Diablo 3 beta leaked

There’s a leaked video from the Diablo 3 beta! There isn’t much to see apart from the classes in Diablo 3.

Diablo 3 is probably on track for a 2011 release - nothing short of AMAZING!

Diablo 3 official beta

Gamescom attracts quite a few game journalists, so it’s the logical place for all kinds of official announcements: from DOTA2 to … Diablo 3 beta.

Reports Kotaku:

Diablo III’s beta will hit by September, hopefully before, Blizzard game director Jay Wilson said during a Gamescom press conference today.

When’s the game coming out? “When it’s ready.”

Not surprisingly, Jay’s consistent with Blizzard’s “when it’s ready” party line. So it remains to be seen if they are going to hit the 2011 release date.

Diablo 3 beta release

Diablo 3 beta is probably just a few weeks away.

Blizzard has already finalized the box art for Diablo 3 beta, so that you can select it in your Battle.net account as part of the beta selection process.

Btw, if you still haven’t signed up for the beta, go to your Battle.net account now.

In addition to the Diablo 3 box art, Blizzard’s PR machine has roared to life, announcing a press tour starting August 1.

According to MMO Champion, it’s the same pattern as with Cataclysm – the beta release date is probably 2 weeks away... the greatest day for all game sites about Diablo.

Diablo coming in 2012? No way!

Have you been reading blogs in the last couple of days? Then you must be alarmed. No, Diablo is coming out in 2011. Or so says none other than Rob Pardo:

“We really, really hope so. That’s our goal,” Pardo said. “Our goal is to get there. But you know, at the end of the day, we are going to get it right. That’s more important. We’re going to promise, we’re going to get it out there when the game is awesome. And, we’re crossing our fingers, maybe it will be this year.”

Now, there... and forget about Joystiq and their drivel.

Diablo beta

Check out Blizzard’s leaked schedule. According to it, Diablo 3 will be released sometime before Christmas. So when can we expect the beta?

First of all, make sure you have OPTED IN for the Diablo 3 beta. Here’s the steps:

Sign up for a battle.net account
If you have a Battle.net account, login here.
You’ll see a link Beta Profile Settings
You might have to download an app that will upload your system specs
You’re done

OK, so back to the question of WHEN. Using Starcraft’s beta, it should be about 6 months before the official release date. So that means summer 2011 will be the summer of Diablo 3.

Diablo 3 production plans

You’ve probably heard that Blizzard’s production schedule was leaked (source: MMO Champion). It’s rumored to have been leaked by an anonymous, yet authoritative source.

Looking at past releases, the schedule is spot on: Battle.net 2.0, Starcraft 2, WoW mobile, Cataclysm. A good idea is listening to the Blizzard's investor call conference and figure out where the overlap is.

What does that mean for Diablo 3 and its release date? First, we confirm that 2011 remains the target date. On the negative side, it seems they are targeting the holiday season, so November or Decemeber 2011.

Some of you have attended Blizzcon 2010 and 1000 beta keys will go to Blizzcon attendees.
Remember to fill in your email in the form below and you’ll get an immediate notification when Blizzard announces.

Diablo 3 upcoming release

Since I first started writing this blog some 4 years ago, I had days when I thought Blizzard has totally forgotten the http://www.maxfreak.com/diablo2/“>Diablo 2 success, high on their WoW profits.

As 2010 draws to an end, Diablo 3 finally looks close enough for us Diablo fans to have a reason for celebration. In just a few weeks, it will be 2011 – the year that Diablo 3 will finally be released. With Starcraft 2 and their new mmo in the works, Blizzard’s marketing will be able to focus on their step-child franchise.

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Get into the Diablo 3 beta!

Note: You only get ONE email, when Blizzard announces the Diablo 3 beta.

Diablo 3 hero customization

Now, Diablo is officially an RPG, so some degree of character personalization is expected. Not so, if you ask Bashiok, your (not so) favorite Blizzard community manager:

Official Blizzard Quote:
We’re focusing on customization through items as they can be seen better from how far away the camera is from the character.

OK, so no character customization except for items. I guess I can live with that, just promise me this will speed up development, so you’re ready for 2011 release!

700 Diablo 3 Skills??

I remember a game designer who said that a great fantasy game has a few mechanics (skills) that result in infinite combinations, like chess for example.

Diablo 3 is obviously taking the opposite approach: an infinite number of skills that accomplish the same thing – reduce mob’s HP.

Official Blizzard Quote:

Amount of skills in Diablo III, with all player runestone variants included, is currently topping 700…

It’s staggering really, even to me still. Those are all unique in their visuals too, which is important to note. Sure some of them may be simple color shifts but most of them are unique mechanics with completely unique visual effects. It’s crazy. Big up to our effects guys.

A Diablo 3 demo will be playable at Blizzcon 2010, so we’ll see if ALL 700 skills make sense.

New MMORPG Riftforge Announced

Riftforge Entertainment Ltd. today announced the development of Riftforge, an ambitious fantasy online role-playing game. It challenges massively multiplayer online game conventions with deep, tactical combat, adding a significant element of player skill. Hundreds of thousands of players will be able to cooperate and compete on an unprecedented scale, thanks to a new web technology platform.

PRWEB: Upstart MMORPG Riftforge To Challenge Genre Conventions