The kick line was apparently delivered from a speech file from TeamLiquid, which said the following:
Quote fromwhat I will say is that a player who goes to retail and buys the Starcraft 2 box at retail will have the full Starcraft 2 game included in the box and they will have the ability to play on battlenet with no additional fee.
It shouldn't be much of a stretch to say this same feature extends to Diablo III, as both Starcraft II and Diablo III will be running on the same Battle.net. Also, as noted by many over the years, Battle.net has always been and still is a free gift from Blizzard.
However, it may still be possible that complimentary features, like name changes, may still be royalty services that require a little moola. That might be a small price to pay for the ultimate ARPG gaming experience available for free play.
This was actually tipped-off to me on June 1 I believe, but I neglected to post it until now. Sorry about that. All the credit goes to Svetopolk who found it first. The first thread on this article can be found here. Pop him some rep points if any of you get the chance, he deserves for finding this for our community as well as dealing with bothersome staff members, like myself.
Could this be a definitive declaration that Battle.net will be free for Diablo III as well? Would players be willing to pay for extended services if they are implemented? Does this increase the appeal of buying and playing Diablo III on Battle.net for fans?
I second that I hope that the friggin patch comes out soon...man they were way off on that end of april thing.
I think it's more than likely we'll get micro fees for small things here and there.
Confirmed by Blizzard employees on forums as well, so yes, the new Battle.net will definitely be free.
haha that sums up exactly my thoughts (and im pretty sure most ppl). always nice to get confirmation, but atm the patch is more important, i want the patch!!!
That was newsworthy, this is speculation.
Really? I must have missed them directly saying that a "relatively long time ago". Could you please provide a direct quote and/or links to the articles confirming it?
Secondly, I'm sure it is newsworthy, since Blizzard, Starcraft, and Diablo franchise-based fansites have reported it all over the place.
im all glee
kee kee kee
hee hee hee
i gotta ***
you know xD
If they do introduce micro-payments then I hope they don't have any effect on gameplay, as that would create an imbalanced playing field between people who pay and people who don't. I would rather have 100% of people paying than it being imbalanced by optional paying
No. It was hinted at in several reports vaguely mentioning that fees *might* only apply to small things like name changes or such. It was not confirmed, however, the status of a Battle.net fee for normal use. That is why it's been reported all over the place.
You might be confusing it with the very logical and well-founded posts of many fans deducing that it would logically be free, but no, it was never stated so until now.