14 DAY TRIAL // Blizzard has revealed a few more details about the array of changes that it’s recently made to Diablo III, saying that they will ensure the role playing dungeon crawler will be popular for a decade after its release.
Diablo III has been eagerly awaited by millions of gamers from all around the world. As you can imagine, after several missed release windows, their patience is growing a bit thin. Things got even worse last week, when Blizzard, the franchise’s developer, confirmed that it had made several sweeping changes to the game, meaning that the title wouldn’t be released anytime soon.
Now, after saying that fans will only remember if a game’s great, not if it’s late, Diablo III Game Director Jay Wilson has emphasized that all these changes are for the better, guaranteeing that the RPG will remain popular for quite some time.
“We want Diablo III to be the best game it can be when it launches,” Wilson revealed. “To get there, we're going to be iterating on designs we've had in place for a long time, making changes to systems you've spent a lot of time theorycrafting, and removing features you may have come to associate with the core of the experience.”
The game director mentions that plenty of other changes are being made as we speak, which affect things like crafting, inventory or core attributes, not to mention some major tweaks to the skill and rune systems.
“We’re changing some of the systems we’ve gotten the most feedback on both internally and from the beta test, including crafting, items, core attributes, and inventory. We’ll go over those changes and the reasons for them. In addition we’re working on major changes to the skill and rune systems that we’re not ready to talk about, but I promise you we can’t possibly ship without a finished skill and rune system.”
In the end, Wilson mentions that the design process isn’t always easy for a massive game like Diablo III, but that these changes will ensure it stays popular for the next 10 years, after which maybe we’ll get to see a Diablo IV.
“Our hope is that by embracing our iterative design process in which we question ourselves and our decisions, Diablo III won't just live up to our expectations, but will continue to do so a decade after it's released,” Wilson concluded.
Diablo III, as of yet, is scheduled to appear for the PC and Mac, at some point this year, while versions for the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 may or may not appear.