Diablo 3 Will Have Global Play, Says Blizzard
Gamers will be able to play on Diablo 3 servers outside their region. Plus, Blizzard has updated the website with a new Auction House guide.
Blizzard said on Tuesday that the upcoming action-RPG game Diablo 3 will support global play. This means fans will be able to hack away on game servers in regions outside their own -- with a few restrictions of course -- using Battle.net’s new Global Play functionality. All global servers will be grouped into three distinct game regions: The Americas, Europe and Asia.
"In general, players will create characters and play in their 'home' region, which is determined by where they live (specifically, the country of residence registered to their Battle.net account)," Blizzard explained in an email. "Global Play gives players the ability to switch to any of the other game regions via the in-game options menu, either before or after they log in to the game."
The drawback is that characters, items, and friends lists will not transfer across regions. Instead, gamers visiting a different region's servers will be creating characters and friends lists specifically for that region, and they’ll be accessing the gold-based auction house for that region as well.
"Players will only have access to the real-money auction house (where applicable) when playing in their 'home' game region," the company said. "That means that, for characters outside of your home region, items cannot be bought or sold in any real-money auction house. The focus of Global Play is simply to give you the ability to play Diablo 3 together with your friends in any region."
For more information on Global Play in Diablo 3, see the FAQ.
In addition to the Global Play news, Blizzard said it updated the Diablo 3 web site with a comprehensive Auction House guide that walks users through the ins and outs of Diablo 3’s in-game item marketplace. The tour includes details on buying and selling, a breakdown of how the real-money auction house works (in regions where available), and more.
"The gold-based auction house opens its doors worldwide on May 15 with the launch of Diablo 3, and we plan to bring the real-money auction house online approximately one week after that," Blizzard said. "This is a new service that includes lots of complex elements, so we are going to take a little extra time to ensure the game gets off to a good start before we flip the switch and open the real-money auction house for business."
For more information, head to the freshly minted Diablo 3 Auction House website, or check out the updated Auction House FAQ.
Activision and Blizzard operate separately. They don't have a say in what one or the other does. They merged for the financial benefits kind of like how someone would marry someone in the military for health insurance.
Well if your going to be pissed off at someone, then do it correctly. Vivendi own both Blizzard and Activision. Activision literally has no power to tell Blizzard what to do. They pull from themselves, but they don't tell each other what to do.
You can always go back and play Diablo 2. I heard there is a ladder reset May 2nd.
Get over yourselves blizzard. You may have ruined once a good thing. And like the guy above me said. Activision and EA games ruin everything. (That should be EA's new logo instead of challang everything)
These companies pump out more ****** games than a sanitary sewer cleans out the ****.
I'm wondering the same. Though, since they're opening it up for anyone to play on US servers, I'm imagining the prices will be significantly lower for gold and gear. I mean I'm sure the career gold/gear farmers would have found a way to get in anyway, but this just seems like an open invitation. Blizzard figured out how to pimp gold farmers for profit.
I don't think 'all content' means what you think it means.
We try really, really hard to run a G-rated forum here.
That is not correct. RPG games can be very good... it's just Diablo III that appears to be sucking.
However, I'll hold my decision if it sucks or not until final version is out. The demo was way too short for any fair decision... however, to be honest I didn't like it. Maybe the final will be better.
They may be seperate, but when Vivendi purchased Activision from Bobby Kotick, the man who ruined Activision's reputation, they made him CEO of Activision Blizzard, so in fact, the person who brought Activision into disgrace among gamers is indeed boss of Blizzard.
For those who think Kotick has no say so over Blizzard, keep in mind, Vivendi made Blizzard a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. While Mike Morhaime may be CEO of Blizzard, Bobby Kotick is still his boss since Kotick is the CEO of the company that owns Blizzard.
Also, if you check the corportate structure, Activision is actually considered the parent company as well.
Vivendi bought Activision from Bobby Kotick. They then merged Activision and Blizzard to form Activision Blizzard and placed Kotick as CEO of this new company. Activision is also the parent company in the partnership.
While Blizzard retained it's corporate identity, that only means they were not dissolved in the manner Sierra was. Blizzard is still a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. This means they are owned by Activsion Blizzard which means that Bobby Kotick, the man who destroyed Activision's reptation does indeed run Blizzard. Morhaime may be CEO of Blizzard, but Kotick is still his boss.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision_Blizzard
"Bobby Kotick, once head of Activision, was announced to become President and CEO of Activision Blizzard"
"The merger makes Activision parent company of Vivendi Games' former divisions"
Have you ever played diablo 2? Pvp was a after thought no one really Pvped. Content wont take 1 week to clear. Def the first difficulty, but no one is going to be lvl 60 cleared thru all the modes with the best gear.
that is the goal of the real money AH. there will always be gold/item sellers. blizzard just provided a safer method for those buyers.
You can buy it for gold as well. As I understand you can buy and sell gold for money, and you can be part of any AU. So, you can cell your own stuff and buy more rare stuff, no problem. ALL of it without using money, just gold.
THIS IS THE REASON WHY BLIZZARD SUCK. go ahead downthumb me again blizzard PRS and blind fanboys. continue sucking that ----licious flavored popsicle.
Boy... if you wanna keep posting here, lay off the drugs.