Blizzard: Diablo 3 "On The Home Stretch"
Sounds like Diablo 3 could possibly hit store shelves this holiday season.
Diablo 3 fans eager to find out when the game will finally hit store shelves won't discover the answer here. Still, there's a small glimmer of hope that the game could make it into our hands by the end of the year, as Diablo 3 game director Jay Wilson recently stated that the team is "in the home stretch."
"We’re crunching," he told the New York Times. "This is when the magic happens."
Activision Blizzard has already stated that, for now, it doesn't plan to reveal a release date for the highly-anticipated action-RPG in fear of a possible delay that might disappoint eager fans. The company also has no intentions in setting a date and then rushing the game out the door to meet its obligation, sacrificing its overall quality.
In a recent hands-on preview, the New York Times stated that a new trading system was one of the reasons why it has taken so long to develop Diablo 3. Rather than forcing players to advertise items via chat channels, or alt+tab out of the game and sell items to external auction sites, there's indication that Blizzard may incorporate an in-game auction house and trading tools for players to use.
"We’re designing a stable economy, we have the knowledge and experience to do so," Blizzard said last year. "We have people in-house with doctorates and degrees in statistics and economic analysis and all the know how to pull it off."
Diablo 3 may or may not arrive by the end of 2011 for the PC, but we at least now know that the end is in sight. Blizzard is also reportedly working on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, but the company is keeping a tight lip on their potential release.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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aznguy0028 burodsxHere's to hoping gold will have value.It will, one of Blizzard's main concern for D3 was to actually have gold as a stable currency. There are a lot of gold sinks in this game, and from wut i've read so far, it seems to be on the order of magnitudes better than D2 in terms of any form of economy. This will be one of the biggest game launches in history, I'm sure Blizzard wont' mess it up ;)Reply -
srgess I heard why its taking so long is to make a goat level and they can't decide on the perfect goat soundReply -
Pherule I wouldn't mind them using a copper/silver/gold currency system. In D2 you'd have hundreds of thousands of gold coins, and tbh that is somewhat unrealistic and makes gold seem like dirt.Reply
Having silver worth about triple or four times the value of gold in D2 would be nice, and then have the actual D3 gold worth 10 or 20 times more per coin. -
tommysch everlast66Will LAN or will not LAN?This is the question?Reply
This is not a rts. I was a hardcore D2 player and I dont see the point. Non-legit characters? lol -
uuicked Cabal and Everquest 1 are only two games I've played that use a very simple auction system for selling items in game without having to use shouts and massive tells. To say that held up the game process as if they were inventing something that has not already been in use for years is laughable. They are slow on getting this game out the door because Blizzard has too many hit games now that WoW, Diablo's 1 and 2, and the original Starcraft have received such good reviews. Way to go on making great games but now employ the staff to keep up with the demand! Diablo 3 is taking as long to come out as Duke Nukem Forever or Jumpgate EvolutionReply