Diablo 3 Scheduled For Early 2012

The much anticipated Diablo III is scheduled to be out in Q1 of 2012 now, according to Battle.net. The 2011 launch window has been disregarded, much to the chagrin of the millions of eager fans. Even though they have repeatedly said the game was due to launch "soon" this shouldn't come as a surprise for anything done by Kotick, or Blizzard. Their quality and polishing standards are second to none when it comes to their games.

We commonly use the term “soon” when referring to Blizzard releases, because we know that no matter how hard we’re working to reach a target, we’re not going to compromise and launch a game before it’s ready. - Mike Morhaime of Battle.net

 Source: Battle.net

Torchlight 2 Priced At $20

Castrum - Runic Games has officially announced pricing for Torchlight 2, their Diablo-clone game that manages to make Diablo 3 look late-to-the-party.

$20 will get you a strong single-player dungeon crawler campaign, online and LAN co-op, and the ability to play single-player offline (which, sadly, actually is a feature these days). It would appear Torchlight 2 lacks co-op for more than 2 players, though some co-op rather than none is always welcome in a dungeon crawler.

Source: Joystiq

Order BlizzCon 2011, Get A Free Diablo Murloc In WoW

Castrum - For those of you who are crazy for Blizzard's games, this is certainly an added bonus. As well, it would also appear you get an in-game Starcraft 2 gift as well.

Personally, I find paying $40.00 to stare at people playing Diablo 3 a bit ridiculous, but to each his own.

(Full disclosure: I paid that $40.00 last year just to get the Deathwing Murloc. I planned on watching some BlizzCon stuff, but I got distracted. Complete waste of money.)

Source: Battle.net

Blizzard Seriously Considering Diablo 3 On Consoles

Castrum - I'm not sure which version I would get if this happened: 

At Blizzard Entertainment's Gamescom press conference, Diablo III lead designer Josh Mosqueira said the developer is "very, very serious" about bringing some undefined "experience" to platforms beyond the PC and Mac.

"Today, we're trying to build the best console team at Blizzard," Mosqueira said during a Q&A session. "We're looking for programmers, designers and artists who think their dream job would be to bring Diablo to the console."

While neither announcing nor confirming Diablo III for a Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo console platform, Mosqueira promised "All I can say is it's going to be awesome. Stay tuned."

http://kotaku.com/5831943/blizzard-is-very-very-serious-about-diablo-for-consoles

Diablo 3 Beta Announced

Castrum - I'll certainly be trying to get in on this:

Diablo III's beta will hit by September, hopefully before, Blizzard game director Jay Wilson said during a Gamescom press conference today. When's the game coming out? "When it's ready." Got it?

http://kotaku.com/5831780/diablo-iii-beta-will-begin-by-september-still-no-final-release-date

Blizzard Implementing "Cash-For-Items" Scheme In Diablo III

Developer	Blizzard Entertainment
Release Date	To Be Announced

MjolnirX - Blizzard has recently announced a new type of Auction House for its newest iteration of the Diablo franchise. This new AH will feature weapons and armor available for purchase using real money. This will run alongside (though separately) with the traditional auction houses like World of Warcraft's that use in-game currency.

Like the World of Warcraft auction houses, Diablo's cash-only AH will require the user to pay a fee to put an item up for sale, then they will be required to pay a transaction fee when the item is sold. The seller may then keep the money on his (or her) account for use in-game or for other Blizzard products, or cash-out with yet-another fee attached. The fees are at this moment still being negotiated, though I'm sure on such a grand scale, and with such a dedicated fan base, that it won't matter. At all.

This poses a scary situation. I can see many people, especially a few friends I know, making this a full-time job. I'm already picturing my friends trying to make a living off of playing and selling items in-game. I suppose it remains to be seen how much in-game items will cost. Blizzard has a tendency of pumping out some really expensive, rare or even one-off items that may end up costing hundreds or thousands on the new marketplace. After all, Blizzard will profit off of every item sold.

I'm not liking what this game is implying for the future of games. Microtransactions seems to be the way of the future. Look at games like Farmville (or any Zynga, or even any Facebook game), any iOS game, and many Xbox 360 or PS3 games like Record of Agarest War, where in-game purchases will give you an edge over the average Joe pinch-penny. The era of fair, balanced gaming is over. Hail your new king, Disposable-Income Man.