Release the Devil
October 17th, 2008I’m sure by now that you’ve seen all the great new movies and hands-on impressions of Diablo 3 (here’s one such example). It looks and sounds like it’s going to be a blast when it’s finally released.
But there’s the problem… For us unpatient folks, Blizzard just takes too damn long to release their games. It’s actually with some relief to me that they announced that Starcraft II is going to be rolled out as a trilogy, because frankly, the thing probably wouldn’t be released until 2011 or later if they didn’t break it up.
In any case, Diablo III is probably still a long way away. It’s true that no official release date has been announced for the game, but if I had to wager a guess, I’d say it won’t be released until 6-12 months after the first Starcraft II is released, and that probably won’t be released until late next year. So my question is, with the demo looking extremely fun and everyone enjoying it, why don’t they just release this small taste of the game to satiate, but also excite, the ever-patient Diablo fans? They don’t even have to enable online-play… just release a single-player snippet of the game.
Yes, I’m partially joking here, but in all honesty, why don’t companies release small samples of their games a bit early when they clearly have something people like? Are they worried that an early demo will somehow reduce sales? I don’t think they have anything to worry about in the case of Diablo 3.
Posted in Business, Industry, Jeff, PC |
October 18th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Could it be a QC issue? Blizzard’s notorious for being somewhat tight-lipped about new releases, and famous for its games’ quality; I’d imagine they want to make sure that reputation stays intact by checking every game as thoroughly as possible. That may mean not allowing parts of the game to get through to the market early.
Considering that everyone will buy Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2, I see demos as being somewhat risky for them but having no upside. Even if the risk were miniscule, where’s the benefit?
October 19th, 2008 at 1:30 am
I dunno, Halo 3 had a public beta that went pretty well.
The PR seems like it would be pretty good, particularly if the demos went over well (and they seem to be doing so at shows). And it could potentially get people more excited again after several people have lapsed, or perhaps may never have even played, any of the original Diablo games.
Or, perhaps an even simpler way of putting it… What exactly is the downside, assuming they’re as good as people say they are from playing them at the shows? It seems pretty minimal.