Blizzard Celebrates Diablo 3 Birthday with Buffs, Soundtrack

Blizzard's action-RPG for the PC Diablo 3 turned a year old on May 15, and to celebrate, the company is slashing the price of the game and offering buffs to all players.

Community manager Lylirra said on Wednesday that over the course of the year, millions of heroes have been created, billions of hours have been spent in games, and trillions of demons have been slaughtered without mercy. "We've grown and improved a lot since release, both as a game team and as a community, and thanks to your feedback, passion, and unquenchable bloodlust, we expect the next year to be even more epic," Lylirra said.

To celebrate the one-year anniversary, Blizzard is handing out free buffs to Diablo 3 players. Those who log in between May 15 and May 21 will receive a 25 percent boost to their Magic Find and +EXP stats. This buff will only be made available while the player is logged in to the game, but will apply to all characters as well as stack with other similar bonuses. The +EXP bonus will stack multiplicatively, and the Magic Find bonus will stack above the 300 percent cap, Lylirra said.

In addition to the birthday buffs, Blizzard is also slashing the price of Diablo 3 down by a third, selling the game for $39.99 until May 21, 2013.

Meanwhile, Blizzard has added the Diablo 15th Anniversary Album to the Blizzard music section of the company's website. This album features 17 tracks pulled from the original soundtrack including the intro theme, Tristram's guitar-laden theme, the background music used in the dungeons and more. Individual tracks are $1.29 USD; the entire album is $11.99 USD.

"We think the game's score is just as atmospheric and haunting now as when it was released (back when our computers had a whopping 16 MB of RAM)," Blizzard states.

Wow. It's been 15 years already? Actually, just over 16 years, as the game was originally released on December 31, 1996. Time flies.

  • nevilence
    This game needs new content, exp and drop boost isnt enough to drag me back on its own.
    Reply
  • Bill Wendel
    The only way I'll play the game is if they put in the offline play. Then I'll go buy it. I won't even play it if it goes free to play but you still have to be online. I want to play when I have no internet. I have other things to do when my internet is up.
    Reply
  • slomo4sho
    You don't celebrate infamy.
    Reply
  • dingo07
    I bought it about 3 months after it was released. I played it for about 3 months and haven't played it since. It's a joke...
    Reply
  • icepick314
    10819234 said:
    I bought it about 3 months after it was released. I played it for about 3 months and haven't played it since. It's a joke...

    joke's on you since you gave your money to Activision/Blizzard...

    I knew this was going to be a joke before the release...

    constant online DRM, auction house that gives Activision/Blizzard cut of EVERY transaction when they don't do squat while the players are doing all the work, uninteresting gameplay, and the price when compared to Torchlight 2 and/or any other point-n-click RPG...

    for those who actually bought the game, hope it was worth $60 for maybe a month of mediocre gameplay at best...
    Reply
  • w0_od
    did not buy it, the always on-line requirement was a red flag to me . The RMAH was basically turning all of blizzards player base into Chinese farmers for Blizzard.
    Reply
  • zodiacfml
    wow, time flies. yet, i couldn't still forget the soundtrack, the sound of drinking potions, scrolls, and the voices of cain and adria.
    Reply
  • schnitter
    25% Magic Find? Let me break that down for you, 25% of 0.0000001 is basically still ZERO.
    Reply
  • laststop311
    Biggest let down ever. Glad i never played past the guest pass.
    Reply
  • g00fysmiley
    I was given the game fro free... played abiout 6 hours total then uninstalled it, myabe i will pick it up later but imo its the worst blizzard title to date
    Reply