Diablo 3 Reaper Of Souls Release Date: Time to ready that legendary weapon and armor of your Diablo 3 character as Blizzard has finally announced the schedule of release for its newest expansion, Reaper of Souls.
One of the major concerns of fans in the previous game is the Error 37 message. Asked whether the team had found a solution for it, they said:
"Chances of this happening again are slim." says Mayberry. Touch wood. "So this launch is much more under control. We made sure to plan it out in such a way that players would be getting all the data and the code--if you've logged into Diablo 3 anytime in the last several weeks, you've downloaded it--and we gave it a good full month of time just to have the servers running."
"We feel like everything's going to be pretty smooth," he added.
Blizzard, meanwhile, has its own official statement on what to do if you end up in a queue: be patient. "Depending on how many people attempt to join the crusade against the Angel of Death on March 25, you may encounter a new message while playing: 'The Diablo III servers are busy.' Below this message, you should see a time estimate (if the estimate is <1 minute) as well as pulsating ellipses."
"If you received this message, it means you're currently entering a game queue. Just be patient with the queue, and you'll be slaughtering reaper in Westmarch before you know it!"
How many people are likely to try logging on tonight? Mayberry added that the game's player numbers have steadily increased since the 2.0.1 patch in February. "They've shot up in the last month or so. Since we put out patch 2.0.1 our numbers have gone up considerably, the number of people playing and returning to the game."
"A lot of people are returning to the game. They are continuously climbing towards launch. A lot of people are coming back to see what we've changed," Mayberry added. "It's been fun to watch those numbers grow. It's given us a nice morale boost."
Blizzard has said it is confident that Diablo III: Reaper of Souls players will not be plagued by the same connectivity woes that affected the original game's launch back in 2012.
"Here's the beautiful thing about this launch compared to [Diablo 3]: what people are playing right now is Reaper of Souls," said lead producer Alex Mayberry to GameSpot, referring to the game's recent 2.0.1 update. "It's just Reaper with Act V, and the Crusader class, and adventure mode turned off. But it's all live. It's running. It's been running for a few weeks now."
When Diablo III launched on May 15, 2012 many players were left unable to play the game for days due to Blizzard's overloaded login servers. Blizzard eventually implemented a queueing system on the servers, easing the strain that caused the infamous Error 37 message.
A "Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition" has been announced for PS4 for a while now, which includes both the original game and the new Reaper of Souls expansion. Weirdly, the same game hasn't been confirmed for Xbox One yet, though Blizzard is finally talking about why, and when that might actually get sorted out.
"I don't know where we are with Microsoft right now so I can't really comment on what that contract looks like," Diablo 3 lead producer Alex Mayberry explained to Videogamer.com. "The point is we are developing for Xbox [One] and PS4 simultaneously. We hit those major platforms and then our goal as a development team is to make them run."
"We've already done it with the 360 and PS3, so that team knows how to develop at the same time for both of those platforms. That's just what we do. And then Blizzard and Microsoft can work out whatever they work out."
"For Asia, the expansion will be available to play at 11:00 a.m. PDT on March 24.
"3:00 a.m. KST on March 25
"2:00 a.m. CST on March 25"
"For Europe, the expansion will be available to play at 4:00 p.m. PDT on March 24.
"23:00 GMT on March 24
"00:00 CET on March 25
"01:00 EET on March 25
"03:00 MSK on March 25"
"For the Americas, the expansion will be available to play at 9:00 p.m. PDT on March 24.
"10:00 p.m. MDT on March 24
"11:00 p.m. CDT on March 24
"12:00 a.m. EDT on March 25
"1:00 a.m. ADT on March 25
"1:30 a.m. NDT on March 25
"12:00 p.m. SGT on March 25
"3:00 p.m. AEDT on March 25"
lizzard also have advice for those hoping to avoid queues. "We advise logging in ahead of time to reduce potential queue times. Once you're in-game and the Reaper of Souls has launched in your region, you'll see a server broadcast message letting you know that the expansion is now available to play."
