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World of Warcraft drops another 800k subscribers; Diablo III has sold 20M units
Today's Activision Blizzard earnings call revealed that World of Warcraft has suffered another significant hit to its subscriptions: The game has lost 800,000 subs over the last quarter, bringing the playerbase down to 6.8 million subscribers. The game announced a loss of 100k last November, a gain of 200k in February, and another loss of 200k in May. WoW has lost over 3 million players in the gap between Mists of Pandaria and Warlords of Draenor. Blizzard claims that most of the losses were "disproportionately concentrated in the East." There is some good news for the company: ARPG Diablo III has sold over 20 million copies since its launch in spring 2012.
Diablo III is going to China
If you're a Diablo III fan in the US, you've been able to play the game for quite some time, delving into seas of monsters and beating your way through fields of enemies. If you're a Diablo III fan in China, you're anxiously awaiting the game to actually be released locally. So it's good news to hear that Blizzard is working with NetEase to bring the game over to China's shores. No official release dates or prices have been announced at this time, nor has any information about whether or not this release will include the Reaper of Souls expansion for the game. It seems likely that the release will include all of the upgrades the game has experienced since its 2012 launch, but even that's just speculation. NetEase is the company that has already brought World of Warcraft and StarCraft II to the nation's gaming audience, so it's likely that players can expect the game without too many delays.
Rob Pardo leaves Blizzard
In a rather surprising move, Blizzard's Executive Producer Rob Pardo announced today that he is leaving the company. At this time he has announced no immediate career plans or subsequent goals, although he mentions a desire to spend the summer with his family and consider his next move. Pardo's forum announcement thanks the design teams for all of their hard work and notes that he has immensely enjoyed his time with the company; he expresses great satisfaction at the growth of the company and all of the changes that have come about during his tenure there. Pardo mentions that he began working with the studio during development of the original StarCraft, having since worked on titles including Diablo III, World of Warcraft, and Heroes of the Storm. He has promised fans that he will attempt to be communicative about his next move via Twitter. [Thanks to Dystopiq for the tip!]
Diablo III is closing the auction house for good next week
Diablo III's auction house is on its last leg, giving up its ghost, and seeing a hellish light at the end of the tunnel. As of June 24th, all traces of the controversial feature will be removed from the game for good. Blizzard sent out a reminder today about the auction house, stating that while its economic functions were disabled in March, the studio left it up for a few months past that to allow players to retrieve items and gold. Any items and gold left unattended will be sucked into the abyss on next Tuesday, so beware!
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls' first update bringing seasonal play
Diablo III has begun testing its first big update for Reaper of Souls, which will add an updated version of Diablo II's ladder system and more. Patch 2.1.0 will also add "seasons" to the game. These are a new type of play that requires players to start a fresh character to level up. Why would someone want to do something so obviously crazy? Why, for the exclusive rewards and the chance to climb the leaderboards! There will also be season-only achievements called conquests that will be awarded to the first 1,000 players to get each one. Once a season is over, the exclusive legendaries will be added to the rest of the game. Patch 2.1.0 will also impliment cesspool levels, combat balance changes, and greater rifts. The latter will have players racing against the clock to kill monsters and try to beat the end boss before time runs out.
Why F2P won't eliminate paid games
Champions RPG co-creator and former EA and Capcom marketer Steve Peterson has published a lengthy rebuke of conventional F2P-is-the-future wisdom. "The reality is that many game designs don't lend themselves to free-to-play monetization," Peterson writes. "Virtual items in story-centered games like Telltale's Walking Dead series would be ridiculous. Balance is a difficult issue for virtual items in many games, particularly as the variations of items multiply. Blizzard's massive problems with the Auction House in Diablo III show that." He goes on to cite DIII's premium buy-the-client price point as an example of how pay-up-front PC games remain a hugely profitable market, to say nothing of the fact that F2P has made little headway on consoles. "While free-to-play is a very successful business model, it's not the only business model that's succeeding these days," he explains. "Not all games lend themselves to the business model, and not all developers are prepared to deal with the issues involved. Some platforms are less suited to free-to-play games, and there's evidence to suggest that paid games are making a comeback on mobile. Some developers have complained about the model in very public ways. Free-to-play is a fine hammer, but not every game is a nail."
