Diablo 3: Blizzard’s Longest Beta Test Ever
Posted 18 April 2012 by Flux
If it seems like you’ve been waiting forever for Diablo III… you have! As Risingred documents in this forum thread, the time between Diablo III’s announcement and release, and the time between the start and finish of the Diablo III beta are both the longest in the history of Blizzard Entertainment.
Diablo II: Beta started 3.4.2000 and ran until 29.6.2000
LoD: Beta started 3.5.2001 and ran until 29.6.2001
SC2: Beta began 17.2.2010, and ran until about a week to its release, which was 27.7.2010
WoW: Beta began 19.3.2004, and ran right up until release on 23.11.2004
D3: Beta began (publicly) 20.9.2011 and will run until 1.5.2012
Diablo III has also beaten every other Blizzard game from days of announcement to opening of the beta by about 170 days, and it will also be Blizzard’s longest public development.
And this doesn’t even include the fact that D3 was announced a whopping seven years after D2X’s release. Consider this; World of Warcraft was released in North America in late 2004, and the rest of the world in early 2005. (Except for parts of China, where it’s still pending sufficient bribes governmental approval for release.) You know all those new gamers who think they’ve been playing WoW for their entire lives? That’s not even as long as we waited between D2′s release and D3′s announcement!
Thankfully, now that the end is in sight, we can look back and laaaaaaaauuuuuuuugh.
laughing is not the first thing that comes to mind when i look back at the wait
I’d guess this is an appropriate space to report that D3 was announced in 8/2008? which is when i started grad school. I graduate with my masters on 5/5/12. They made a game and I got a degree during the wait. Sad part is, they will make a lot more money than me. Well, maybe not. C’mon auction house!!
Actually D3 was announced on late June 2008, so it’s before you started grad school
Homestretch.
Soon.
9/10.
In the upcoming weeks.
Just about everything is set as it will be at release.
There’s really no saying what may change before release.
“Soon” was too soon.
Things that take less time than developing Diablo 3:
World War 1.
The Manhatten Project.
Every Apollo mission.
Giving birth to five babies, allowing for 3 months rest before the next conception.
Am I terrible at math, or was the WoW beta actually longer based on the dates in this post?
edit : doh !
geez, I suck at math
As far as the dates of the public betas go, yes. WoW’s lasted 249 days and Diablo 3′s will have lasted 224. But Diablo 3 had a non-public “beta” and WoW went straight from internal/friends and family alpha to the closed beta, so it’s kind of hard to compare the full length of their betas due to Blizzard’s change in testing phase logistics/semantics.
This. From the dates posted, WoW had a longer beta, but I don’t have solid dates for the other “versions” of the beta. Diablo III’s “public” beta did indeed last longer from this perspective.
As I said in the thread, I also give D3 a handicap because WoW was a massive undertaking for Blizzard who, at the time, was still a pretty small company with no experience making an MMO.
LOL nice references!
And Apoc, laughing is all that we can do to keep our sanity thinking how long we’ve waited!
Just in case the actual years in between D2 and D3 did not age us enough, the wait has. To think I was starting High School…
To think I was 6 years old when my parents achilly let me play diablo and i have been playing it on and off for all these years! And dear god! How long I have waited is insane for Diablo 3 don’t get me wrong I love diablo 2 and 1 but I just wana get my hands around D3 so i can love all three!
Quote:
“And this doesn’t even include the fact that D3 was announced a whopping seven years after D2X’s release… You know all those new gamers who think they’ve been playing WoW for their entire lives? That’s not even as long as we waited between D2?s release and D3?s announcement!”
I don’t understand the sense of entitlement you display with regard to the period of time between one game being released and its sequel being announced. Blizzard has not by statement or implication indicated that it seeks to publish sequels in the narrowest possible window. Nor do I think you, or any gamers, really desire Blizzard games be developed in such a fashion. While I could understand a sentiment expressing a desire to ‘play and enjoy as many Diablo games as I can get, as soon as I can,’ the above statement goes quite a bit beyond this, indicating a tone of outrage at the schedule Blizzard has set developing their games. That schedule is determined by priority, strategy, resources, and yes, even revisions, all to the goal of making the best game possible. If you and I have anything in common, that is what we ultimately want.
You aren’t owed a Diablo sequel in 1, 5, or 20 years. You can want it and be excited for it and frustrated when you don’t have it, but any entitlement you feel is misplaced.
Interesting that you choose to read bemused exasperation at an objectively and comparatively lengthy delay as, “entitlement.”
I believe you will search this post in vain for words such as, “demand,” “deserve,” “unacceptable,” etc. I didn’t even bring up the various Blizzard North debacles. If anyone should be upset by this lengthy wait, it’s ATVI stock holders. (A group that I can actually number myself among, though my handful of shares are far from a motivating factor in anything I post on this site.)
I do read entitlement into your tone and phrasing. I think bemusement is a cover for dissatisfaction in an unbased expectation.
More than anything, I’m curious which ‘various Blizzard North debacles’ you reserve mentioning (not that I know what you would gain by mentioning them). Do you refer to Flagship Studios, Castaway Entertainment, and Hyboreal Games?
I have no problem standing up and saying I felt slighted by Blizz while WoW had its reign (a reign that will likely continue even post-D3 release). Being a Diablo-only fan, it chaps my ass listening to all the D3 is too much like or not enough like WoW garbage. So leave dude alone. As far as entitlement, have you ever read WoWer message boards? or just the Blizz D3 boards which are probably 90% WoWers? plenty of entitlement going on there. not trying to troll, its just how i feel. you don’t have to like it. thats fine. i haven’t liked Blizz treatment of Diablo over the past almost decade.
How is it an unbased expectation?
What other company, what other game outside of Duke Nukem has such a ridiculous amount of time in the public eye before it is even playable?
This is not the gaming industry standard. Of course we expect delay from Blizzard, but this was just asinine amounts of time waiting for a simple ARPG.
You seem to have a gift for creating negative connotations in my every remark.
I refer to the fact that development began on D3 in 2000, shortly after D2′s release, and that due to umpteen problems that have been detailed elsewhere (often by me talking to Max and others) the whole thing got shelved in 2005 and restarted almost from scratch at Bliz Irvine. Without assigning blame to anyone, I’d say an experienced, competent gaming studio working on a hugely-anticipated AAA title for 5 years, to no result, qualifies as a debacle.
Because shut up, I read about two sentences. You’re an idiot. You obviously don’t know how long we’ve been waiting, so just stfu and leave.
yeah and the game is addictive as ****, real dope.
“Thankfully, now that the end is in sight, we can look back and laaaaaaaauuuuuuuugh.”
I’ll only be laughing if the game is good. If the game is mediocre, like SC2, then I will be… disappointed. And if there is one thing I do not like, it is to be… disappointed.
so what’s really to blame for the long development cycle? is it jay wilson’s incompetence? or is D3 really such a huge project?