14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at Blizzard has announced that it has decided to cut the Players versus Players Arena system from the initial release of Diablo III in order to make sure that the hack and slash title is launched on time.
The Blizzard developers say that both the campaign and the core single and cooperative mechanics of Diablo III are almost complete, while the PvP Arena system is not up to standards and that another delay would unjustly punish the entire fan base.
The official announcement from Blizzard states:
“When the PvP patch is ultimately ready, it will add multiple Arena maps with themed locations and layouts, PvP-centric achievements, and a matchmaking system that will help you and your team get into fairly matched games quickly and easily. We’ll also be adding a personal progression system that will reward you for successfully bashing in the other team’s skulls.”
Cutting PvP from the initial release of the game does not mean that Blizzard is not continuing to work on it and there are plans for a full rollout at a later, unspecified date.
Blizzard says that the Areas will be “brutal, bloody, fast-paced, and awesome as we know they can be. In the meantime, we’re in the process of putting the finishing touches on what we think is a truly epic campaign and co-op experience for launch.”
Blizzard has not yet released an actual launch date for Diablo III, but the player base expects to see the game during the first fiscal quarter of the new year, probably during April or May.
An Italian retailer suggested that the date would be April 17, but Activision refused to confirm or deny it.
Since it went into the closed beta stage, which we have written about elsewhere on Softpedia, Diablo III has undergone some core system redesigns.