It looks like we will not be seeing the PvP Arena system at release. However this will be patched in after release. Oddly enough this seems to be tagged with Sign of Release
Originally Posted by Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
(As we’re counting down the days until we’re ready to announce a release date for Diablo III, we’ve come to realize that the PvP game and systems aren’t yet living up to our standards. Today, we wanted to let you know that we’ve made the difficult decision to hold back the PvP Arena system and release it in a patch following the game’s launch. After a lot of consideration and discussion, we ultimately felt that delaying the whole game purely for PvP would just be punishing to everyone who’s waiting to enjoy the campaign and core solo/co-op content, all of which is just about complete.
While we work on making sure PvP lives up to its full potential, we hope you’ll find some consolation in the fact that soon, you’ll be having a blast leveling characters, finding items, learning the classes, and perfecting builds…and that when the Arenas do arrive, you’ll be all the better prepared for battle.
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.
We know a lot of you are looking forward to PvP, and we’ll be focusing our post-launch efforts on making sure the Arenas are as 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.
We’ll have a lot more info to share on the PvP system in the future, and we look forward to the moment we can get the game into your hands.
While we work on making sure PvP lives up to its full potential, we hope you’ll find some consolation in the fact that soon, you’ll be having a blast leveling characters, finding items, learning the classes, and perfecting builds…and that when the Arenas do arrive, you’ll be all the better prepared for battle.
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.
We know a lot of you are looking forward to PvP, and we’ll be focusing our post-launch efforts on making sure the Arenas are as 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.
We’ll have a lot more info to share on the PvP system in the future, and we look forward to the moment we can get the game into your hands.
When WoW was released, PvP systems were postponed and the game launched without them.
Blizzard was not owned by Activision in 2004.
Assumption proven false.
Upset because this is bullshit that they drop pvp for this push back. What the FUCK have they been doing!??!?!?!
Not upset because it means the game will be released and most of us won't be entering pvp until max level anyway.
Here's to hoping release date is announced monday...
I'm not. It is unfortunate that the PvP is being pushed back, but I believe Blizzard made the right choice. As for others -- not gonna try to speak for them.
...I now have an urge to speak Darkspear troll. Weird. <_<
WTF have they been doing all this time? Is there ONE person coding this game?
This very announcement pours doubt in my expectation of the level of excellence Blizzard has executed with Diablo 3.
/rant
Waiters wanna wait
But not me, fuck yea I'm ready to explode some shit.
A: Having PvP arenas on retail and pushing the release date even further back
or
B: Getting the game out asap and patching arenas in later
I'll choose B every single time. Let's get the game out and playable. PvP will come soon enough and this gives people plenty of time to level up their character(s) to 60 and gear up for the PvP that's soon to come.
First they said PvP won't be a big focus, just like in Diablo 2. Then they say "PvP just isn't up to our standards." Finally they say "We're just going to cut it for now!"
This is really a crock of **** for a few reasons. First off, I severely doubt cutting the arena portion sped up the game's release one bit. I'm just not buying it. Even if they were planning to release very soon, they could have just kept arena as is and left it in for release and told us they were going to improve it later. It seems like they are holding back content for them to release later to try and keep us interested in the game for the long term. Also, how do you go from a PvE central focus to giving a damn about trying to perfect your PvP in your game? It's a waste of time or a lack of direction on their part. On top of all of this, if their focus is to suddenly make PvP meaningful, why didn't they just test out arena combat in beta? They could have had "fun" less meaningful low level arena or have just given us preset lv 60 characters for the sake of testing arena. It's just another wasted opportunity. This beta is more of a testing of their game's demo if you ask me.
The whole thing reeks of them trying to make it look like they are turning lemons into lemonade, when it's really just them rationing lemons. Blizzard, you freaking lemon hogs!
This goes without saying that the PvP lovers just lost their hard-on for this game within seconds of reading this post. Sorry Diablofan PvP forums! Sorry for your loss! :/
it will take a few weeks anyways to get max level and gear up.
Oh well, there is 1 good thing coming about this. I save $100 and get the game when its discounted like hell and actually complete and all of the scrubs who play the game to trade their swordy for their belty will have all withered away and moved onto WoW 2.0 where they belong.
Funny, obviously noone in here actually did PvP in Diablo. You guys either PvP'd in WoW which is nothing alike or you went to pubs and got your face smashed which is pathetic. So if you sucked at PvP great...don't play it, if you are actually good at the game however you would know PvP isn't all about gear or level, or nerfs and buffs for that fact ha. Sad sad little WoW kids.
Just release it already.
no where near the money they will actually make. over 1m people have signed up for the annual pass alone. and you better believe the week they announce the release date the annual pass + pre orders will sky rocket. im betting well over a few million people will have it between pre orders and the annual pass before its even out. then all the sales in the first few months. then after that all the money from the transactions on the RMAH. of course i dont see it topping WoW in any way, but still a shitton of money
R.I.P. Decent chat channels.
I won't even say it is ridiculous, this just shows Blizzard massive incompetence on the development of the game(they had PLENTY of time), but seeing what blizz is doing with their other games is not surprising at all(battle.net 2.0, SC2 marketplace, cataclysm, mists of pandaria).
Oh, and just an additional piece of information, Blizzard said it would add clan support for SC2 on a patch after release, 2 years later and we are still waiting for that patch.