2012 report: D3 sold 12 million copies

[BenBos]

On what you said about Jay Wilson: Pretty much spot on. Even from early builds of Diablo 3, you can see what Jay's actual influences were. Anyone else remember in the 20 minute demo they played years back, where he said quite specifically that they wanted gear to be important and they wanted the player to get meaningful gear from enemies? "What happened to that?" Is the question people hating on him should ask.

As to Dragon Age 2 vs DA:O, I'm one of those people that really hated the sequel. It didn't feel like the same game, it was limited, repetitive, dull and uninteresting to me. However, I noticed the vast majority of people that bought Dragon Age 2 and hated it just stopped playing it after a while, branded it as money wasted, or got a refund and carried on with their day. The Diablo 3 community is stacked high of people that refuse to stop playing or complaining about the game, despite there being numerous alternatives available.

Jay Wilson was lead designer of blockbusters like WarHammer 40k: Dawn of War and Company of Heroes and he worked on 4 other very successful games before being recruited by Rob Pardo.

Diablo3 is being played massively after almost 9 months and patch 1.07 is adding again a good new mechanic to the game. The mechanic of crafting some gear independant of the AH as it is bind on account when crafted.

Those playing the AH don't need to panic as lots of gear will still be traded or grinded, but it is proof that Blizzard polishes this product further and further.

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As such the OP opened a gate of showing how ridiculous this so called "general hate" is against an ever more polished game.

After 9 months everyone agrees that the engine, smooth and fast play mechanic is second to none. All the rest is put on top and is really personal preference, like stats blablabla, meaningfull story blablabla, legendarries blablabla and not like a built in AH blablabla (that WAS there all over the internet in D2).

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As such the hate around D3 by some twisters has NOT even been constistent. By consistent, I mean the order of those so called complaints and their focus ... It Changed according to the evolution of patches ... Going from on line only, to server controlled, to too hard to too easy, to legendary stats, to "session spoofing lies and fake hacked authenticator"...

Swapping under the door mat such great added things like Paragon MF long term play, adaptable Monster Power play, key hunting and Machinery crafting etc...

So these Blizzard haters tune constantly their preaching, searching some allignements with players who simply played too much for 6 months straight.

As such the "hate preachers" - with cross in hands - are less and less credible, since like you stated: hundreds of hours played in ONE game is not exactly something you do with a "mediocre" game. I had to laugh because "sucks" has now already been replaced with mediocre to actually gain some sympathy.

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BTW: you'll see the exact same with every new Blizzard launch. Expect to see it in SC2, Blizzard's Dota and of course ... A massive hate on Titan the moment it will be launched in beta.

And this time the dudes will simply attack Jeff Kaplan and Rob Pardo. Yes I know, they will attack the makers of a 10 billion dollar game (WoW Vanilla). It is just how these haters have a non life really.

[Repefe]

In a few months time D3 will be considered a new milestone in a Blizzard success story. No doubt.

Are you sure ? Right now with the new kid on the block I feel like a lot of ppl are ready to move on and forget about D3 at least till next expansion.

[vindicatorx]

So you just beat easy on DH? Yeah I was ok with the game at that point as well I started hating it on the 3rd run through in my lower 50's feeling weak as hell. I turned to the AH and note I am correct in sensing my gear was pretty weak main problem is AH prices are ridiculous. Playing it once through sure no sweat no AH needed more than that good luck.

[BenBos]

Are you sure ? Right now with the new kid on the block I feel like a lot of ppl are ready to move on and forget about D3 at least till next expansion.

Indeed, I deleted this line from my post just a few seconds ago.

What I wanted to say is ... that with SC2 Expansion launching and the new Blizzard DOTA game on BattleNett, Diablo 3 will have its steady place on BattleNet and will be considered a very good game in the general choices of gaming styles on that Home stable of Blizzard.

---------- Post added 2013-01-28 at 02:26 PM ----------

So you just beat easy on DH? Yeah I was ok with the game at that point as well I started hating it on the 3rd run through in my lower 50's feeling weak as hell. I turned to the AH and note I am correct in sensing my gear was pretty weak main problem is AH prices are ridiculous. Playing it once through sure no sweat no AH needed more than that good luck.

