Diablo III Ships May 15

[Cristian_25H]

The end is nigh! Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that Diablo III, the next chapter in its critically acclaimed action role-playing game series, will be unleashed from the Burning Hells on May 15.

Starting that day, gamers with a thirst for fast-paced action and adventure will be able to purchase Diablo III at retailers throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. In addition, gamers in the regions above as well as in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil will be able to buy Diablo III digitally via Blizzard's Battle.net website.





Players in the listed Latin American countries and in Russia will be able to purchase Diablo III at local retail locations starting June 7. Digital availability for the Russian version of the game will also begin June 7. In addition to the English version, Diablo III will be fully localized into Latin American Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, European Spanish, Italian, Polish, Russian, Korean, and Traditional Chinese.

Blizzard also kicked off global digital presales for Diablo III today. Would-be wizards, witch doctors, demon hunters, barbarians, and monks throughout the world should head to http://www.blizzard.com/games/d3/ now to reserve their digital copies.

"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 cofounder 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."

Diablo III will be available for Windows XP/Windows Vista/Windows 7 and Macintosh at a suggested price of $59.99 USD for both the retail DVD-ROM version and the digital version sold directly from Blizzard. A special alabaster-white Collector's Edition, sold exclusively in retail stores at a suggested retail price of $99.99 USD, will include the full game on DVD-ROM, a behind-the-scenes Blu-ray/DVD two-disc set, the Diablo III soundtrack CD, a 208-page Art of Diablo III book, and a 4 GB USB soulstone (including full versions of Diablo II and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction) and corresponding Diablo skull base, as well as exclusive in-game content for Diablo III, World of Warcraft, and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. Diablo III has received a Mature rating from the ESRB.

World of Warcraft players interested in getting Diablo III free are encouraged to join the more than 1 million players who have already signed up for the World of Warcraft Annual Pass. Through this promotion, with a 1-year commitment to World of Warcraft, players will receive a free digital copy of Diablo III -- which they'll be able to start playing immediately on May 15 -- as well as an exclusive World of Warcraft in-game mount and access to the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria beta test. This offer will no longer be available as of 12:01 a.m. PDT on May 1. Learn more at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/annualpass.

In Diablo III, players take on the role of one of five heroic characters -- barbarian, witch doctor, wizard, monk, or demon hunter -- and engage in pulse-pounding combat with endless legions of evil. As they undertake an epic quest to rid Sanctuary from the corrupting forces of the Burning Hells, players will explore diverse and perilous settings, grow in experience and ability, acquire artifacts of incredible power, and meet key characters who'll join them in battle or aid them in other ways.

Diablo III was built from the ground up to leverage the full functionality of the Battle.net platform, which delivers powerful matchmaking and communication tools, allowing adventurers to seamlessly join forces for exciting cooperative play. Battle.net also provides a secure infrastructure for the Diablo III auction house, a feature-rich marketplace that Sanctuary's heroes can use to trade their hard-earned treasures. Players will be able to buy and sell weapons, armor, and other valuable items in the auction house in exchange for in-game gold. Players will also have the option to receive real-world currency for auction house sales, which they can apply to their Battle.net Balance for the purchase of a variety of digital products through Battle.net, including Diablo III auction house items, or cash out through a third-party payment service such as PayPal in most regions. Further details related to the auction house will be announced in the coming weeks.

For more information on Diablo III, please visit the official website at http://www.diablo3.com. To set up a Battle.net account and to opt-in to Blizzard Entertainment beta tests, please visit the official Battle.net website at http://www.battle.net.

[Jizzler]

Nice! Question is, if I'll go with the digital or Collectors Edition.

[lZKoce]

Finally a date for the world. I personally will pass the original. May be the expansion will bring some cool characters.

[Andrei23]

wow they took their sweet time.

[Kaynar]

As I;ve played the beta I can say that 2 months in enough time for them to finish some fine-tuning and error-fixing that the game still needs. Can't wait.

[yangwangbrock]

OMG OMG OMG.....must stop jizzing my pants...must stop!

[Isenstaedt]

Anyone knows why we have to wait longer for retail?

[yangwangbrock]

Originally Posted by Isenstaedt

Anyone knows why we have to wait longer for retail?

They need time to polish the game, as well as produce CD copies, packaging, etc.

