Blizzard Entertainment today confirmed it is working on Diablo III, a video game long rumored to be in production with little chatter from Blizzard. Announced for the first time during Blizzard’s 2008 WorldWide Invitational (WWI), the company also provided a handful of game details to help draw interest to the game. Even though Diablo, Mephisto and Baal were slain in Diablo II, Tristam is again under siege by evil creatures that players will have to eliminate. The game is being designed to focus more on cooperative play instead of soloing through the world. As expected, cooperative and P2P gameplay will be available online using Battle.net, Blizzard’s free online service that launched with the original Diablo in 1997. The only game that hasn’t used Battle.net has been World of Warcraft, so unconfirmed rumors reporting Diablo III would be subscription-based have been debunked.
DIII gamers will play in a new 3D graphics environment based on Havok physics, where they will be able to interact and even destroy the environment. Diablo III will also have a random-level generator to make each new level unique. Similar to Dungeon Siege and other newer role-playing games, the latest Diablo will offer full zoom capability and a customizable hotbar to help access inventory and skills. There are no more health or mana potions, as players will now have to walk across floating orbs to get their health benefit. Armor will also be class specific unlike in Diablo or Diablo II. The game will be released for both the PC and Mac, but a potential release date for Diablo III has not been announced. It is likely Diablo III will release after Starcraft II, which also has not been given a solid release date.
Blizzard officially announced Diablo 3
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