Announced on Blizzard’s Diablo site. The PVP portion of Diablo III will not release with the game on day one in order to “speed up the release”. Instead it will be delivered to users in a patch after launch. WIth all of the delays based on expectations this is a smart move for Blizzard. We’ve only been waiting for Diablo III for almost 4 years, and the fan base seems to die a little every time a delay is mentioned. I guess I can finish playing the story and co-op before diving into PvP on this one. Blizzards information below.
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.
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