Diablo III keeping legendary drop rate increase
Blizzard game designer Travis Day brought some welcome news to Diablo III fans on the game's official forums last night. "Due to the overwhelming popularity of our anniversary buff we have decided to keep the increased legendary drop rate once the anniversary celebration ends," Day wrote. "Once the buff is disabled tomorrow morning, you will find that the new base line drop rates for legendary items will be the same as those you have all enjoyed for the last week."
Here's Diablo 3's Reaper of Souls on the PS4
Blizzard has released a brief look at Diablo III's Reaper of Souls expansion on the PlayStation 4. The Ultimate Evil Edition is headed your way on August 19th, and you can see it in action via the video after the break.
Diablo III's Crusader at 70: Post-patch impressions
The Diablo III: Reaper of Souls expansion changed the game from top to bottom. With the extra 10 levels came an almost complete reimagining of how Diablo 3 would play: from the relentlessly on-rails story mode to the free-form adventure mode, from wheeling and dealing on the auction house for the items you wanted to hoping for those items to pop out of a freshly slain enemy. In the wake of the game's sweeping changes, the new Crusader class has been something of an afterthought for many. However, Blizzard hasn't been shy to make adjustments to the newest member of their demon-slaying team. A patch just two weeks after the expansion's launch brought major buffs to the Crusader. This week, another patch featured a long list of changes that revamped the class from top to bottom. If you're wondering whether you should invest the time to level a Crusader, join me past the break for my impressions. The class has come a long way in just seven weeks, and this latest patch has been a gamechanger.
Double rift fragments and your chance to find legendaries in Diablo III this week
Diablo III is two years old today. To celebrate, Blizzard is doubling the chance to find legendary items and rift fragments. The promotion begins today at 3:00 p.m. EDT and ends next Thursday, May 22nd, at 8:00 a.m. EDT.
Diablo III's Reaper of Souls coming to consoles in August
Diablo III's Reaper of Souls expansion is coming to consoles on August 19th. "By summer's end you'll face off against Death himself," Blizzard says, "with up to four players banding together on a single TV screen." The Ultimate Evil edition will set you back $59.99 on the PS4 and Xbox One or $39.99 on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
First wave of BlizzCon tickets sold out
Tickets for BlizzCon 2014 have sold out! Well, the first round of tickets have, anyway. It's estimated that this first offering sold out in five to 10 seconds, according to our sister site WoW Insider. Past BlizzCons have seen similar ticket sales, and this year is already showing that Blizzard's still got it. If you happened to blink at any time yesterday, you can still try for round two this Saturday at 10:00 a.m. PDT (1:00 p.m. EDT).
Blizzard debuts Diablo 3's Theorycraft Thursdays
Theorycraft Thursdays is a new feature over on the Diablo 3 official website that highlights interesting player-submitted builds in the game. Today's inaugural post features an "Unholy" monk build from Diablo player ZiPS#1834, a fun attempt to turn the monk class on its head. ZiPS explains that the inspiration for the build came from "the idea to stack many 'Chance on Hit' effects with Life on Hit and a fair bit of Attack Speed," as well as a way to make the most of the Legendary effect from Andariel's Visage. The article details the list of active and passive abilities, plus items required to fit the build, and explains which abilities synergize well with each other and with different armor pieces. There are also a list of build variations, which offer suggestions on how to focus on different aspects of the build such as crowd control, high damage, or greed. If you're a Diablo 3 player who's interested in some outside-the-box builds for your monk, this would be a great place to start. I think it's fascinating that Theorycraft Thursdays has opened with such a unique idea, and I'm looking forward to seeing what its next installment brings.
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls soundtrack available on iTunes
Sure, Diablo III: Reaper of Souls has the perfect soundtrack when you're playing Diablo III. But what can you do when you're not playing the game but you're just out reaping souls on your own time? You can't hum the songs; you'll just look like an idiot. Well, don't despair, because you can now purchase the expansion's soundtrack on iTunes and forever have access to the perfect reaping music in your day-to-day life. The full soundtrack can be purchased for $9.99 and contains 22 tracks with a total running time of just over an hour. Clips are available on the official page in case you just want a couple of tunes and aren't quite sure what they're called; at 22 tracks, though, it's almost more economical to just buy the whole thing.
