To be scrupulously fair we’ve now made it work on a random basis, so that you when the clock counts down you hit the button and you have the same random chance as everybody else to win a key – it’s the only way that really works. Of course you can also follow us on Twitter @CVG_UK for another chance. It’s a lottery for sure, but better than no chance at all, huh?

It’s a slim chance, but people do win. Don’t believe us? There’s a list of current winners below by CVG user name, and we’ll keep publishing them here as we give them out. Winners have also commented here and on Facebook check them out.

Still, we’ve learned a lot and it’s been kind of fun, in a masochistic, beat your face against the keyboard, feel the pain kind of way – and we now have the biggest, best and baddest ass beta key mechanism in the business.

And you know what? We’re going to do it all again next month, not with Diablo but with something different… So watch this fricking space

 rather  the developing  of auction house   which  aiming at selling items  and gears in desperately need of  someone else  need have some other aspect  to improved:to aviod any devaluation,deflation,inflation ,and prevent  the  diablo 3 gold exploitated by some other unlegally hacker or memmbers owned by southern asia corporation

 

  

 

I think it’d be healthy for both the uninformed players and the economy, if those uninformed players were to hurl themselves against higher difficulties and spend their gold reserves on repairs. Then they’re faced with a similar scenario as the wow player in need of repair money: earn or buy. However you can buy gold legally in Diablo 3, if you so choose.

Looking at the problem from another angle – gold selling is still in rude health in World of Warcraft (I’ve not heard anything different) in spite of attempts to remove the hackers and farmers who acquire that gold; in spite of the inflation caused by 3 (soon 4) expansions; in spite of access to add ons that pretty much earn gold for you on the auction house; and in spite of the player base having 6 years to get to grips with a (arguably) simple, single currency economy. There’s still a demand for gold. Of course, the amount you can now get for $5/£5 is now greater than vanilla.

This is the type of inflation Diablo 3 will suffer from – it’s an inflation that can’t be avoided. Expansions bring the need for more challenges and therefore more rewards. More rewards come in the form of better items and more gold. More gold entering the economy is inflation.

Hyperinflation (or as close to that as you can get in a digital economy) is what would be more troublesome. This would be characterised (for example) by a Keen Wand of the Hawk being 700 gold at launch then climbing (as gold loses value/players gather large fortunes of gold) to 70,000 gold.

But I am not convinced Diablo 3 gold will devalue to the point where it’s worthless. As I mentioned above, Blizzard have the tools to counteract this. They control how much gold enters the economy. Totally. Players can farm and actively pursue gold but they’re simply ‘mining’ it out of Sanctuary. Farming it. Blizzard are omnipotent. They set the amount of the resource that exists in the world. The amount you can gain in total and the amount that is required (through gold sinks) to keep playing the game in the manner you like 

With Diablo 3 coming out May 15th, it’s time for analysts to start piling on as they predict how well the anticipated title from Activision-Blizzard will sell.

Analyst firm Cowen & Company estimates that the title will sell 5M in its first year, which I’d say is a fair bet given that the other games in the series have sold 20M total to date. Not estimated is the possible revenue from the “real money” item auction house system that Blizzard takes a cut of. It could be a huge cash source for them, or the system might not be as popular as they think. Before we know how it works, it’s too early to tell.

The analysts contribute 1M of the 5M in sales to a package deal where Blizzard is offering a free copy of Diablo 3 to those who buy a year-long subscription to World of Warcraft. It may sell, but gamers might have to stop and think whether they have time for both WoW and Diablo, both of which can be exceptionally time consuming games. Diablo, unlike WoW, does not have a monthly subscription model. At least not yet.

It’s looking to be a big year for Activision-Blizzard, as in addition to Diablo 3, there are also expansions for both World of Warcraft and Starcraft 2 out this year as well. And then of course, there’s the annual Call of Duty cash bomb, as even if Black Ops 2 doesn’t set another consecutive record, it will still be a huge haul for the company. 

Since the day when Blizzard declared to release around 600 employees of it, fear ran across Diablo fans about possibilities that the company would postpone the release dates of Diablo 3. But to the contrast of what the game lovers presumed, the company announced that the sending off of the employees won’t hamper the release of the game in any way. The announcement came out to be good news to the game lovers, as the game’s release already suffered various setbacks earlier.

But the setback to real game lovers lies in the situation where hundreds of technical developers’ job is at stake. It’s weird to imagine now that the brains involved in making of the game for years, are now experiencing a tough phase in their career. So is it justified to think about the release of the game, when
so many worthy brains behind the game are at stake?

Blizzard’s President, Mike Morhaime gave oversized manpower as the excuse for the release of the staffs, and concluded that the team would be hardly affected with the layoff. With reference to the presumed release date of Diablo 3 coming in by the end of first quarter of the year, Morhaime was found to be optimistic regarding some details about the game’s release to be announced in the coming weeks. Moreover, some changes including upgrades and streamlining too were observed during the last week. This means the company has pulled its socks up to release Diablo 3 soon 

The last thing I would wish to do before dying will be to see an official launch of the Diablo III.

