Blizzard Announces Diablo III

During the opening ceremonies of its Worldwide Invitational tournament event in Paris, developer Blizzard Entertainment officially unveiled Diablo III, the latest title in the company's action RPG franchise. It is in development for PC and Mac. Expectation for the announcement was running high this week, largely due to a cryptic splash screen on Blizzard's official site that saw incremental changes daily. The title will be the first new release in the Diablo franchise since Diablo II, which launched eight years ago to the day, and its 2001 expansion pack Lord of Destruction. Previous Diablo games were developed by now-defunct studio Blizzard North, many staff members of which departed the company in 2003 to form various dev houses including Hellgate: London creator Flagship Studios. Blizzard stated that Diablo III will feature a customized version of Havok physics that will allow for "realistic object dynamics and cloth simulation" and destructible environmental elements. The game's multiplayer component will operate via Battle.net, Blizzard's online service that launched with the original Diablo in 1997 and has served every Blizzard title since, with the exception of MMO World of Warcraft. The move suggests Diablo III will be a free-to-play title like its predecessors, and not a subscription-based game as some had speculated. As is typical for Blizzard announcements, no release date was given. The game is likely to ship after StarCraft II, which likewise has yet to receive a public date. According to Blizzard statement released after the unveiling, "It's too early to estimate Diablo III's release date. We intend to take as much time developing Diablo III as is necessary to ensure the game meets our own high expectations and those of our players." The company expects to ship both the PC and Mac version of Diablo III simultaneously worldwide.