Blizzard Admits Diablo III Endgame isn't Sustainable

Blizzard has agreed with claims that the Diablo III item hunt isn't enough for a sustainable endgame.

Speaking on the game's forums, community manager Bashiok stated, "There needs to be something else that keeps people engaged, and we know it's not there right now".

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We recognize that the item hunt is just not enough for a long-term sustainable end-game.

"We recognize that the item hunt is just not enough for a long-term sustainable end-game," he said.

"There are still tons of people playing every day and week, and playing a lot, but eventually they're going to run out of stuff to do (if they haven't already). Killing enemies and finding items is a lot of fun, and we think we have a lot of the systems surrounding that right, or at least on the right path with a few corrections and tweaks.  But honestly Diablo III is not World of Warcraft. We aren't going to be able to pump out tons of new systems and content every couple months."

Given the fact that Diablo was recently beaten on the game's hardest setting, some players have been suggesting Blizzard didn't provide enough content at launch.  But Bashiok is quick to assert that this doesn't mean the company is content to sit idle while players are bored.  He cites the upcoming PvP arenas along with a progression system as potential solutions, though neither will arrive soon.

He explained, "We're working toward 1.0.4, which we're really trying to pack with as many fixes and changes we can to help you guys out (and we'll have a bunch of articles posted with all the details as we get closer), and we're of course working on 1.1 with PvP arenas.

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Hindsight is 20/20, but we believed pre-release that the item hunt would be far more sustainable, and would work to be a proper end-game for quite a while. That didn't turn out to be true.

"I think both those patches will do a lot to give people things to do, and get them excited about playing, but they're not going to be a real end-game solution, at least not what we would expect out of a proper end-game. We have some ideas for progression systems, but honestly it's a huge feature if we want to try to do it right, and not something we could envision being possible until well after 1.1 which it itself still a ways out."

Several players were quick to suggest that this proves Blizzard released Diablo III before the title was ready, but Bashiok refutes this.  He did admit however that, "Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose, but we believed pre-release that the item hunt would be far more sustainable, and would work to be a proper end-game for quite a while. That didn't turn out to be true, and we recognize that."

Despite this, the game doesn't appear to be in the dire straights that some are extrapolating from his admission.  Comparing the title's retention with Blizzard's other juggernaut, World of Warcraft, he revealed that Diablo III was still performing well and that the game is yet to be released in several key territories.

"We have hundreds upon hundreds of thousands playing every night. Comparing to just normal drop-off post release of a WoW expansion, Diablo III has been very solid, and it's not even out in China yet," he said.

Diablo III became the fastest selling PC game of all time when it released in May, shifting 3.5 million copies within 24 hours.  Our original review found the game to be amazing, though a bunch of our editors recently sat down to discuss how their experiences have progressed since then.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant.  You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com