PC-focused developer Blizzard Entertainment was in attendance at Wednesday’s Playstation meeting, putting a question mark atop several heads for a few seconds before designer Chris Metzen announced Diablo 3 will be coming to both the PS3 and PS4. The console version will support four person, split-screen multiplayer putting your dungeon crawling buddies all on one couch, or as Metzen said with a declarative fist raised, “one couch to rule them all.”

This also means the game will potentially support cross play on the PS Vita. Metzen mentioned that more information is forthcoming at PAX East this year.

So, any non-PC gamers interested? Let us know what you think in the ol’ comments section.

Today Activision announced that all of the Call of Duty Elite services will be free for Call of Duty: Black Ops II. The Elite service launched last year with two tiers. While both tiers received stat tracking and social options, one of the biggest draws of the paid premium subscription was its monthly map updates.

Of course, there’s always a trade off. Instead of giving the premium Elite members early access to DLC, Activision is offering players the opportunity to purchase a season pass.

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It seems like the bad news doesn’t stop coming this summer for the games industry. Today Activision announced that Radical Entertainment, best known for the Prototype series, has been shut down.

According to Activision, the layoffs only affect “approximately 89 employees or less than 1.5% of our global workforce.” I’m sure the employees at Radical are comforted with that figure.

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Diablo III is finally here, and if you can get past the initial shock of playing a game with single player always-on DRM, you can experience it yourself. With five classes ranging from the Wizard, Monk, Barbarian, Demon Hunter, and Witch Doctor, there’s pretty much something for everyone here to experience — personally, I couldn’t resist the demonic gaze of the Demon Hunter.

For the purposes of this impressions piece, I have a level 30 Demon Hunter that just finished Act 4 (the final episode), but I have dabbled in every other class, and found them all fairly exciting in their own way. Join me as I muse on various aspects of Diablo III from levels 1-30, which encompasses all of the game’s Normal level difficulty.

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[Update - I experienced this part of the game myself, and can safely say that as long as the Templar is your follower officially, you should be ok on this one. I personally waited until my companion was level 13 before testing this just to be sure, in case there was a certain low level range this could trigger in]

Without resorting to any spoilers, this PSA is fairly simple. Whenever you obtain a Templar follower in Diablo III, do not equip him with a new shield. In fact, don’t equip him with anything just to be sure.

Eurogamer is reporting that this issue apparently is restricted to the Demon Hunter class (wouldn’t you know it, my favorite class), but just in case, I wouldn’t recommend trying it with any class if you value your playtime.

If you engage the glitch, you’ll not only be booted out of D3′s servers, but you’ll be unable to re-enter them until Blizzard pushes a fix. An absurd workaround is noted by some users, consisting of creating a new Power User Windows account, and attempting to log in that way. Read more… »

IGN has uncovered the “officially unofficial” release date for Call of Duty Black Ops II. According to a Target reservation card, the game is set to drop November 13th, 2012. Right now it looks like there are only placards for the PS3 and 360, but a PC and money-grubbing dumbed-down Wii release is most likely soon to follow.

There have been a lot of rumors lately about Black Ops being set in present day, which for me would be a bit jarring, as it would start to blend with the Modern Warfare line. While this is pretty much a final confirmation, the “official” reveal will be on May 1st, to celebrate the NBA playoffs.

[IGN]

Blizzard is totally for serious this time, guys. They just announced Diablo III‘s official release date of May 15, 2012. You can pre-purchase digital copies right now, and the game will unlock at 12:01 am PDT on the 15th.

The game will also be available at retailers in the USA, Canada, Europe, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. Other regions like Latin America and Russia will have to wait until June 7th. Blizzard’s press release contains more details about other fully localized versions. While I can’t confirm that this May 15th release date is because of my birthday, I can’t deny it either.

Prototype was a game about somebody with mutant powers and killing helicopters. I never played it, so that’s the extent of my knowledge. But the new Blackwatch Edition for Prototype 2 that was revealed today just might convince me to get into the series.

Read on for more info about what this collector’s edition includes. Read more… »

While it’s not quite a firm release date, mega-publisher Activision confirmed a Q2 2012 window for the highly anticipated Diablo III in their most recent earnings call. This narrows the release date down to sometime between April and June of this year.

The game has already undergone changes, including some based on player feedback from the latest beta, but knowing Blizzard’s track record, it’s probably the safe bet the game’s going to be a hit. Diablo III takes place twenty years after the events of Diablo II. Though some familiar faces like Deckard Cain will make an appearance, the game features an all new set of heroes.

[Source: CVG]

Today word got out that Activision will be launching a new subscription based service called Call of Duty Elite in conjunction with the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 this fall. Activision is still trying to determine the right subscription pricing for the service which is said to “provide extra content that isn’t offered on game discs sold in stores, including downloadable map packs.”

Aside from extra content, Elite will also provide gamers with stat tracking tools that analyze their performance and tendencies in game, in hopes of directing the player to guides and tutorials on how to improve. “These can cover things like the best way to employ a certain weapon, pros and cons for their attachments, or how to make the best use of different perks. Video tutorials will also be part of the package.” Read more… »

About a month ago, I reported that Activision had killed off its Guitar Hero franchise “due to continued declines in the music genre.” Apparently Ubisoft has something to say about that. Today, the developer announced that it is currently working on a guitar based rhythm game call Rocksmith. Now before you call Rocksmith a Guitar Hero clone, please note that there are some major differences. Most importantly, you play Rocksmith with a real guitar, not some plastic toy.

Apparently Ubisoft has come up with some sort of converter that allows you to plug in your guitar cord into a USB drive. Now I know some of you are saying, “What about Power Gig: Rise of the Sixstring? That game let you play with a real guitar!” Please note that with Power Gig, you had to play using their plastic “guitar.” Sure it had strings and plugged into your console of choice, but it still wasn’t a real guitar. Also the fact that the gameplay was just trash didn’t help Power Gig‘s reputation. Read more… »

In light of Activision killing off the Guitar Hero franchise, John Riccitiello said some interesting things when he spoke at this year’s Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference.

The EA CEO mentioned that “If you go back seven years, we were the leader. And we dropped the ball. Our IP deteriorated, our costs went up, and we didn’t really have an answer for the rise of digital. Need For Speed ended up flat on its back. That annual sequel thing got to us. That was a very tough business run. We just didn’t have the portfolio.”

Now if only EA could lighten up on the yearly sports releases, and give us more awesome stuff like Dead Space 2, Dante’s Inferno and the Medal of Honor reboot I’d be a really happy camper.

[Via GoNintendo]

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