After patch 1.05 there is no need to buy anything from the AH to kill Diablo in Inferno. But that's only one way of playing this game of course.

Personal hint: play in public groups: you'll kill Diablo in Inferno in NO time and a second hint: play(level) easy normal mode with MP10 ! Great fast (very fast) progression and Legendaries all over the place with that.

Some people will want to play hardcore, some will want to kill Diablo 3 with different classes and most long term players will simply want to be über Gods and will try it all.

A lot of people may not like ANYTHING in D3, that's quite understandable, but that's just a matter of opinion on specific gaming. The underlying engine and game play "mechanics" are the usual Blizzard style of "game play first" though.

I don't like SC2 very much, but I don't go to websites hating upon its mechanics either.

[rol3x]

Its a good casual game and I definitely got my moneys worth but to me it is not diablo. I decided to stop treating it as a diablo title and pretended its just some unnamed dunegon crawler and I became alot more content. Its flashy, plays smoothly if you ignore the lag but has the depth of a puddle with no soul.

[Repefe]

Indeed, I deleted this line from my post just a few seconds ago.

What I wanted to say is ... that with SC2 Expansion launching and the new Blizzard DOTA game on BattleNett, Diablo 3 will have its steady place on BattleNet and will be considered a very good game in the general choices of gaming styles on that Home stable of Blizzard.

Maybe, but Blizz has to make sure the games they are releasing are interesting in some way. There has to be something special about them. Some kind of "wow" factor so to speak. They didn't do that with D3; the only way I can see them doing that with HotS is if they either bring back pvp modes from SC1 (not sure if they will or not, haven't paid attetion to HotS) or if they introduce some other new pvp modes and any new DOTA game has a lot of high competition on the market so it's hard to do well there.

tl;dr They have to start making stuff that will surprise ppl, not just have them reinforce the though that Blizz games are still "good enough" to spend money on.

[BenBos]

Maybe, but Blizz has to make sure the games they are releasing are interesting in some way. There has to be something special about them. Some kind of "wow" factor so to speak. They didn't do that with D3; the only way I can see them doing that with HotS is if they either bring back pvp modes from SC1 (not sure if they will or not, haven't paid attetion to HotS) or if they introduce some other new pvp modes and any new DOTA game has a lot of high competition on the market so it's hard to do well there.

tl;dr They have to start making stuff that will surprise ppl, not just have them reinforce the though that Blizz games are still "good enough" to spend money on.

Like I said: that's pure personal preference. The overall POLISH and engine/game play mechanics of Diablo 3 are very high. The "on top" features above that engine may not be liked by you or many others, but that's hardly the point of "hating" a game.

I find Diablo 3 better than SC2. And I am pretty sure I am not the only one. As such Diablo 3 was the first game in ... 6 years to not made me play WOW on a daily/weekly basis. That's quite an achievement for someone who went to Justicar in 10 weeks playing @ 10 hours a day ...

I don't expect to gain my youth back from playing it (some D2 dudes really think about that), but as a video game, D3 has some very nice and good mechanics and that's why I like to play it and it ... keeps getting played by me.

Nothing more nothing less.

My other hobby is board wargaming. You have good games you like and you have good games you simply don't like. Why are there people in video gaming land who "HATE" a particular game (and even its players) Beats me.

[Gangplank]

The AH, i never have seen it. I could care less. To me this is a short single player game with some multi-player. I know some people really like the farming aspect, but to me this is not an MMO, was never designed to be a game that you sink 100s of hours into

This mentality will quickly change once you hit the final difficulty mode. It is very difficult to even breathe the air in Inferno difficulty without having decent gear, let alone try to progress beyond act 1. Act 2 is probably where most people quit this game because the amount of defensive stats you need coupled with very un-fun defensive skill builds makes for an unfun experience. You really need a "better than good" assortment of gear to survive the damage, and also a good understanding of which abilities are going to keep you alive long enough to endure the 5-10 minute battles you'll have with a single pack of elites. You won't get there without the AH. You also won't get there without farming act 1 for days (weeks for most of us release-day players). Heck, you might even have to farm act 3/4 of Hell a bit to get decent gear for act 1 Inferno.

