Tomas Hernandez is owner of Blizzplanet.com since 2003. I post news about World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III, Hearthstone, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard Careers, and the Warcraft film.
Blizzplanet is a leading fansite covering news about upcoming Blizzard Entertainment licensed products. I also post previews and reviews. I have interviewed book writers and Blizzard game developers.
I was previously an employee of the OGaming Network (2003), and IncGamers (2008-2010). I was a guest newsposter for GosuGamers (World of Warcraft) a few years ago and for Diablofans.com (formerly Diablo3.com)
***Fans who would love to watch Blizzard-related panels and appreciate our efforts can support Blizzplanet's patreon in a monthly-basis, or a one-time basis. Our staff are volunteer fans like you. Your donatives will help us travel to all the Blizzard events we attend year-round.
Blizzard Entertainment hasn’t made new announcements about the Diablo Immortal game. Not even 4 months after NetEase revealed their co-development tasks were completed.
We know Blizzard won’t be at GamesCom 2019, so there won’t be a Diablo Immortal panel there, nor gaming stations to play the demo. That leaves us little wiggle room to speculate where Blizzard might announce new details about the game, leaving us with BlizzCon as the most adequate platform. E3 already over (June 11-13) didn’t have Blizzard’s presence. SDCC started today, and nothing Diablo-ish appears in the schedule.
However, beta testing could happen in 2019, before BlizzCon… in theory. Don’t hold your breath though.
You can sign up for beta testing right now. It’s been up in the official website since November 2, 2018.
Without info on the game, and its requirements, it is hard to figure out the hardware specs and Android version Blizzard plans to support. What we do know is that Diablo Immortal Beta will be available to Android users. iOS won’t be available for beta, but there are plans to launch Diablo Immortal for iOS devices at some point in the future, or as the website coins it: “Soon”. Whether that means a simultaneous Android/iOS release, or a Android-only release, with a iOS version at a later time– that remains to be seen.
So when preparing for a game like Diablo Immortal when you do not own a phone or tablet, but for motives other than the game you plan to purchase one — you have to go the safe route. The latest Android OS: 9.0 Pie. Just in case, because we don’t know how far down the rabbit hole Blizzard plans to support (i.e. Android 8, Android 7, etc.)
For example, I have a device with Android 5. It won’t even load the Diablo Immortal beta sign-up app in Google Play. I also have an NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet running Android 8.1 Oreo. It won’t load the Diablo Immortal beta sign-up app in Google Play either.
If you don’t have an Android phone or a tablet, I will mention here some of the top alternatives available in the market right now running Android 9.
Several months ago, a NetEase representative revealed that all the development on the side of NetEase had been completed: “With regards to the launch of Diablo Immortal, we will announce a market launch date simultaneously with Blizzard. But on our side, development is already fully prepared and invested.”
It has been now 8 months since Blizzard Entertainment unveiled Diablo Immortal and no one has heard a peep about the game after that announcement — at least from Blizzard. So what happened?
NetEase has encouraged the press to reach out to Activision Blizzard to ask the question, but certainly nothing has been heard as a follow up. Why is Activision Blizzard holding up on details or on what the status of Diablo Immortal is?
I am going to speculate here based on what we know. Diablo Immortal was not received well by the audience at BlizzCon. Blizzard did clarify at least a couple of times that we would not be hearing about Diablo 4 at BlizzCon, but that the forges of Hell were burning. That was clearly a “Don’t expect Diablo 4 to be announced at BlizzCon.”
The Hellfire Expansion is now available to the Original Diablo at GOG.com. For a limited time, you can buy the original Diablo at a 10% discount ($8.99), and get Hellfire as a free add-on.
If you already own the original Diablo on GOG.COM, it will be updated with Hellfire expansion automatically. 10% discount for Diablo is time-limited and ends at 10 PM UTC June 17, 2019.
Originally developed by Synergistic Software and released in 1997, Hellfire was not an official Blizzard product and did not carry Blizzard’s endorsement or label. Despite that, in response to Diablo players who have expressed a desire to experience the content, Blizzard has given the OK for it to be included as a free add-on with Diablo purchases on GOG.COM.
Hellfire offers a non-canonical single-player storyline where players must defeat a powerful demon named Na-Krul who is threatening Tristram. The expansion also adds a Monk class, new weapons and items, new missions, locations, dungeons, and enemies. Hellfire will be accessible while launching the original Diablo.
The Art of Diablo is now available for $26.19 (down from $45 and later $35). The release date has been pushed from October 15 to November 3, 2019 (the day after BlizzCon’s closing date).
Below you can read the book description and three new interior pages from the book. The pages are mostly a temporary mockup preview. The text within is just Lorem Ipsum dummy text.
The preview shows an entry for the Demon Hunter class, as well as concept art created for the Diablo III video game: her weaponry, armor style, standing-up pose; and for the amount of dummy text likely the history of the Demon Hunter.
The Art of Diablo’s interior pages lead in with a foreword from senior artist Brom, and an introduction by former Vice-president of Creative and Franchise development Chris Metzen.
