My battle tag is Destarius#6183.
/dance
I’m a sad sad idrisz puppet.
idrisz
3602
Anyways, just for some of the people who PMed, I actually need the battle net account email address, just a handle won’t work.
Today, I received the following email regarding my Diablo III pre-order. I guess they are getting closer to release and they got some additional pertinent information from their distributor.
Dear Customer,
Thank you for your purchase of Diablo 3. We are contacting you regarding your order for this item, as we have been informed by our supplier that the only version they can supply us with is locked to the EU region. This means the game will not be able to be played online in any other region.
Please email support@censored.com confirming if you would like to go ahead with your order for this item or have it cancelled and a refund issued. Please note that we are unable to change the version of this item to another region.
Best regards,
The [censored] Team
Since the game requires an internet connection even for single player, I must assume the whole game will be Geo IP restricted. FYI: I had no issue purchasing Starcraft II from the same company and playing it just fine. My Starcraft II was also the EU version. For that game it did not matter because a) I don’t play Starcraft II online, and even though the single-player also had online based DRM it didn’t matter; and b) it does let you play multiplayer anyway - just that it uses EU servers. No big deal. Ping means nothing to me.
Honestly? No problem. I did kind of want to cancel my pre-order when it was announced that there would be no offline single player. My will was not strong enough. Today that decision was made for me by Blizzard. I guess this is the way forward. Geo IP region locking for more and more games. It is my honest and personal belief that the internet meme knows as “PC gaming is d0med” is actually becoming real. Of course it will never die due to new companies and indie developers. Commercial “AAA” titles though? Looks that way. It is only a matter of time before Origin applies this to all games. The new XBOX is also now confirmed to require an internet connection.
In some ways I’m glad. There are so many games released I find it hard to play them all. This way, the choice will be dramatically lowered - automatically.
In conclusion, it looks as if with Diablo III, it will matter where you purchase from; from what region and for what region.
Actually, Diablo 3 isn’t region locked like SC2. That email is incorrect (unless things have changed suddenly).
Your region will, however, determine which cash Auction House you can use.
To follow up on that:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=280346 (interview with Robert Bridenbecker, VP of Online Technologies at Blizzard)
[i]To sum up relative to regions:
- Diablo 3 is region free, you have a default region (based on your address) but it can be modified to play in another region (think D2).
- You can use every gold-ah
- You are restricted (locked) to a specific Real Money AH based on your address when you activate your game
- You may move region providing proof of habitation (not 100% sure).
- These apply for EU/NA 100% some things may be different for Asia.[/i]
Ninyu
3606
Do they even have internet access in Skyrim?
What store/vendor did you use? Was there a discount? Why not just order from Blizzard?
Sorry, maybe I don’t get it but this doesn’t really make sense. Console games, DVDs, etc. were region locked for ages, are they doomed too? Pretty much everything out there is region locked - TV, movies, books, music, services (like Google Voice or Pandora), online stores. Why does PC gaming get doomed all of a sudden?
Besides, if region lock didn’t bother you in Starcraft, why would it bother you in D3? It seems you want to play single player only.
I downloaded my copy of D3 so I wouldn’t be trying to get it the same time as everyone else on release day.
Here’s a thought: Why don’t companies like Blizzard do this for all their big new releases? They could hit the shelves and downloads a month or two before actual release and just not be playable until the release time. Seems like it’d save a lot of hassle with lines and whatnot.
WarrenM
3610
Because most games aren’t done until 5 minutes before they go to duplication. :)
idrisz
3611
anyways, I managed to add 4 people who managed to PM me like ASAP.
if you didn’t get a PM back, then I wasn’t able to add you, unless you are maxle.
the 60 seconds between PM is annoying.
stusser
3612
Asian and Russian versions are being released several weeks after Americas/EU because the game is region-free and software costs much less in asia/russia due to very high piracy rates.
idrisz
3613
anyways, I believe they are sending invites out for those people I added…
well good luck.
idrisz
3615
the funniest thing I heard from higher up was we need to get the game done much earlier than before because else we won’t have time to duplicate enough disc and make enough boxes in order to have them in store by holiday to break our sales records.
I just got invited to the beta! Can’t wait to try it tonight after work.
You will have fun, it will be horrible. :p
I’m just kicking myself that I didn’t get my monk and witch doctor to 13 for the achievements. I killed the skeleton king with each then went on to other classes to try them out before finishing them off, won’t make that mistake again.
