Diablo III Has Sold Over 14 Million Copies
The latest financial call was just a few hours ago and Activision Blizzard announced some interesting things. Here are the highlights:
Diablo III has sold over 14 million copies across all platforms
Reaper of Souls should be out next year on PC and PS4
WoW subs have dropped by 100k
Heroes of the Storm will be showcased on BlizzCon
In North America, Heart of the Swarm was the #1 PC game for the first 9 months of 2013
Ask the Devs About Game Design and Tech
We posted yesterday about interviews we'll be able to get during BlizzCon, but our interviewees have switched! Now we have Game Designer Travis Day and Tech Director Jason Regier! Looks like we can ask about game mechanics! You can drop your answers in the news comments below, or in our dedicated forum topic.
Update on Legendary Transmogrification
Unidentified Legacy Legendaries will not be Transmogrifiable.
I wanted to jump back into this thread to provide an update concerning our plans for unidentified legacy Legendaries and how they will interact with the upcoming Transmogrification system in Reaper of Souls.
We've already mentioned that Legacy items (items that drop before the expansion or pre-expansion patch goes live) will not unlock unique item appearance, but they can be Transmogrified.
At this point, we're currently planning that unidentified legacy Legendaries will also not provide new item appearances for Transmogrification. Our reasoning is this: even old Legendaries will be following new rules once we release Loot 2.0 and we want Transmogrification to reflect what new items you've gotten after that point.
Smart Drops and Crafted Items
More clarifications were given on the topic of Smart Drops and Crafted Items.
Set items that are clearly designed for a particular class, such as Natalya's Reflection for example, will only roll the primary stat associated with that class. So, Dexterity for Nat's, Strength for Immortal King's, and so forth.
By class specific do you mean items that are only equippable by that class, or items that were designed for that class as well?
I originally meant items that were only usable by a particular class, but I asked for some clarification from the design team as your question hadn't occurred to me. This philosophy does extend to set items that have class-specific features.
from how you stated it, this means that the archon recipes that are crafted will be geared towards the crafting class.
Archon recipes are an exception to the rule, because they already have a basic stat guaranteed when crafting. They will continue to work this way in the pre-expansion patch. Good observation!
So will loot 2.0 update the legendary recipes my blacksmith already knows, or will it require me to obtain new ones?
Loot 2.0 will not alter any existing items or recipes that you currently have (what you have now will become "legacy" items after the patch). There will be new items and recipes introduced for you to acquire in game.
This will make crafting much much better. But having a 100% chance of "smart drop" from crafting almost seems like overkill. I guess it really depends on the material costs, but if crafting is always going to have better loot for your character than the drops you get (which presumably will have a much smaller chance at being a smart drop), it will kinda take away from the looting of rares wont it?
Bear in mind that an item dropping as a "smart drop" means it will roll stats that are generally more useful to you. That doesn't necessarily mean every smart drop is automatically going to be an upgrade, particularly if you are looking to stack certain stats or affixes.
Rare loot drops are not guaranteed to be smart drops either, and you can expect to also find some items that may be more useful for different characters while you're out adventuring. Crafting is a bit more of a tailored method for acquiring gear, and the gear produced from it reflects that.
It looks like it sold well under a mil on each non-pc platform. When you realize that margins on console are much worse, you realize that it probably barely penciled out relative to dev costs, unlike WoW, which makes something ridiculous like 20x dev costs on a constant basis.
This is despite the console version being much superior to the PC by all accounts.
Hate to say it but D3 is still a very average game with boring end game content and no PVP.
Many of these million brought the game due to how good D2 was and also the incentive to make money.
What I want to know is how many are still actively playing.
Also, since they mention transmog and Legendaries: I hope they don't give us the option of making a rare look like a legendary. It's fine if you don't like the look of a particular legendary, and want to change it to another look; but legendaries should be instantly recognisable, and so, in my opinion, anything that looks like a Skorn should actually be a Skorn.
Well, I'm inclined to agree with you. Since weapon damage is so important, it would help when seeing other characters' models (to either brawl with or team with) to tell what weapon they're carrying. However, there is the fact that weapons that are transmogrified have to keep the animation of the original weapon.
For instance, my Plvl 75 Monk carries a Skorn. I would LOVE to change his look so that his model appears to be carrying two cool fist weapons, but the animation has to be the same. So I may leave his weapon look as is, unless on the off chance that staves or Daibos use the same Monk animation as a two-handed axe, in which case, I may switch the look out for that if I find one of those I like.
I think the primary lure of Transmog, though, comes from people not liking how it looks to equip a bunch of legendary armor choices from all over the place, and then looking like you're wearing a "clown suit." It's disappointing that weapon model can't be changed out for whatever we want, but at least a character's armor look can be changed.
That's cool, I'm OK with changing Legendaries into whatever, so if you don't like your Vile Ward, change it to whatever you like. What I don't want is to see random rares being turned into Legendaries; I think it takes away from the mystique of the legendaries.
I strongly agree with that...
I'm not even sure I think it's okay for Legendaries to be turned into "other" Legendaries... but I think people are way past that (and probably have embraced that idea already)..
That's cool, I'm OK with changing Legendaries into whatever, so if you don't like your Vile Ward, change it to whatever you like. What I don't want is to see random rares being turned into Legendaries; I think it takes away from the mystique of the legendaries.
I strongly agree with that...
I'm not even sure I think it's okay for Legendaries to be turned into "other" Legendaries... but I think people are way past that (and probably have embraced that idea already)..
I plan to turn my pants into Vile Wards. >.>
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Get busy living or get busy dieing.."
Twitch.tv: twitch.tv/mehsiah | Youtube/Twitter in the future.
