Diablo III Launch Storm

[Rocky]

How can a game publisher get it so wrong that the reviewers are for the most part praising and high scoring their game, but the paying public are scoring it on the opposite end of the scale?

Take a look at ths screenshot from Metacritic for the newly released DiabloIII

So why have over 2000 gamers given DiabloIII the kind of score that makes casual game buyers dismiss any notion of even trying the game, when the reveiw sites score a healthy average of 87%?

Reading the comments on Metacritic, and elsewhere, the answer for the most part, is DRM.

Blizzard decided that in order to protect their game from piracy, they would require a constant interent connection from their customers *yawn* haven't we been here already?!

The inevitable happened, and due to "server issues" and "logging in issues" customers could not play the game at all, even offline.

This is a massive mistake from Blizzard, because even once they fix the server issues, and even if they eventually rethink their DRM policy for DiabloIII, that metacritic score is never going to recover, and that is lost sales by the bucket load.

Some will argue that gamers who have rated DiabloIII a big fat DRM ZERO on metacritic are abusing the system, but perhaps it is the gamer who is being abused.

Thankfully, Ubisoft have already said that Future Soldier will require only a one time online activation, after that there will be no requirement for an internet connection.

[MeanMF]

Calling it DRM is somewhat unfair - it's more like an MMO where you're actually on a server whether you're playing solo or multiplayer. But yeah, it's been a brutal launch. The US servers collapsed under the load for several hours last night and there have been a few glitches that they've had to patch.

[Rocky]

Unfair or not...perhaps arguable, but it is definately what they are taking the flak for, the requirement of a persistant internet connection for what is basically a single player game. On the other hand, it plays like a MMO.

Rockpapershotgun sum it up well, calling it an "exceptionally good game" but due to the connection requirement, a "inherently broken product."

Typical gamers comments resulting in that 3.6 user rated scoreline echo that sentiment

Absurd how badly blizzard screwed this up. There isn't even an offline mode. What kind of Diablo doesn't have offline gameplay?

[=warcloud=]

a one time online activation.

I'm glad Ubisoft chose this route. Strange that one publisher chooses to do away with single player DRM allways on connection and another chooses to use it?.

[Blame]

Asians are already waiting for Diablo IV.

[twcrash]

That score i would bet would be more a internet haters thing than an actual score. even with the server outage during the beta I heard people whining in forums about how bad it was but everyone I know who played it loved it and I am DEFINITELY not a Diablo fan. I seen it for numerous games over the last couple years. Hell I am even starting to see it in Amazon scores as well. People complain JUST to see their presence online. Kinda like forums Example is Microsoft Flight, I have a couple friends who, NEVER even played it talk about how crappy it is, arcadish and that it isn't FSX. This was all without ever firing the game up.So they sit their in our TS whining while a bunch of us have a good time... their loss. Like ArmA 2 crappy launch D3 will get past it and everyone will love it.

[charliebrownau]

I bought Diablo 1 and 2 back in the day but Number 3 isnt getting me on the sale .

Its very annoying to have to use the internet constantly to play a single player match.

They removed LAN function from Diablo in number 3.

It costs more on the us blizzard store if your buying from AU.

It costs more from the US blizzard store in AU compared to the AU retail disc.

For me 20 dollars for Torchlight 2 is going to be a better investment . With the money I save I can buy Orcs Must Die 2 and Worms Revolution when those 2 games come out

[Rocky]

There's a real mixture of reviews, some LOVE it, some say it is a copy/past of the early games and is nothing new... if I was thinking about buying it I don't know what I would do!

[Cpl Ledanek]

there's always huge boobies when I see an article (notice, I said see... not read) ... but when I YouTube the gameplay , its small and pixelated... is this true?

[WytchDokta]

The reason is the same reason you NEVER see negative/ low star reviews on games/movies/books etc. Even on the box, all a high rating from a reviewer. Negative reviews equals negative impact on a developers reputation. Can't have that now can we? It is controlled - by controllers that are also controlled.

Now you understand why I don't reviews dictate to me what I should or should not buy. Nobody knows me in the same capacity as I do, so who is anyone else to judge what I will or will not like.

Just because some-one tells you a game/movie/whatever is great doesn't mean it is great, seeing that different people likel different things.

[ApexMods]

And here we go again.

So much for "always online is good", and "your data is safe"... didn't expect such a blunder from Blizzard.

[Rocky]

Now the fastest selling game ever.