Diablo III release date confirmed for May

Rumors and speculation be damned! Blizzard Entertainment today confirmed that Diablo III will be plundering the depths of retail on May 15.

The long-awaited sequel will appear in physical form for PC and Mac in North America, Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau; while Sanctuary heroes in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil will have to download their digital copy from Blizzard's Battle.net service. Rounding out its global release, Diablo III will be ready for Russia and Latin America countries on June 7, followed by other localized versions throughout the globe at a later date.

"After many years of hard work by our development team and months of beta testing by hundreds of thousands of dedicated players around the world, we're now in the homestretch," said Blizzard's Mike Morhaime. "We look forward to putting the final polish on Diablo III over the next two months and delivering the ultimate action-RPG experience to gamers worldwide starting on May 15."

The regular Diablo III edition will run for $59.99, while the Collector's Edition will set diehard fans back $99.99. The latter version will ship with a slew of extras, including a behind-the-scenes documentary, Diablo III soundtrack, a 208-page Art of Diablo III book; and a 4GB soulstone USB containing full versions of Diablo II and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, plus in-game freebies for Diablo III, World of Warcraft, and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty. Blizzard is also dangling a free copy of Diablo III out as an incentive to buy a World of Warcraft Annual Pass. Which begs the question: who has time for both??

Excited for Diablo III? Check out our latest beta preview, and let us know if you'll be fighting the armies of the Burning Hells on day one.

CATEGORIES

Matt Bradford wrote news and features here at 12DOVE until 2016. Since then he's gone on to work with the Guinness World Records, acting as writer and researcher for the annual Gamer's Edition series of books, and has worked as an editor, technical writer, and voice actor. Matt is now a freelance journalist and editor, generating copy across a multitude of industries. 

Latest in Diablo
Diablo 4 lunar event
Blizzard came up with Diablo 4's most powerful item modifiers at the last minute: "Literally, we had 2 weeks left in the development schedule"
Diablo 4 season 8 boss
Diablo 4 season 8 is revamping the boss ladder system with new mechanics and bosses, including one of the best from Diablo 3
Diablo 4 Goblin event
What is the Diablo 4 Goblin event and how to claim rewards
A demon towers over its foes in some Diablo 2: Resurrected concept art
Diablo 2 creator says players treated the action RPG like a "lifestyle game" because it was fun, and MMOs like World of Warcraft had more to do with starting the live service trend
Diablo 4
Diablo 4 boss would push for patches to have more fun stuff to balance out unpopular but necessary nerfs: "Lots of medicine, don't see much sugar"
Diablo 4 The Butcher
Diablo 4's second expansion won't come out until 2026
Latest in News
Pillars of Eternity
10 years later, in a post-Baldur's Gate 3 and Avowed world, Obsidian is giving its own throwback CRPG Pillars of Eternity a turn-based combat mode
Destiny 2 Lightfall
When Destiny 2 "weekly active users dropped lower and faster than we'd seen since 2018," Bungie assembled an A-Team to put out some fires: "We needed to do something"
Velma, Daphne, Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo looking at a giant key which is also a clue
Netflix is rebooting Scooby-Doo as a live-action series from the producer of Supergirl and The Flash centered around a "supernatural murder" at a summer camp
Astro Bot
Astro Bot went through 23 pitch iterations before its director promised PlayStation "happy gameplay" and "overflowing charm," though it did once end with robot decapitation that made "some people really upset"
Tomb Raider
5 years after Avengers, 2 years after its last layoffs, and who knows how long before Perfect Dark and Tomb Raider return, Crystal Dynamics announces another round of layoffs
AI Limit
"AI is not as effective as it might appear": Dev of AI-focused Soulslike RPG says they didn't use any AI-generated content and it can't match "genuine creativity"