That's cool, I'm OK with changing Legendaries into whatever, so if you don't like your Vile Ward, change it to whatever you like. What I don't want is to see random rares being turned into Legendaries; I think it takes away from the mystique of the legendaries.
I strongly agree with that...
I'm not even sure I think it's okay for Legendaries to be turned into "other" Legendaries... but I think people are way past that (and probably have embraced that idea already)..
CoD sells more copies than every game in the world. It is obviously the best game in the world..... :Thumbs Up:
I loved D1 and D2(even pre LoD). I hated D3 at release. It has improved so much since release I decided to try it again and, I love it. With all the incoming changes and the expansion I'm sure I'll be hitting the Diablo 3 pipe for a long time.
I'm happy this game is finally shaping up to be as amazing as it should have been.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
Wise ElderThe latest financial call was just a few hours ago and Activision Blizzard announced some interesting things. Here are the highlights:
Ask the Devs About Game Design and Tech
We posted yesterday about interviews we'll be able to get during BlizzCon, but our interviewees have switched! Now we have Game Designer Travis Day and Tech Director Jason Regier! Looks like we can ask about game mechanics! You can drop your answers in the news comments below, or in our dedicated forum topic.
Update on Legendary Transmogrification
Unidentified Legacy Legendaries will not be Transmogrifiable.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
We've already mentioned that Legacy items (items that drop before the expansion or pre-expansion patch goes live) will not unlock unique item appearance, but they can be Transmogrified.
At this point, we're currently planning that unidentified legacy Legendaries will also not provide new item appearances for Transmogrification. Our reasoning is this: even old Legendaries will be following new rules once we release Loot 2.0 and we want Transmogrification to reflect what new items you've gotten after that point.
Smart Drops and Crafted Items
More clarifications were given on the topic of Smart Drops and Crafted Items.
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
By class specific do you mean items that are only equippable by that class, or items that were designed for that class as well?
I originally meant items that were only usable by a particular class, but I asked for some clarification from the design team as your question hadn't occurred to me. This philosophy does extend to set items that have class-specific features.
from how you stated it, this means that the archon recipes that are crafted will be geared towards the crafting class.
Archon recipes are an exception to the rule, because they already have a basic stat guaranteed when crafting. They will continue to work this way in the pre-expansion patch. Good observation!
So will loot 2.0 update the legendary recipes my blacksmith already knows, or will it require me to obtain new ones?
Loot 2.0 will not alter any existing items or recipes that you currently have (what you have now will become "legacy" items after the patch). There will be new items and recipes introduced for you to acquire in game.
This will make crafting much much better. But having a 100% chance of "smart drop" from crafting almost seems like overkill. I guess it really depends on the material costs, but if crafting is always going to have better loot for your character than the drops you get (which presumably will have a much smaller chance at being a smart drop), it will kinda take away from the looting of rares wont it?
Bear in mind that an item dropping as a "smart drop" means it will roll stats that are generally more useful to you. That doesn't necessarily mean every smart drop is automatically going to be an upgrade, particularly if you are looking to stack certain stats or affixes.
Rare loot drops are not guaranteed to be smart drops either, and you can expect to also find some items that may be more useful for different characters while you're out adventuring. Crafting is a bit more of a tailored method for acquiring gear, and the gear produced from it reflects that.
Ha. Bagstone.
Haters: Game is dead.
"Diablo 3 sold over 12 million copies"
Haters: Game is dead.
"Diablo 3 sold over 13 million copies"
Haters: Game is dead.
"Diablo 3 sold over 14 million copies across all platforms"
Haters: Lol. Only 1 million copies.
That's what I see from haters >_>
Anyway, congrats! Diablo 3 future looks good.
Every time they tell us everyone hates it.. another million sales
It looks like it sold well under a mil on each non-pc platform. When you realize that margins on console are much worse, you realize that it probably barely penciled out relative to dev costs, unlike WoW, which makes something ridiculous like 20x dev costs on a constant basis.
This is despite the console version being much superior to the PC by all accounts.
I was jk.
Twitch.tv: twitch.tv/mehsiah | Youtube/Twitter in the future.
Many of these million brought the game due to how good D2 was and also the incentive to make money.
What I want to know is how many are still actively playing.
Well, I'm inclined to agree with you. Since weapon damage is so important, it would help when seeing other characters' models (to either brawl with or team with) to tell what weapon they're carrying. However, there is the fact that weapons that are transmogrified have to keep the animation of the original weapon.
For instance, my Plvl 75 Monk carries a Skorn. I would LOVE to change his look so that his model appears to be carrying two cool fist weapons, but the animation has to be the same. So I may leave his weapon look as is, unless on the off chance that staves or Daibos use the same Monk animation as a two-handed axe, in which case, I may switch the look out for that if I find one of those I like.
I think the primary lure of Transmog, though, comes from people not liking how it looks to equip a bunch of legendary armor choices from all over the place, and then looking like you're wearing a "clown suit." It's disappointing that weapon model can't be changed out for whatever we want, but at least a character's armor look can be changed.
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
Wise ElderI'm not even sure I think it's okay for Legendaries to be turned into "other" Legendaries... but I think people are way past that (and probably have embraced that idea already)..
I plan to turn my pants into Vile Wards. >.>
Twitch.tv: twitch.tv/mehsiah | Youtube/Twitter in the future.
Now monks fight with their KNEES!!
I loved D1 and D2(even pre LoD). I hated D3 at release. It has improved so much since release I decided to try it again and, I love it. With all the incoming changes and the expansion I'm sure I'll be hitting the Diablo 3 pipe for a long time.
I'm happy this game is finally shaping up to be as amazing as it should have been.