If you have gotten past the various error codes that are threatening the game’s launch right now, there’s a good chance that you are fully immersed in the new game and loving every minute of it. On the status of whether console players will be able to enjoy Diablo 3 in the future though, an element of new doubt has been cast, with Blizzard playing down continued speculation that a console version is coming.

Aside from limited resources, Wilson has also told GamaSutra that they are not even ‘experimenting’ on the game yet, hinting that they are in the process of hiring the correct team to actually start experimenting on the game. This seemingly shoots down the possibility of the game being unveiled on console at E3 next month and it’s obviously a big blow for those on Xbox 360 or PS3 who had hoped to be playing the game as soon as possible.

A lot of people are saying how it wouldn’t be possible anyway due to the difficulties in bringing the control scheme over to console. Having said that, it surely isn’t impossible for a development team at Blizzard to find ways around this, so perhaps they are just trying to downplay the rumors as much as they can. We still think Diablo 3 is coming to console – we’ll just have to wait a good while to see it.

Are you still hoping that the game comes to console, or do you think Diablo belongs and should remain a PC-franchise only?

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For those of you that aren’t aware, the beta for Diablo III has been open since September, although gaining access into the test has proved very difficult, even for those who have been loyal Diablo players since the franchise started in 1996.

Those of you who have managed to in however, we’re guessing that you have now played the game to death and are waiting for the full release on May 15th. With this in mind, Blizzard has now stepped up and announced that the beta will be closing on May 1st, so if you do have a key still you better get playing before you’re booted from the servers.

In a message on the Blizzard blog, the developer has thanked those who have took the time to test the game and have said that they they’ve done an ‘admirable job’ with the feedback greatly received in this ‘critical phase of development’.

Did you manage to get in to the beta? There doesn’t appear to be any easy routes in from what we see, so it looks like a missed opportunity now with just a few weeks to go until release. What class are you going to choose when the full game does come out?

UPDATE: We’re hearing whispers that upon announcing a closure date for the beta, Blizzard has actually opened up the beta to everyone with a Battle.net account. Have you managed to get into the beta today? Leave us a comment if you have been successful or not.

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After a prolonged wait, we’re pleased to hear that Blizzard has now slapped a May 15 date this year for the game on PC. What’s better is that there is no region restrictions either – all markets will release the game on the very same date so gamers can get their Diablo 3 fix on a global scale.

If you have already decided that the game is a must buy for you, you can pre-order the game now through Blizzard’s pre-purchase program on Battle.net. However to take advantage of this, you’ll need to be in possession of a Battle.net account, so now maybe be the perfect time to register.

The game has finally been given a solid launch date, which is obviously a great thing, but we’re still a little disappointed to see that Blizzard remain silent on a console version of the game. It seems inevitable that an Xbox 360 and PS3 version is coming after Blizzard’s own community manager spilled the details, but perhaps the game is simply not ready yet and they prefer to give this a separate announcement. If that is the case, we wouldn’t be surprised if Blizzard appeared at this year’s E3 2012 to announce a console version for the end of 2012.

Another pressing question is when can we expect PVP combat to feature in the game now that we know it won’t be available for the May 15 launch. Interestingly, Blizzard has added on their website that pre-purchasing the game now will result in an encrypted version of the game which will become available to download, but obviously locked until the May 15 date. Let us know if you plan to get the game straight away, or if you prefer to see if there is a console version instead.

Would Diablo 3 be better on PC or console for you?

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Before you start tearing your hair out, rest assured that PVP (player vs player) combat is coming to Diablo III in the near future, just not at launch. Lead designer for the game Jay Wilson has stated on the official boards that PVP games and systems are ‘not living up to our expectations’ at the moment and for that reason, this feature will now be implemented into the game via a patch after the game is out.

Although it is disappointing that a feature originally designed for the game at launch will not be coming out, you can understand Blizzard’s reasoning for this as they don’t want PVP to be the sole reason for another delay to the game. Fans had already been expecting Diablo III to release during the first quarter of this year, but it has now been confirmed that the game will release in Q2 of 2012 instead.

On the plus side of things, Wilson has told fans that they can expect to see a ‘truly epic’ campaign mode and co-op experience at launch when the game finally releases, with both features nearing completion according to Blizzard.

