Diablo 3 launch and release information from interview

What follows is a transcript from indiablo.de which interviewed jay wilson about the upcoming Diablo 3 Release Date.

inDiablo.de: Will there be a system which supports clans in battle.net to enhance cooperative gameplay?
Jay Wilson: We are working on a new version of battle.net, but we have not announced any specific features yet. I can tell you that our goal is to create the best kind of online experience that you can find in any game and it really will unite the Blizzard fanbase. We have got the greatest fanbase in the world, the greatest fans, and we really want to allow them to communicate and play together much more easily. Thats about as specific als I can get about that, but we will be announcing more about the new Battle.net in the future.

inDiablo.de: Will Diablo 3 still have a gambling-feature to gamble good rare Items?
Jay Wilson: We have not actually made a decision on gambling. We have talked about it and we might do it! It kind of depends on some of the other decisions we will make. We do not have anything against it, it is more like that: Once we make some of the other decisions on how we are going to handle items, we will decide whether or not that warrants an inclusion. But, for the most part, i think we are generally for it!


inDiablo.de:
In a previous interview you mentioned that you are planning that items could be interchanged between two characters via streamline. With the trade window we know from Diablo 2, will this be an alternative trade method or will it even replace the trade window?
Jay Wilson:
Right now, we use a "trade window" kind of interface, like in Diablo 2, as a secure trade interface. We might explore some other way to make things easier for the player to trade. I think, when looking at Diablo 2, in just the general way - kind of stepping one step back from the question - and saying "How did players trade with one another in diablo 2?", that it was not the most convenient of methods. There was no kind of easy way to find other players and to trade with them, you had to create specific games for things like that and we definitely would like to solve this problem and make it more convenient. But we have not decided exactly on how we want to to this, yet.


inDiablo.de:
Will the spells be adapted to the environment? For example no meteor/blizzard inside of a cave like the den of evil?
Jay Wilson:
You mean that, for example atmospheric effects could not be cast in a dungeon?


inDiablo.de:
Yes.
Jay Wilson:
No, we would not do anything like that. If we allow you to cast - for example - a blizzard-spell, we will let you cast it anywhere. For the most part, if you did that, it makes certain spells the thing that nobody wants to take.


inDiablo.de:
How will you guaranteee that Diablo 3 will not be censored or rated 18+ in germany?
Jay Wilson:
The biggest thing is, that we are targeting not to be an 18+ game. If we were to get an 18+ rating, we would likely make some changes to the german edition, to make sure it would not get this rating. But we handle those things pretty far in advance. We are already talking about the rating and what qualifies as an 18+ rating in europe to make sure that we do not hit that level, because we definitely want to make sure that the game is sold here.


inDiablo.de:
When a character dies, will it lose gold and experience like in Diablo 2?
Jay Wilson:
We have not actually decided on the final death mechanic. I can guarantee that you will not lose experience. We are not urging to big penaltys for death. But we want enough of a penalty to be there, so that death has meaning! Like to lose a little bit time, some kind of decrement... We do not currently have a durability, but some kind of ... a gold cost is actually not so bad. And having the player to waste some time, that is certainly an element. Generally we kind of rely on the effect that players do not want to die. You know, you just do not want to. So there is no real reason to add a further "ding" to them for something happening that was already unfavorable to them. But we have not got our final mechanics on that, yet.


inDiablo.de:
Will I be able to switch the languages to play in english or whatever language I want?
Jay Wilson:
I honestly do not know. How we exactly are going to handle globalization to that level is not something we know this far in advance. Obviously we will localize it in german and we will localize it in english, but I am not sure whether it will be on the same disc.


inDiablo.de:
Are you going to integrate well known Items like the Stone of Jordan, the Harlequins Crest and so on?
Jay Wilson:
We will probably do a mix of both. At this point we have really not gotten into the legendary kind of level in terms of items. We have focused mostly on the magic and rare items. We have some legendary items in the game, but they are not final. Most of them are kind of joke items that we are going to take out of the game before we release it. But we probably bring back items from Diablo 2, I do not see why we would not, but we will also have new ones.


inDiablo.de:
Will Monsters be able to use the same Skills as the characters? Like curses, spells or attacks?
Jay Wilson:
Generally not. I mean, we make a few exceptions here and there. Some skills - like for example a magical energy blast or things like that - might so similar... like a fire arrow, if there were someone to use a bow to shoot magical arrows, he might shoot fire arrows. Something like that. But for the most part we tend to design playerskills for players and monsterskills for monsters.


inDiablo.de:
Will there be mercenaries which can be hired and can they use a full equipment including amulets, rings, belts, gloves and boots?
Jay Wilson:
Yeah, we call them "Followers" now, but we are bringing them back. We have not announced any kind of information on them, so we are not really talking about them, yet. I can say that they are a big improvement over the Diablo 2 mercenarys. They are definitely a lot more interesting, but we will be revealing something about them at a future time.

There will be much more to come in th eweeks ahead. We'll be tracking the Diablo 3 Date every day!