As legions of Blizzard fans eagerly await the release of Diablo III, word has come that the fantasy action-RPG sequel won"t have one of its most anticipated features available for the game"s launch. In a new post on the game"s official web site, Blizzard confirmed that Diablo III will be released without the promised player-vs-player features.
The game"s director Jay Wilson stated that as development of Diablo III has progressed, the PvP features were not up to the teams"s high standards yet. He added:
After a lot of consideration and discussion, we ultimately felt that delaying the whole game purely for PvP would just be punishing to everyone who’s waiting to enjoy the campaign and core solo/co-op content, all of which is just about complete.
PvP will be added to Diablo III via a post release patch. Wilson stated that when it is ready, players will get access to a number of multiplayer arenas along with PvP specific achievements and matchmaking features.
Of course, Blizzard still has yet to give a specific release date for Diablo III itself. A few weeks ago, the company announced it would launch sometime in the second quarter of 2012.