What are your thoughts on the exclusion of PVP at launch? Is this a big issue for you, or are you not bothered about getting PVP in a future patch as long as the game doesn’t receive any more fresh delays?

Check out some footage from the beta below if you haven’t seen it.

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Earlier this year retailer Best Buy jumped the gun and started to install Diablo 3 displays in some stores with a release date, which obviously turned out to be false. Now as Game Zone are reporting this time round online retailer Amazon has listed the game to be coming on April 17th.

So far developer Blizzard has not revealed a release date for the game, and of course the listing by Amazon could easily be a mistake. Online retailers of many products such as cell phones and games list dates for popular titles or models of smartphones, which often come before an official date has been revealed. These can often be a placeholder but sometimes can be accurate even if it’s just within a day or two.

At the time of writing the release listing has been changed to 2012, so maybe Amazon were a bit premature and were asked to change the listing for now until official confirmation is given by the developers themselves. The date does fall in with Blizzard’s release timeframe of a quarter 2 release date though, which runs from April until June.

There were recent job losses at Blizzard that raised concerns that the game could see yet another delay with its release, but these fears were played down by the developer. Meanwhile the games beta continues to receive improvements following the recent release of Beta Patch 13. This enhanced the titles character skill and rune systems.

One thing is certain Blizzard are making sure the game is the best it can be before it is released, even though in some gamers eyes it could also be improved after it is released as many other big titles are. Will you be getting Diablo III once it is released?

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Although Blizzard are obviously remaining quiet on this as they wouldn’t want to ruin a possible E3 2012 reveal, new details have emerged over the weekend, once again touting the possibility of the Diablo franchise coming to home consoles as well for the first time.

Last month we had the big news about Blizzard’s community manager Bashiok and his revelation on Twitter that the game would be coming to console, and now we have some other big clues to tell you about. Blizzard has made no secret of their intention to hire new staff in order to work specifically on the Diablo team, with a key requirement being Xbox 360 and PS3 experience, as noted by Ripten.

A recent listing over at Gamasutra relates to a console software engineer requirement by Blizzard, someone who is also a graphics specialist. Other requirements include past experience on ”Xbox 360 and PS3 rendering architecture and APIs”, as well as background knowledge in ”code and data optimization to improve both memory consumption and performance” – why does that instantly remind us of Skyrim?

Blizzard may be staying silent for as long as possible, but that looks like a clear signal to us that Diablo III is coming to console. But if it does happen – when will the console version arrive? The game is due out on PC in the next few months, but we predict that it’s unlikely that a console build will be ready by the same time. One more reasonable scenario is that the game gets announced at E3 2012 and will end up being a Christmas release on the Xbox 360 and PS3 and will come just in time as the PC is receiving additional post-release content.

After seeing the Diablo franchise appear on PC for so long, is it now time for Blizzard to cash in and bring the game to consoles as well? PC owners won’t care too much as long as it doesn’t affect the release of their version. To those who have played the Diablo III beta, tell us if you would prefer to pick this up on console instead out of convenience of playing with a controller, or if it’s strictly PC only for you.

Imagine if Diablo III becomes a huge success on console and we end up seeing the next World of Warcraft game on Sony and Microsoft consoles as well – quite a prospect to look forward to.

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Previously it was thought the game would be launching early this year and recently Blizzard made some changes to the beta to hopefully bring the launch closer. Unfortunately according to an article on Digital Trends, Diablo 3 now has a quarter two release date. Activision was revealing their financial report when the news was broken.

CEO Bobby Kotick suggests the coming year is going to be a good one for the company with Diablo III and a new Call of Duty title coming. The report stated that there will be two releases from Blizzard this year with Kotick promising Diablo III as one of them. It now means the game should be releasing between April 1st and June 30th.

Recently the director of the game, Jay Wilson, said the game will only be remembered if it is a great offering not if it is late. Diablo III community manager Bashiok took to Twitter to answer a number of questions from excited fans of the game. These included that the game will have a four player co-op limit along with the beta graphics would be final.