For months, the community has discussed the massive removal of dislikes from the Diablo Immmortal trailer’s YouTube page. Content creators or influencers have also highlighted the topic widely.
However, Caden of the House known as Ythisens has come forward to share his personal experience while he was still a community manager.
Ythisens was one of the hundreds of Blizzard employees laid off early February 2019. But now that he is no longer an employee, he decided to come forward by sharing what happened behind-the-scenes.
Blizzard Entertainment was not aware of the reason thousands of dislikes were removed. Blizzard didn’t remove them, nor requested YouTube to remove them. As a matter of fact, Blizzard still doesn’t know why that behavior happened, as YouTube has not responded Blizzard’s inquiries of the matter.
It seems the exorbitant amount of dislikes might have been generated by multiple fake bot accounts that got banned by YouTube. That sounds like a logical assumption. But same as you, Blizzard has no clue why the dislikes started to disappear en mass.
As speculated last night via tweet, Blizzard Entertainment was tweaking the PTR last night in preparation for Season 17 on PTR.
The Diablo III PTR 2.6.5 will go live on Friday, April 5; and it will last for a week to test Season 17 — which features an insane buff.
The Season of Legacy of Nightmares:
Player’s damage dealt is increased by 750% and damage taken is reduced by 4% for every Ancient Item they have equipped while having no Set Bonuses Active.
Other highlights of Patch 2.6.5 is that Torment 14, 15, and 16 have been added into the game. So far the max difficulty was Torment 13.
A few days ago, Diablofans.com ended an era when they officially closed shop. There won’t be news updates anymore. There won’t be new Class builds anymore. Their won’t be new community forum posts anymore.
The entire website has gone into read-only mode. No new forum threads or topics can be posted.
I decided to somewhat fill the void that Diablofans is leaving in the wake of their departure. I launched the WorldofSanctuary.com forum, which can be accessed with your Battle.net Login.
I recently posted that WorldofSanctuary will have a Diablo III Build section where fans will be able to “create build” or browse through “Builds” — as close as possible to what you were used to see at Diablofans.
Currently, 3Di (phpBB) is hard at work developing this tool. He already showed me a preview of his progress. He estimates the tool will be live by mid-May 2019.
In addition, CarlX (a coder from the Blizzard API forums) with years of Diablo II gameplay wishes to help develop a Diablo II Class build tool as well. This tool will be very helpful to those who want to play Diablo II now, or later when Diablo II: Remastered goes live.
Please, feel free to share your feedback, petitions, and suggestions about what the Diablo III or Diablo II class build tool should have for the benefit of this community.
Blizzard Entertainment has announced that the original Diablo game that launched in 1996 is now available at GOG.com — however, the DRM-free GOG version has been optimized for current systems by GOG.
This is a very unusual move by Blizzard Entertainment, but considering the vast GOG playerbase, this could be interpreted as a sign of things to come. Tapping into that pool of players can be seen as a way to bring new players into Diablo Immortal, and better yet… a Diablo II: Remastered.
It is no surprise that Diablo II: Remastered will be developed after Warcraft III: Reforged ships. It’s just a matter of when Blizzard will announce it, when beta testing begins, and when it ships.
Q: Is Diablo II coming to GOG.COM?
A: Diablo II and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction are currently available for purchase digitally on the Battle.net Shop. We have no additional announcements at this time.
Q: What is different between the Battle.net and GOG-enhanced versions of the game?
A: The original Battle.net version of the game is completely unchanged and allows players to connect to one another through Blizzard’s Battle.net online-gaming service.
The GOG-enhanced version offers several quality of life additions, including minor audio fixes, up-scaling support for resolution and refresh rate control, and compatibility fixes. Please note that this version cannot connect to Battle.net and only supports multiplayer via LAN and P2P connection.
Blizzard provided a FAQ for those who wish to learn more about this GOG enhanced version of the original Diablo game.
You can order Diablo for $9.99 at GOG.com at the following page.
On December 31, 1996, Diablo introduced the world to the dark, foreboding realm of Sanctuary. Heroes braved the depths below Tristram Cathedral to take on the Lord of Terror himself, kicking off an ongoing legacy in the world of action role-playing games. Today, players can once again explore this timeless Blizzard classic as it becomes available digitally and DRM-free for the first time ever, exclusively on GOG.COM!
Diablo has been lovingly preserved in its original form, featuring HD resolution support and compatibility fixes brought to you by the GOG team to ensure compatibility with modern PC operating systems. Play on your own or with friends via network or direct IP. Explore randomly generated rooms, corridors, traps, treasures, monsters, and stairways, all rendered in their original three-dimensional, SVGA enhanced graphics.
Ready to go back to where it all started? Diablo is available now direct from GOG.COM for $9.99!
Blizzard Entertainment has announced that the original Diablo game that launched in 1996 is now available at GOG.com — however, the DRM-free GOG version has been optimized for current systems by GOG.