, World of Warcraft players interested in picking up a free copy may still do so by purchasing a WoW Annual Pass before May 1st.
For interested parties, Blizzard will also be selling a Diablo III Collector’s Edition for $99.99. The retail exclusive package includes a behind-the-scenes Blu-ray/DVD set, a soundtrack CD, a 208-page art book, and a 4GB USB trinket carrying full versions of Diablo II and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. It will also come with exclusive content for Diablo III, World of Warcraft, and Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty – most likely in-game items along the lines of a WoW minipet.
The press release touts Diablo III’s real money auction house and robust Battle.net-based matchmaking, yet it makes no mention of the planned player-versus-player arena. This is likely because Diablo III will be launching without it. “The PvP game and systems aren’t yet living up to our standards,” Blizzard’s Jay Wilson wrote on Battle.net last week. “After a lot of consideration and discussion, we ultimately felt that delaying the whole game purely for PvP would just be punishing to everyone who’s waiting to enjoy the campaign and core solo/co-op content.”
Source: Blizzard
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minijedimaster - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
+1 for torchlight 2claytontullos - Saturday, March 17, 2012 - link
Have you checked out Grim Dawn?http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedd...
minijedimaster - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
Obligatory: Online always requirement for single player pass on this game comment.Exodite - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/8/8/mcnabney - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
I'm skipping it too. I also skipped ME3 because of Origin. There is plenty of competition out there. I'm actually disappointed in Diablo 3. It looks just like the 12 year old arcade game Gauntlet Legends.Exodite - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
I don't see how you got that I'm skipping Diablo II from that strip?FWIW I am, since I skipped the first two and it's not really my genre of game, but I merely posted this because I find the rage over 'always-online DRM' to be hilarious.
If any title I play must have DRM then I'd prefer it to be that kind. No third party launchers, no disk checks, no limited activations.. just a sign-in and that's it.
MMOs do it right IMO.
Exodite - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
Diablo III even.cknobman - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
WTF happened to $49.99 for PC games!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Bateluer - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
They make more money charging 59.99 and creating a shorter game. Combine this with most customers proving they're willing to pay 59.99, and there you go.zanon - Thursday, March 15, 2012 - link
First, $10 is dirt, it's honestly weird seeing people get so uptight about it. Games remain one of the best $/hour entertainment values in existence, it's really incredible. A trip to the movie theatre at this point can easily be $10-12 for an average two hour show. Movie rentals aren't any better. Books (novel, average 500 pages say, average 250 words per page, average reading rate at around 175 WPM) can do better then a short game, and be around a medium one. But for an RPG, sandbox, shmup, fighter, and similar it's easy to sink 50-100 hours or more into one game. Even at full price, let alone on sale or used, that makes videogames a pretty amazing value IMO.More fundamentally though, it's 2012 in case you haven't noticed, not 2000. Inflation means that yes, prices do in fact go up. Go take a look at one of the inflation calculators available online, the government maintains one, as do others:
http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
Take that, $50 in 2000 has the buying power of around $66 in 2012. So at $60, game prices haven't even gone up, they've actually gone down. People like you who don't understand that (and/or are just cheapskates) and want the latest stuff produced not even for the same price, but for LESS, are a major part of the reason developers feel like they have to do DLC.