The one advantage you do have over release-day players is that "ok" gear at level 60 is pretty cheap. The game has evolved enough where only the best of the best gear is really expensive. Check out any of those low-budget spotlights to help you figure out what gear is desirable, and how much you can expect to pay for it.

I still play D3 from time to time, but it's mostly just screwing around on alts to try new classes. I have a 60 Wizard who's pretty well geared, but I lost interest in things to do once you've beat Diablo. Farm more gear? Make beating Diablo easier? Ehhh, boring to me. I know some people like the real-money aspect, but I don't have that kind of time to find the best stuff available.

[Leonard McCoy]

D3 will go down as one of the biggest flops in gaming history. It's a "good" game but Blizzard used to be a developer who made EXCELLENT games. Good wasn't in their vocabulary.

[Orangetai420]

The game is really fun the first time through, maybe even for a replay or two.

It doesn't have the long term charm that Diablo 2 had (still has). I can pick up Diablo 2 after spending countless hours playing it and still enjoy myself. I can't say the same for D3.

---------- Post added 2013-01-28 at 03:27 PM ----------

Like I said: that's pure personal preference. The overall POLISH and engine/game play mechanics of Diablo 3 are very high. The "on top" features above that engine may not be liked by you or many others, but that's hardly the point of "hating" a game.

I find Diablo 3 better than SC2. And I am pretty sure I am not the only one. As such Diablo 3 was the first game in ... 6 years to not made me play WOW on a daily/weekly basis. That's quite an achievement for someone who went to Justicar in 10 weeks playing @ 10 hours a day ...

I don't expect to gain my youth back from playing it (some D2 dudes really think about that), but as a video game, D3 has some very nice and good mechanics and that's why I like to play it and it ... keeps getting played by me.

Nothing more nothing less.

My other hobby is board wargaming. You have good games you like and you have good games you simply don't like. Why are there people in video gaming land who "HATE" a particular game (and even its players) Beats me.

You're of course entitled to your opinion but please don't compare SC2 and D3. They are very different games. One is an esport and the other is a hack and slash. That's cool that you find the hack and slash more enjoyable but it doesn't change the fact that D3 flopped.

Or at least don't say one is "better" because to me that carries objective meaning. It may be more fun to you but that doesn't make it a better game. Even so, you can't really compare games of different genres.

[ScottsdaleHokie]

D3 endgame is nothing but Act 3 and the Auction House. That's a huge reason for most of the hate, and rightfully so.

[vindicatorx]

Honestly had I not gotten it for free I would have been truly pissed off for as awful as I find it.

[Shinzai]

D3 endgame is nothing but Act 3 and the Auction House. That's a huge reason for most of the hate, and rightfully so.

Yeah, people not doing anything else because someone created an optimal run path. Totally Blizzard's fault.

D3 will go down as one of the biggest flops in gaming history. It's a "good" game but Blizzard used to be a developer who made EXCELLENT games. Good wasn't in their vocabulary.

Yeah, they're saying the same thing about DmC. More hyperbole.

[Venziir]

You sound like a very casual player. D3 was designed for casuals. I could see you enjoying it more. D2 was designed for hardcore gamers. They are very disappointed in the direction the series went.

Put a sock in it... When D2 was designed and developed there was no such thing as a "casual market" or a "hardcore market", there barely was a market at all... So please, abandon your pseudo-elitist attitude, it's pathetic.

[yack346]

When the game first came out, I thought personally it was horrible. I put it down after a month of playing it, and then recently went back to playing it to see if it has improved. To my surprise, the game was so much better than before, and I am glad I went back to it. I think that it took just a bit of time for Blizzard to correct everything, and once they did, it got better. It was the same thing for D2. When it first came out, everyone hated it, and never went back to it. After a few months pass, they try it again, and they all of a sudden like it. I have a myth (or conspiracy or theorie of whatever you would like to call it), that whenever games are released, they are never as good as they are later. A lot of people need to just calm down, and let a few patches or so pass, and if they still don't like it after that, then you can say you dont like it. If you say you dont like it when the game comes out, and then let a few patches kick in, chances are, your going to like it.

