PC/Mac game publisher Blizzard Entertainment today released details about the sales of its hit game Diablo II. The company also named the forthcoming Diablo II expansion set and provided some basic information about the add-on pack’s release schedule.
Blizzard says that from June to December of 2000, the company sold an astonishing 2.75 million copies of the game. The number is based on data culled from their key retail accounts and market research firm PC Data. Blizzard notes that Diablo II is the fastest-selling game in their history.
The company also unveiled the name of their forthcoming Diablo II expansion pack. The set will be called Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. MacCentral got a look at the expansion set earlier this month at Macworld Expo.
Blizzard says that Diablo II: Lord of Destruction is on track for a release in the first half of 2001. The company remains vague on a Mac-specific release for the expansion pack, saying only “A Macintosh version is expected this summer.”
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction returns players to the world they first visited in Diablo II. The Prime Evil Baal remains alive and malevolent. Baal has raised his hordes and has plundered the Barbarian Highlands on a quest to destroy the powerful Worldstone, a magic artifact that keeps the mortal realm safe from the forces of Hell.
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction requires the original game in order to function. The add-on pack adds a fifth act to the original game’s story; two new playable character classes; six new quests; new monster types including Quest Bosses and Uniques; hundreds of new Unique and Exceptional items; thousands of new magical items; new Horadric Cube recipes; and a doubling of the player’s stash size.
Readers are encouraged to remember that Blizzard was similarly vague about the release of the original Diablo II. The Mac version of that game followed its PC counterpart by less than a month, so there’s a very good chance that the release of PC and Mac versions of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction will be similarly close.
Diablo II: Lord of Destruction will carry a retail price somewhere around US$30, according to Blizzard.