[niko084]

In the summer... #FAIL


Haha, sorry but seriously that's gotta be the worst time for release... I'll be spending my days while I'm not at work at the track or in the garage.

[AlienIsGOD]

downloading the full client now, Annual Pass FTW

[swirl09]

OMGouijisuhgils4geuhs (more to follow)

[Rowsol]

Oh, read that wrong. haha

[Flibolito]

Outstanding.

[Jizzler]

Originally Posted by lZKoce

Finally a date for the world. I personally will pass the original. May be the expansion will bring some cool characters.

Yup, the sooner it's out, the sooner we'll get an expansion, which better bring back a strong pet class!

[Fairlady-z]

Client download going on now lol.... Yeah I can not wait for this game, and I start my 14 day stay cation on the 17th of May. Man this all worked out so perfect lol.

[statix]

wasn't it supposed to be the 14th of April.... damn...

[trickson]

I am glad that they have had all the delays and hold backs. This can only be a good thing for the end user. The first 2 Diablo games are great! I still play Diablo II expansion every day!
I sure hope that it will not come out and be 50-60 bucks for this game, But I know that is just a pipe dream!

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

Lol all of you guys getting super hyped up about a game and its going to be as big of a let down as Duke Nukem Forever.

Reason I say this is because of the annual pass. Pay for a year of wow and you get D3 for free and this promotion is going until May 1, 2012. So blizz is basically saying that they did a shitty job with the game, they're not happy with it, and are willing enough to give it away for free to a LOT of people. Not to mention I read a blue post on the D3 forums that basically said the game sucked.

[trickson]

Originally Posted by CrAsHnBuRnXp

Lol all of you guys getting super hyped up about a game and its going to be as big of a let down as Duke Nukem Forever.

Reason I say this is because of the annual pass. Pay for a year of wow and you get D3 for free and this promotion is going until May 1, 2012. So blizz is basically saying that they did a shitty job with the game, they're not happy with it, and are willing enough to give it away for free to a LOT of people. Not to mention I read a blue post on the D3 forums that basically said the game sucked.

Oh NO! Really?

[Jizzler]

You can't get me down Crash!

I may have only played 1hr of DNF so far, but it's exactly what I expected from it and was happy with it.

In regards to D3, unless the released game is completely different than what is shown in screenshots and video clips, it'll certainly make my top 100 games of the year list

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

Wow $60 for a game missing a large piece of it's content.

[Fairlady-z]

Originally Posted by Jizzler

You can't get me down Crash!

I may have only played 1hr of DNF so far, but it's exactly what I expected from it and was happy with it.

In regards to D3, unless the released game is completely different than what is shown in screenshots and video clips, it'll certainly make my top 100 games of the year list

HAHAHA DNF was pretty fun to be honest I feel guilty saying it. I bought it on a steam sale for like 7 bucks, and I had fun with it. I am about half way done with the game plan on finishing and the DLC. D3 is going to be epic lol. PVP is no big deal, as down the road when it does come out the game will feel fresh again.

[AlienIsGOD]

Originally Posted by [H]@RD5TUFF

Wow $60 for a game missing a large piece of it's content.

LOL, if ur that upset at the PvP not being there on release... find something else :P Co-op is what Diablo has always been about IMO. Maybe you should have played WoW and signed up for the Annual Pass, the game wouldn't cost you anything then

I personally enjoyed what i have seen in the latest Beta release, can't wait for it to go live

[[H]@RD5TUFF]

Originally Posted by AlienIsGOD

LOL, if ur that upset at the PvP not being there on release... find something else :P Co-op is what Diablo has always been about IMO. Maybe you should have played WoW and signed up for the Annual Pass, the game wouldn't cost you anything then

WoW is garbage, it's also NOT diablo, I want the PvP I was promised and was allowed to demo at blizz con, the game should not be shipping without it.

[Fairlady-z]

Originally Posted by AlienIsGOD

LOL, if ur that upset at the PvP not being there on release... find something else :P Co-op is what Diablo has always been about IMO. Maybe you should have played WoW and signed up for the Annual Pass, the game wouldn't cost you anything then

I personally enjoyed what i have seen in the latest Beta release, can't wait for it to go live

agree. I loved the beta and played it for hours and hours. First, Monk and that the doctor can not freakin wait.