Diablo III launching on May 15, presales now open

Highly anticipated Blizzard Entertainment action RPG Diablo III will launch worldwide on May 15, with presales of the game now available via the official website. The third in the popular RPG series has been a long time coming, with Diablo II released back in 2000. Diablo III will be a key 2012 release for Activision Blizzard's fiscal year. Diablo III will also continue some of the Battle.net features incorporated into StarCraft II, including Real ID integration, which offers a persistent friends list and cross-game chat for players to communicate across other Blizzard titles. The upcoming game also caused quite a stir last year when it was revealed that it will include a player-driven, real money transaction-powered economy. Those interested in pre-ordering the game can do so immediately, the World of Warcraft developer has announced. The company plans to use these last couple of months to put "final polish" on the game, which will be available for Windows PC and Mac. The company also noted that World of Warcraft players can receive Diablo III for free by purchasing a World of Warcraft Annual Pass -- these free copies will be given out on May 15.