Diablo III

Grabbing one of the year's hottest tickets will be a tricky prospect, especially considering how fast BlizzCon typically sells out. However, Blizzard is giving everyone a fair chance at grabbing one of these tickets by announcing the dates and times that they'll be going on sale.

Dates plural? Yes indeed! BlizzCon tickets will be sold in two batches, first on Wednesday, April 24th, at 10:00 p.m. EDT and second on Saturday, April 27th, at 1:00 p.m. EDT. The tickets for the two-day convention are $175, although if you want to package in the Children's Hospital benefit dinner with the show, you'll be looking at parting with $500.

The studio also assured fans that it will once again be selling virtual tickets to BlizzCon, although specifics regarding these have yet to come. BlizzCon is taking place on November 8th and 9th at the Anaheim Convention Center in California.

It's been a huge week for MOBAs, with several new characters being released and one game closing its doors for good. League of Legends finally revamped underused champion Karma and released new character Zac, a strange green blob who drops parts of himself all over the battlefield and can even revive after death. Dota 2 released classic hero Bristleback, a spined boar who slows enemies with a disgusting snot attack and slowly peppers them with spiked quills.

SMITE released god of music Apollo, who can deal damage by playing his lyre, sing enemies to sleep, and even power-slide like a rock star. Heroes of Newerth is in between hero releases, but its recent HoN 3.0 update has earned it the title of Best MOBA at PAX East 2013 by gaming website RTSGuru.

Warhammer-themed MOBA Wrath of Heroes officially closed its doors on March 29th, and its website has now been replaced with a message by producer James Casey. Finally, Diablo III's former Game Director Jay Wilson gave a talk at GDC 2013 in which he blamed many of the game's downfalls on both the gold and cash auction houses.

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A demo of Diablo III running on the PS3 was shown at PAX East 2013 this week, and developers confirmed that the game is not necessarily exclusive to Sony. Many PC players have been enraged by the demo, which showed improved loot and singleplayer features developers had previously said were not possible. Red 5 Studios was also at PAX this week to reveal its ambitious plans for a gaming TV channel. The studio plans to expand its gaming video channel Stage 5 with several new high-quality shows about indie games, cosplay, and gaming tropes. Path of Exile also released information on three completely overpowered new support gems currently in alpha testing for its upcoming Patch 0.10.5.

In MOBA news, League of Legends officially launched in Italy this week with a huge launch ceremony in Rome. Several professional players were unrelatedly banned for boosting other players' stats artificially, and one team was given its final warning for using a DDoS attack during a match. Heroes of Newerth received new melee strength hero Prisoner 945, and Guardians of Middle-Earth released a free map update along with a purchasable spider character DLC. Upcoming MOBA SMITE was given a loose launch window of summer 2013, and Russian MOBA Prime World took a big step toward European and US launches with the translation of much of its Russian website into English.

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Diablo III's console edition is the cornerstone of Blizzard's booth at PAX East this weekend (but by no means the only product on display), so it stands to reason that the team would have cut together a new trailer to promote the coming console conquest.

As we mull over the prospect of Blizzard winning over large swaths of the current console market, the PA Report discovered that Diablo III might not stop at just the PlayStation 3 and 4. In an interview, Blizzard did not want to make any official announcements but did state that the Diablo III console edition was "not necessarily a Sony exclusive."

You can watch the "sizzle reel" of Diablo III with the adjusted UI after the jump!

Massively's on the ground in Boston during the weekend of March 22nd to 24th, bringing you all the best news from PAX East 2013. Whether you're dying to know more about WildStar, DUST 514, or any MMO in between, we aim to have it covered!

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We're still getting over the shock that Blizzard is coming off the mount to attend PAX East this weekend, but we'll work through that to bring you some of the new details about the studio's appearance at the show.

Blizzard will be planting roots at booth #1036 in the Expo Hall and has promised to show "something new" in the Naga theater at 10:00 a.m. EDT tomorrow morning. If you're not there, don't worry; Blizzard is streaming the event on Twitch.tv as well.

The PlayStation 3 version of Diablo III will be available to check out via demo stations. This edition has been tailored to the console with a "reimagined" interface, new monsters, and different character controls. The team is also giving away lots of swag to those who pop by during the day.

Massively's on the ground in Boston during the weekend of March 22nd to 24th, bringing you all the best news from PAX East 2013. Whether you're dying to know more about WildStar, DUST 514, or any MMO in between, we aim to have it covered!

Doubts were cast on SimCity's always-online requirement this week when a player managed to hack the game into playing completely offline despite developers saying it wouldn't be possible. Maxis General Manager Lucy Bradshaw also caught a lot of flack from gamers this week for claiming that the game was in many ways an MMO. Petroglyph's Victory Kickstarter that we announced last week has now been cancelled, making the future of the game uncertain.

League of Legends revealed its plans to finally update two-year-old champion Karma and release new champion Zac, who is literally a pile of green goop. Guardians of Middle-Earth published iconic character Saruman as a new piece of DLC, and SMITE added new god Aphrodite, who heals and supports her teammates with hugs and kisses.

In addition to fixing some major bugs, Diablo III's recent patch 1.07a was shown to have nerfed many popular Wizard builds, including critical mass Energy Twister and Meteor builds. Path of Exile's latest patch added a new Cyclone skill that's reminiscent of the Diablo II Whirlwind skill and introduced three fun new game types for this season's upcoming race events.