BlizzCon 2014 dated, tix on sale next month
BlizzCon 2014 is coming, boys and girls, to a city near you (that is, if you live near Anaheim, California)! Blizzard announced that its sometimes-annual convention will be on November 7th and 8th at the Anaheim Convention Center. Even at two hundred bucks a pop, tickets for BlizzCon will no doubt be sold out within minutes thanks to Blizzard's legion of fans. The studio announced today that it will be putting tickets on sale in two separate batches: one on May 7th and the other on May 10th. There will also be $750 tickets put on sale on May 14th for the benefit dinner. BlizzCon tickets include offer hands-on demos with its games, an e-sports world championship, dev panels, player tournaments, and live admission to the convention. Virtual tickets will also be available at a later point for an unknown fee.
"A more elegant collection game" - Watcher on transmog
Today we posted a rundown on PAX East information. and one of the pieces of information was that Diablo III's transmog system is not coming to World of Warcraft. This made me sad, of course. Today, Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas tweeted the following update on that. @perculia Not in 6.0. We do have major plans to make transmog more elegant as a collection game in the future, though. - Watcher (@WatcherDev) April 14, 2014 Now, this doesn't tell us how they plan to make transmog more elegant. It doesn't even tell us for sure that there won't be a Diablo III style approach to it - it just tells us that it won't be in Patch 6.0, whatever it ends up being. Still, it's nice to know that it's still being worked on. The extra void storage tab is a nice feature. Until we know what it is going to be I'll just be over here staring wistfully at my complete lack of bag space.
Diablo III's 2.0.4 patch makes resplendent treasure feel more resplendent
Blizzard has patched Diablo III to version 2.0.4 in the Americas. There are a decent number of class tweaks in the patch as well as an adjustment to the drop of unique legendary crafting materials. They've been "significantly increased," if you're wondering. There are a few itemization changes, too, including an adjustment to to treasure drops from resplendent chests. "The treasure from Resplendent Chests has been improved to feel more resplendent," Blizzard says.
Diablo III - Hardcore Crusaders absolutely should not use Shattering Throw or they will die
This isn't me being all hyperbolic. This is actually what will happen to you if you use the combination Blessed Shield and Shattering Throw. Your character will die, and for hardcore players, that means your character will be dead forever. Grimiku - PSA: Avoid Blessed Shield - Shattering Throw Hello, Crusaders I wanted to help spread the word that there is currently a very ugly bug with Blessed Shield - Shattering Throw that will result in your Crusader instantly dying if you use this skill. Hardcore players should avoid using this skill for now! We're working on a hotfix for this issue and we'll update the Patch 2.0.4 Hotfix thread once that happens. Thank you all for your patience and understanding while we work on fixing this as soon as possible! source As my Crusader has both of these and likely would have blown himself up (a mere annoyance for me, but the end of that character if you play on Hardcore) I thought you all should know.
Diablo III's expansion moves 2.7 million first week copies
Reaper of Souls is popular, but is it as popular as Blizzard would like? Diablo III's expansion pack moved 2.7 million copies combined in retail and digital markets, which is well short of the 6.3 million units sold at DIII's 2012 original release. The expansion adds a new story act, a new class, a new game mode, and an increased level cap.
The best Diablo III article you will read all week
Seriously, there's a lot of press out there about Diablo III. We've even done some here. But no one is going to top this piece over at Games.on.net, I promise you that. It simply cannot be done. How amazing is this piece, ostensibly about Reaper of Souls, that brought together interviewer Tim Colwill, senior character designer Paul Warzecha, and some pencils and paper to absolutely rethink some classic Diablo characters (and also a clown)? It's this amazing. Paul: You know what – let's go ahead and... I don't think he needs a shirt. Does he need a shirt? GON: Whenever I picture a clown, I always take their shirt off. Paul: Yeah? GON: We've all been there. Paul: Well we're going there today, anyway. And I like these pants but I would... he needs some mobility. I would go full-on hammer pants. Remember in the 80's when they used to wear potato-sack pants? Remember those? With the things? I don't see how I could add anything that would better encapsulate the brilliance of this article. Never before have I laughed quite this much at the notion of screaming decapitated heads being hurled at enemies by an evil clown with a lacrosse net, and I doubt I'll ever laugh that much at it again. This is, simply put, the best press you're going to see for Reaper of Souls or any Blizzard game this year, and I take the hat I don't have (probably made of snakes) off to you, Tim Colwill. I now desperately want to see this happen for the Warcraft setting. I wonder what the clowns of Azeroth would look like. They'd probably have much bigger shoulders.
