A message from Jay Wilson:

We know that all of you have been waiting for the imminent announcement of the release date for Diablo 3, and we want to thank each and every one of you for your patience. With that in mind, we’ve got some good news for you today. The release date for Diablo 3 has been set, and the game is scheduled for release on November 5, 2012.

Now before you race off to the forums and start screaming for our blood, I want to take a few moments to explain why we’ve decided to hold the game back for a later release, and why this announcement is a good thing. As well as announce a few things that should make the wait a little more tolerable for our most ardent fans.

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That post is not me, and not true.

An interesting tweet has recently come from Jay Wilson‘s account stating that the RMAH may, in fact, come to the hardcore scene. If there was one thing that would ruin the hardcore community, it would be micro-transactions. While it would not be a “9.99 for a resurrection,” it would essentially be just that. While you would be required to re-level to 60 over again, you could charge your card to either buy a new character or simply re-buy all that was lost. Many believe that if character selling becomes available, hardcore would simply cease to be hardcore.

Alternate means of monetary transactions are always available for the hardcore community. However, there is deeper significance to the monetization of the hardcore community. Not only would an RMAH diminish hardcore stigma, it would open a Pandora’s box for the legal team. Kids with their father’s credit cards notwithstanding, “I didn’t know” just isn’t a reliable or legally viable excuse for killing off a character with $300 invested in it (or however much you wasted on Bobby Bucks). But who knows. It’s also possible that the demand is just not there, and such qualms would be few and far between.

Citér

@Angryrobotics Always wanted a genuinely hard but fun game. I truly think hardcore D3 will bring that. Any chance at RMAH on hardcore?
If there is a demand for it we’ll consider it.

It would seem to me, at least, that HC would have become somewhat of a refuge for those that wish to dodge the community of money-spenders in softcore. In short, it would be a community that Blizzard would not have chosen to monetize, and therefore an untapped source of revenue. Surely Bobby would frown at such an oversight on Blizzard’s part.

Yet, with the introduction of the RMAH to the hardcore community, I believe it would effectively alienate them from what the mode really “stands” for – or at least the banner under which the majority of the hardcore community rallies.

As an addendum to this editorial, I see that it would be remiss to not address the benefits of having an RMAH – as some comments have pointed out. As I briefly mentioned before, such transactions would be present no matter what. As such, it would be in Blizzard’s interest not only to capitalize on an untapped revenue stream, but to allow a secure measure for such transactions. It seems, however, that Blizzard’s initial reasoning behind it was that the costs outweigh the benefits.

When talking with Jay and Rob Pardo last July, their reasoning behind the omission of an RMAH was to “save people from themselves.” The RMAH would create certain barriers and legal troubles, as well as a deterrent. Since this tweet directly involves the demand for such an option, it would seem that they are looking at as a viable revenue stream for the option before making it available.

What is the community’s reaction to this bit of information? I think it would be interesting to get a poll on this, seeing how people who actually will be playing hardcore feel about this possibility versus those who do not on playing it.

The bonus beta areas we posted about earlier have now been confirmed, as a functional section accessible through the Diablo 3 Beta. I spent the past hour exploring in the area myself, and took a few screenshots for documentation.

There are three areas, the Festering Woods and the Fields of Misery are large surface areas you reach via waypoints. The Drowned Temple is the third area, which should occur between the other two, but is just a small series of stairways with a non-functional dungeon entrance at the bottom. Dungeon entrances that don’t work are very common in this area, as you’ll see if you view some of the screenshots. There are numerous ones throughout the areas that highlight and hover, but have long, bugged code names and none of them can be entered. (A very few do work though, and they have normal names. You see the Forlorn Farm in the screens below.)

The monsters in these areas are largely different than what we’ve seen thus far in the beta. Lots of huge charging beasts, goatmen (who often emerge several in a row out of tiny foxholes), various attacking trees (who create poisonous pods all over the ground around them that are quite damaging), carrion bats, ghouls, ghostly spirits, and more. It’s a few levels higher than any previous beta content, and while my Wizard wasn’t in any real danger of dying, I was constantly out of Arcane Power, as the monsters had more hitpoints, plus I was playing a three-player game. I could instantly see why using at least one Signature Skill will be necessary for Wizards long term.

As for how I got into the area… a friend found someone else with the Festering Woods waypoint, and shared it to me. We still don’t know how someone got over the fence from the cemetery in the first place; I think it might have been an unrepeatable event, from some partial disconnect or weird bug, which is why no one knows how it was done. Now people with the waypoint are just sharing it to friends, and soon enough practically everyone in the beta will have it.

I don’t see any reason Blizzard should really care; you don’t see any plot or story info in those areas (the quests aren’t working; just some of the events), and it’s almost like an end game for beta characters, since the monsters are a few levels higher than anything in the Cathedral or the Leoric fight and with their different/new tactics they’re nasty.

None of the screens below are exactly spoilery; as none show any plot or story or big events, but if you’re trying to prevent your eyes from seeing anything not in the beta, don’t click. They’re sorted with numerous others in the Beta Datamined Images Gallery.

In my haste to download the update and get going with patch 13, I came across an interesting site. My version of the launched game is the following: Diablo III Retail. Not Diablo III Beta, or any derivative. Take this as you will, but it seems that the current version of the beta will be the retail version – meaning the game is primed and ready for a release announcement. While this seems to be fairly solid proof, take this with a grain of salt because… you know, it’s Blizzard.



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