There was also the news that in-game chat will remain and will be in an upcoming beta patch for users to have a try with. Once the game is finally available it will further boost the company’s popularity, and in the financial report it states that Activision finished as being number 1 in the US for handheld and console publishers for the calendar year.

Activision was further boosted by the Call of Duty franchise with Modern Warfare 3 unsurprisingly became the biggest selling title during the year. Diablo III has been twelve years in the making so far and to some gamers a couple of months delay won’t be too much of a problem, as they will want the game to be the best it can be. But there will be some who are tired of waiting though.

Are you looking forward to Diablo III?

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Earlier this month we heard that some retailers had jumped the gun and erected instore displays for the release of the game, which were later removed. We have also had news this month about the game coming to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Gaming Blend are reporting that Blizzard has announced some cuts to the game, which they hope will speed the arrival of Diablo 3 to stores up. The team has decided to lose Scrolls of Reforging and Scrolls of Companion from the game. Scrolls of Reforging had replaced the magical properties of an item with a completely new set of properties.

Over on the games forums community manager Nethaera, stated that it was felt that both these features “were underdeveloped”, and as they stood wasn’t good enough for Diablo 3. To get the features up to the required standard wanted it would have taken a lot of new work, and the developer were “trying to close in on a solid release date for the game, not move further away”.

The decision was then made to cut these features for now so the company could “stay on track for the game’s release”. There is a chance though that these features may be added to Diablo 3 at a later date. Blizzard has yet to officially announce a release date for the game but Jay Wilson, the games director, recently said that a date is “nearing”.

Fans of the franchise obviously want improvements to the game and will be used to certain elements of it, but the worry is changing too much may upset some fans who may be already getting impatient for the games release. It is better though if the game is up to a certain standard before it is released despite the wait. Check the video below with some details from earlier changes to the Beta.

Are you looking forward to Diablo 3?

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We would expect such an announcement to be reserved for E3, but the actual source of the news come from none other than Twitter. Micah Whiple, moremore commonly known as Bashiok is Blizzard’s Community Manager, and he said this on Twitter recently in response to a user question asking for the straight answer on whether Diablo 3 would be coming to consoles.

His reply was: ”Yup. Josh Mosqueira is lead designer for the Diablo console project.”

So there we have it in black and white, Diablo III is coming to consoles. We hope by the end of the year too. Obviously the guys at Blizzard are working hard on the PC version of the game as a priority, a game which is scheduled to release in the first half of 2012. Towards the end of last year, a closed beta began for the game and as far as we’re aware remains open for a select number of gamers.

While it is fantastic news that Diablo 3 is headed to consoles, Blizzard has obviously remained silent on which platforms will be included. Will the PS3, Xbox 360 and possibly even the Nintendo Wii U all get a console version of Diablo III? One thing that we hope doesn’t happen is console exclusivity, as most of you will be aware that Blizzard Entertainment are a subsidiary of Activision, and it is fairly obvious which platform they prefer at the moment.

How would you feel if Diablo 3 ended up as an Xbox 360 exclusive? It certainly wouldn’t go down well with PS3 owners who are interested in trying out the popular Diablo franchise. Hopefully we’re not tempting fate, but considering that exclusivity still happens frequently with almost every new game release (FFXIII-2 on Xbox 360 for example), we definitely wouldn’t rule this out from happening.

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According to a report on Joystiq a local Best Buy store was showing a display that showed a launch of February 1st, which had a countdown timer alongside the display. A store employee stressed at the time that February 1st was the launch date, and midnight openings would coincide with the launch.

The game has been delayed from its original 2011 release date and the Best Buy website was also showing the same date for release. Meanwhile over in the UK retailer Gameplay were showing a release date of February 3rd in the country, which would have fallen in line with the proposed US release timeframe.

Then it came to light that the Best Buy store had been asked to take down the display by the general manager. This wasn’t because the manufacturer had requested its removal, but because there wasn’t a firm date given.

Following this speculation Blizzards Micah Bashiok took to Twitter to respond to the retailers suggested dates, and said “The word is lol”. It was added the company couldn’t prevent retailers from making up their own release date, and they wouldn’t know anything about a date until it was announced via an official press release from the company.

Are you looking forward to the Diablo 3 release?

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