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."
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For more information, head to the freshly minted Diablo 3 Auction House website, or check out the updated Auction House FAQ.
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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chaosgs I wander how profitable the auction house will be? I used to be a darn good grinder in WOW.Reply -
DroKing Wow who cares? Diablo 3 is trash. please crash and burn already Blizzard. You are a disgrace to entire gaming scene ever since you merged with those dipshts aka Activision.Reply -
tamerlee DroKingWow who cares? Diablo 3 is trash. please crash and burn already Blizzard. You are a disgrace to entire gaming scene ever since you merged with those dipshts aka Activision.Reply
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. -
soccerplayer88 DroKingWow who cares? Diablo 3 is trash. please crash and burn already Blizzard. You are a disgrace to entire gaming scene ever since you merged with those ****** aka Activision.Reply
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. -
fandroid I am curious to see how this auction house does. I don't really see the purpose for a game that most people will finish all content for in under a week and no pvp coming till later in the year.Reply -
If there is gonna be an auction house people can use real money in..... then make it a flappin free to play.Reply
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 ****.
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AntaresX chaosgsI wonder how profitable the auction house will be? I used to be a darn good grinder in WOW.Reply
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. -
of the way fandroidI am curious to see how this auction house does. I don't really see the purpose for a game that most people will finish all content for in under a week and no pvp coming till later in the year.Reply
I don't think 'all content' means what you think it means. -
geminireaper i was working with some friends to develop an MMO and during our planning phase we were going to take full advantage of gold farmers. we figured we sure as hell cant beat them. might as well build a mechanism in game for them to use to insure safe transactions for our players and make a little extra for us.Reply -
jsc :non: Language, children, language. :)Reply
We try really, really hard to run a G-rated forum here.