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Fresh from its work on End of Nations, developer Petroglyph launched a Kickstarter campaign this week for its own online RTS Victory. The campaign hit $19,574 in the first five days but has a long way to go to hit its $700,000 target. SimCity's always-online DRM backfired spectacularly as launch server capacity and stability issues left thousands unable to play what they thought of as a largely singleplayer game.

Diablo III revealed details of its upcoming loot overhaul that will make legendary items a little more legendary and rare items and good bit rarer. Path of Exile's patch 1.10.2 was deployed successfully, adding a few item mods and significantly improving the Duelist class area of the passive skill tree.

League of Legends celebrated its 100th Summoner Showcase with a look back at the community's best creative output and announced a brand-new comic contest that will see players voting for the winner. SMITE announced its $10,000 PAX East invitational tournament, and Guardians of Middle-Earth tempted players back with 75,000 free in-game gold in a new weekend event.

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Because Diablo III is such a loot-centric game, players pay attention when the developers start talking about making significant itemization changes in the upcoming months.

The first part of Blizzard's future itemization philosophy is to more strongly equate rarity with power. Legendary items will drop less frequently and become a lot more powerful, and there will be a greater amount of diversity across the board. "It will take time, but our goal is to try to provide players with compelling alternatives to trifecta items when talking about what items they want to acquire," game designer Travis Day writes.

Other changes include reducing the drop rate on rares, making gold sinks more exciting, and giving players better reasons to farm mobs instead of merely camping out at the auction house.

It's been a huge week for MOBAs, with the release of several new characters, a ton of balance changes, and even a game closing down for good. League of Legends announced that it will start officially supporting Mac and released a new Smart Ping system designed to help players work together as a team despite language barriers. SMITE showed off its new crowd-controlling water god, Poseidon, and console MOBA Guardians of Middle-Earth released a new Survival game mode DLC.

We heard the unfortunate news that Wrath of Heroes will be closing its doors at the end of the month, and it's not the only game going out of business. Online FPS Bullet Run, formerly known as Hedone, is due to shut down on Friday, March 8th, in a big final event. It's not all doom and gloom, though, as Dota 2 has hit another impressive milestone, passing 300,000 peak concurrent players. The first season of Heroes of Newerth's HoN Tour league is soon to draw to a close, and developers are planning a huge balance patch before the next season kicks off.

Blizzard enraged Diablo III fans this week with the announcement that the console version will not feature the controversial always-online DRM and can be played offline. Path of Exile detailed its next open beta patch, which is due to introduce a new fire skill, a 3v3 dueling arena, and significant Duelist class buffs. Online FPS Firefall produced a new trailer this week showing off its flight gameplay amidst criticism from fans over its lack of beta content. Finally, sci-fi sandbox Star Citizen gave fans a look behind the curtain of game development in its biggest development update video yet.

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In the video interview with GameTrailers, Hight also talked about new features, including a new evasion ability and having all four players in co-op mode on the same screen instead of spit onto four separate ones. Players eager to test the game out on the consoles can look forward to a hands-on experience at PAX. In the meantime, you can watch the full interview after the cut.

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Blizzard revealed this week that Diablo III will be coming to both the PlayStation 3 and Sony's new PlayStation 4 console and will be shown off at PAX. Torchlight II developer Runic Games announced that the game will soon be localised to Japanese and Chinese for its upcoming release in Asia; a free DLC is on the way with three new Asian-themed pets. Path of Exile revealed the schedule for its first full season of ladder-style race events and announced new account security options along with its new policy to never restore items from hacked accounts.

League of Legends unveiled its new champion duo, Quinn and Valor, a dynamic pair of characters that work together as a single champion to dominate teamfights. Heroes of Newerth revealed its own new hero with a video spotlight on Saloman, a melee support hero who gains power from movement and can heal and shield his allies.

Dota 2 added a new Hero Build feature to its beta this week, giving players access to community-produced skill and item builds for all heroes. Console MOBA Guardians of Middle-Earth showed off its new goblin DLC character Snaga, and online FPS Blacklight: Retribution detailed its upcoming Onslaught expansion, which comes with three new game modes.

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Diablo III is slated to roar into the console market, Blizzard Senior VP Chris Metzen announced at the Sony PlayStation 4 event today in New York City. Metzen said that the action-RPG will be coming to both the PlayStation 3 and 4 and that the company is excited to show it off at PAX.

"Blizzard and Sony have entered into a strategic partnership, through which we will take over the world," Metzen said.

Bungie's recently unveiled Destiny will also be headed to the PS4. Bungie president Harold Ryan told the audience that the PS3 and PS4 editions will feature exclusive PlayStation-only content.

The PlayStation 4 is due out for the holiday 2013 season.

[Updated: Our sister site Joystiq reports that "Diablo 3 on PS4 and PS3 will feature all major PC updates." Joystiq's also nabbed a few of the very first screenies from the game on console.]

After skipping a year, BlizzCon is back, baby! The near-annual Blizzard convention is scheduled to take place on November 8th and 9th at the Anaheim Convention Center in California. The event will provide hands-on time with Blizzard's titles, an e-sports tournament, dev panels, and contests.

Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime is looking forward to the return of the convention: "BlizzCon gives us a chance to connect with our players and share our latest projects in a very personal way. Members from all of our gaming communities have helped make this event bigger and better every time, and we look forward to meeting up and celebrating with them in November."

While tickets are not yet on sale, the official BlizzCon site has posted hotel info for those looking to make Anaheim their temporary place of residence come this fall.