It has been ages since the release of its predecessor Diablo II and more than three years since the official announcement of the next iteration but every time we expect Blizzard reaching near the release of the Diablo III, some rumor or announcement pops out of nowhere and delays the title.

Recently we heard an announcement from the team at Blizzard that they are going to make some major alterations to the game’s system after receiving feedback from the testers and beta. This announcement was made on the official website of Diablo III.  Diablo II was really a game of its kind and that is what the developers are trying to deliver for their next title.

So what are the tweaks and changes the team is looking forward to?

While the major changes are being made to the rune and skill system and they have not been disclosed, there are some changes that have officially been announced by the developers.

These include removal of Scrolls of Identification. For the potions, a dedicated quickslot button has been introduced and Mystic and her Enhancement system no longer exist.

The Cauldron of Jordan and Nephalem Cube has been removed and your inventory screen will also show your stats and also the Town Portal, previously called Stone of Recall, is now accessible from the UI.

So these are some of the changes that have been made but more changes mean more delays. 

 

Very soon Blizzard Games will be unveiling the high-octane and highly anticipated Diablo 3 to the world and the hype around this game is massive as the previous parts of the game had always received a good response. Thus year Blizzard has fixed the launch of the game on May 15th, 2012 and the date has been totally finalized.

An analyst from Cowen and Company by the name Doug Creutz has made a revelation owing to the build up around the game that it would easily sell more than five million copies by the end of this fiscal. Along with Diablo 3, Blizzard is planning to release two more of its games and thus this year might be highly productive for Blizzard Games. Jay Wilson who happens to be the director of the game revealed that the game was made to run through many tests and improved and now the final version is slated to be launched in May. Such was the impact of the game on the developers that Wilson jokingly says that the people behind the designing of the game spent hours and hours playing Diablo 3 and are very proud of the game that they have designed for all the Diablo enthusiasts. 

In the midst of all the Diablo 3 news, Blizzard has stunned the media with a grim announcement: Blizzard has fired 600 people.

The reason for the layoff is unclear but Blizzard stated that the World of Warcraft team will not be affected. I think they meant that the live (development) team will not be affected, because it’s pretty obvious where the cuts will be the deepest – WoW’s customer support and community services.

Considering that Blizzard had added 5000 people to handle WoW’s unprecedented success in terms of customer support, it stands to good reason that now that their subscription numbers are suffering (2 million lost), they will reduce the support staff accordingly.

The real question is whether this will delay Diablo 3 even further. Mike Morhaime was quick to state the company is “continuing to develop, iterate, and polish Blizzard DOTA, Diablo 3, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, as well as other, unannounced projects.”

I guess he listed them in order of release. The DOTA (custom Starcraft 2 map) will probably come out in April-May with Diablo hopefully following in June. It remains to be seen if this is more smoke and mirrors from Mike – after all, he said they are doing EVERYTHING they can to release Diablo 3 in 2011. Obviously, “everything” was not enough. 

 

Diablo 3 will, unsurprisingly, sell like hot cakes according to multiple games industry analysts.

Published on Mar 22, 2012

Diablo 3’s release date of 15 May is edging ever closer, and while the game’s launch will be the culmination of impossibly high anticiaption levels from fans, sales will reflect the hype according to numerous games industry analysts.

Wedbush Securities’ Michael Pachter thinks Diablo 3, which is available to pre-buy on Battle.net, and can be pre-ordered elsewhere from 10 April will have a particularly strong launch.

“I’m sure Diablo 3 will sell very well, probably 2 – 3 million the first month and 5 million or more overall,” he told NowGamer.

Eric Handler at MKM Partners thinks likewise, suggesting 5 million units shipped during Diablo 3’s “first quarter of release,” or by August.

Cowen & Company company analyst Doug Creutz was the first to suggest the 5 million figure last week, but it seems like an increasingly realistic figure for Blizzard’s action RPG, and will mark an impressive single-format launch if the developer/publisher can pull it off. 

 

What to do If you win

Here’s Blizzard’s detailed instructions on what to do if you’re lucky enough to win a key:

Diablo III Beta Test Invitation (Key Claim)

Getting Started

1. Log in to Battle.net.

2. Click on the “Account” button.

3. Select the “Add a Game” button.

4. Enter your Diablo III beta key and select the “Activate Game” button.

5. Verify your age.

6. Select Windows or Mac as your operating system to download the beta client.

7. Select “Run” when the installation .exe pop-up box appears. 

Are you one of the lucky gamers who has been playing Blizzard’s beta for Diablo III? If so, we want to know what you think!

You can tell us whatever you like, but any or all of the following would be good to touch on:

 

Does it live up to expectations?

 

What do you like most about it?

 

What you like least about it?

 

What do you think of the new skill system?

 

How about the skill runes?

 

The enemies?

 

The visuals?

 

The sound?

 

The character classes?

We want to know what’s blowing you away, and what’s disappointing you (if anything), in other words. So if you’ve been playing the beta, you can submit your thoughts in the comments below, or send us an email, and we’ll compile some of the most interesting and insightful feedback into a feature on Diablo III, driven by IGN’s community.

With the game’s release date in sight, there’s no better time to put together the definitive community impressions of this highly-anticipated title!