[Syld]

When the game first came out, I thought personally it was horrible. I put it down after a month of playing it, and then recently went back to playing it to see if it has improved. To my surprise, the game was so much better than before, and I am glad I went back to it. I think that it took just a bit of time for Blizzard to correct everything, and once they did, it got better. It was the same thing for D2. When it first came out, everyone hated it, and never went back to it. After a few months pass, they try it again, and they all of a sudden like it. I have a myth (or conspiracy or theorie of whatever you would like to call it), that whenever games are released, they are never as good as they are later. A lot of people need to just calm down, and let a few patches or so pass, and if they still don't like it after that, then you can say you dont like it. If you say you dont like it when the game comes out, and then let a few patches kick in, chances are, your going to like it.

The game is better now, but still needs a lot of work, it could be MUCH better.

[Leonard McCoy]

Yeah, people not doing anything else because someone created an optimal run path. Totally Blizzard's fault.



Yeah, they're saying the same thing about DmC. More hyperbole.

Didn't play it. Can't really say. Will tell you that DMC good or bad is small enough to fly under the radar. D3 not so much.

[BenBos]

D3 will go down as one of the biggest flops in gaming history. It's a "good" game but Blizzard used to be a developer who made EXCELLENT games. Good wasn't in their vocabulary.

3395+ negative Blizzard posts in less than 1 year. That's 12 to 15 negative post per day considering the bans ...

I find Diablo 3 an excellent game compared to the rest of the garbage that's out there and it is proven by the simple fact it still is massively played 9 months after launch.

The market needed a simple fun, fast on line grouping game without hastle, attunements and non competitive (but still bragging) features.

Diablo 3 delivered this within the Blizzard stable. They now have an esport game SC2, a long term MMO and a casual on line hack and slash game. Soon another e sport game will be added featuring all their heroes assembled.

[Repefe]

I find Diablo 3 an excellent game compared to the rest of the garbage that's out there and it is proven by the simple fact it still is massively played 9 months after launch.

The market needed a simple fun, fast on line grouping game without hastle, attunements and non competitive (but still bragging) features.

Diablo 3 delivered this within the Blizzard stable. They now have an esport game SC2, a long term MMO and a casual on line hack and slash game. Soon another e sport game will be added featuring all their heroes assembled.

Do you believe that ppl will keep farming act 3 or keys again and again and the game will sustain playerbase with just that ? There is no ladder to climb, there is no dynamic content to play, there are no contests, pvp is what Blizz wanted to avoid ... something that is fun for a few hours. It will be in Blizz stable, but withhout lasting content it will be there as a dead weight.

Simple fun hack&slash is what indie companies with a tiny budgets can deliver.

[BenBos]

Do you believe that ppl will keep farming act 3 or keys again and again and the game will sustain playerbase with just that ? There is no ladder to climb, there is no dynamic content to play, there are no contests, pvp is what Blizz wanted to avoid ... something that is fun for a few hours. It will be in Blizz stable, but withhout lasting content it will be there as a dead weight.

Simple fun hack&slash is what indie companies with a tiny budgets can deliver.

In fact you just answered your own remark.

Indie companies with a tiny budget (and crappy gameplay) don't have the HOME of a Blizzard stable. That's the HUGE difference.

Anyone playing 2 hours a day needs a FULL year to bring one character to Paragon level 100. Same goes for HC characters, other classes played etc...

You just keep playing D3 with small or longer breaks , just to return to when you are in the mood. Even in this thread you see the guys coming back and being surprised how the game has its own comfy zone already ....

Like I said: no attunements, no gearscore in groups (join a public group in one second these days with crap gear, no one will complain),

FAST jump in and out whenever you want, whatever your goal. Just have some smashing fun BUT within the usual Blizzard comfort zone with 10 million dudes chatting and hopping around in 4 very specific gaming offers (RTS, MMO, Casual on line H&S and e sports soon).

No "indie" cheaply made product will offer all this on one central point. TL2 is already history, PoE will be history in 3 months tops.

Fans that play together stay together.

Any long term competition in the rts genre for SC2? Fat chance. Any long term competition in the MMO genre? Fat chance. The same is true for D3 (just look at the situation at the end of 2013) and I am quite convinced Blizzard's dota "All Stars" will have the usual Blizzard engine of smooth play, so ... I wish the competition good luck ! (they'll need it).