Blizzard Quote [source]

Prepare your couch and consider fortifying your living room, because on September 3, Diablo® III will unleash hell on both the PlayStation® 3 and Xbox 360®! It pays to be prepared against the forces of the Burning Hells, so get your preorder lined up for the PS3™ or Xbox 360, as added bonuses are in store for those who take the fight for Sanctuary to their big screen TV.

Xbox 360® and PS3™ Preorder Items:

All preorders of the Xbox 360 and PS3™ versions of Diablo® III will include the following diabolically enticing items,  available to all five mortal heroes of Sanctuary—be it the Witch Doctor, Barbarian, Wizard, Demon Hunter, or Monk (players who’ve been keeping on top of console-related news will notice that the bounty for preorders has expanded):

• "Infernal Helm" – Wearable at level 1, the console-exclusive Infernal Helm in-game item confers a +EXP bonus to help you whip your new PlayStation® or Xbox characters into shape
• "Angelic Wings" – Taunt the forces of the Burning Hells by sprouting a cosmetic pair of glowing angel wings
• "Bottled Cloud Dye" – Dye your armor sets a cloudy white with this heavenly dye
• "Bottled Smoke Dye" – Dye your armor sets an eerie smoky black with this sinister dye

Exclusive PS3™ In-Game Items:

Players who purchase Diablo® III on the PS3™ will also receive five additional PS3-exclusive in-game items:

• "The Hero’s Journey" – A Legendary shoulder item that includes a “Journey” style scarf
• "Drake's Amulet" – A Legendary amulet that bears a striking resemblance to the ring that Drake wears around his neck in Uncharted
• "Leoric's Gauntlets" – These Legendary gloves summon a ghostly skeleton to fight for you
• "Crimson Angelic Wings" – This cosmetic enhancement calls forth a set of red Angelic Wings
• "Leah's Ring" – A Legendary ring, originally given to Leah by Deckard Cain, that's usable at level 60 and provides bonuses to Magic Find, Gold Find, movement speed, and defenses 

Please note that console preorder bonuses and PS3-exclusive in-game items cannot be transferred across platforms, and players will need a connection (to Xbox LIVE® or PlayStation® Network, respectively) in order to receive these items.

The fate of Sanctuary rests in your hands, and the PlayStation® 3 and Xbox 360 versions of Diablo® III will be out before summer's end, so make sure to place your preorders with your local retailer soon.

Ready your reflexes and prepare your thumbs for the demon onslaught ahead!

Blizzard Quote [source]

On September 3, evil will be reborn on console systems throughout the world with the release of Diablo® III on the PlayStation™ 3 and Xbox 360® games and entertainment system from Microsoft. That's right, Diablo III will be unleashing hell on both Xbox 360 and PS3™ before summer's end, so lock in your preorders with your local retailer soon.

As an added bonus, all preorders of the Xbox 360 and PS3™ versions of Diablo III will include the exclusive Infernal Helm (in-game item only. . .though we have to admit it'd look pretty sharp IRL). Wearable at level 1, the Infernal Helm confers a +EXP bonus to help you whip your new PlayStation™ or Xbox® characters into shape. Plus, it looks sweet as hell on all five mortal heroes of Sanctuary—be it the Witch Doctor, Barbarian, Wizard, Demon Hunter, or Monk. Keep in mind that the redeemable key for the Infernal Helm, which you will find in your preordered console copy of Diablo III on launch day, requires an Internet connection to be redeemed and cannot be transferred across platforms. 

Be sure to get your preorder lined up for the PS3™ or Xbox 360 versions of the game and prepare your thumbs to do battle against the sinister forces of the Burning Hells.

Please note that as the Xbox 360 version of Diablo III was announced today, it may take retailers several days to set up their product pages for this new version of the game. Be sure to check back if you don’t see Diablo III for Xbox 360 listed on retailers' websites.

Blizzard Quote [source]

My name is Josh Mosqueira, I am the new game director for Diablo III, and I want to take a moment to say "Hi" and introduce myself.

I'm a writer, designer, and lifelong gamer, and I got my official start designing games back in 1996. That's when I had my first real break as a writer for White Wolf (makers of the Vampire: The Masquerade pen-and-paper role-playing game), when I co-wrote Constantinople by Night and Montreal by Night while serving in the Canadian army and finishing university. After that, I went on to work on a number of popular game series, including Homeworld, Company of Heroes, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, and FarCry. However, 1996 is a key year for me for another reason, because it's when I, like many of you, was introduced to Diablo.

Having a heavy background in pen-and-paper design—specifically in telling stories and building worlds set in realms of horror and fantasy—I was immediately drawn in by Diablo. While the game's dark, gothic setting hooked me, it was the intense, fast-paced action gameplay and the thrill of finding awesome loot that kept me coming back for years after.

That's always been the magic of the game for me. It starts with a setting that pits epic heroes against the teeming, endless hordes of the Burning Hells, in an adventure filled with nonstop, intense action. It's in players facing off against enemies like the Butcher and Diablo, villains who truly capture the essence of evil. And having the alluring promise of new and more powerful treasures around every corner doesn't hurt either.

When I joined Blizzard, I was entrusted with the responsibility of helping to determine whether it would be possible to create a console version of Diablo III and working on what that might look like. I took this responsibility extremely seriously as I wanted to ensure that the legions of players new to the series on console could experience the magical combination of action and treasure hunting that Diablo is known for. It was important to me that we retain that essential core that is Diablo—every player who has ever roamed the shadowy halls of Sanctuary's dungeons, hunting vile demons and looting their corpses, knows it well. My goal has been to help keep that core magic formula going strong with Diablo III, and to continue refining the game, initially for the console version, and now for the game as a whole.

Enjoying the nice weather with a few teammates (left), and our PAX East crew celebrating an epic convention (right).

For me, first as a Blizzard gamer and now as a game designer at the company, I've always felt that one of the things that sets Blizzard games apart is our passion and commitment to support our games well after launch. Many of the people I've worked with here have been at Blizzard since the early days of the company, and our heavy focus on putting the games first is the culture they helped create and that everyone here lives by. That's why we didn't call it a day after launching Diablo III and move on to the next project—the care, dedication, diligence, and ongoing effort from our development team continued full steam ahead as we listened to and acted on your feedback. We don't just ship a game and leave it at that; we make sure that it grows and evolves after launch.

In the year since Diablo III launched, we've made good strides, but there are still things we can improve and new surprises in store for everyone.  As Travis mentioned earlier, itemization is one of our big focuses for Diablo III moving forward. We want items to feel more meaningful, and we want players to be excited about the next loot drop. Our goal is to make the loot experience more enjoyable for ALL players. This includes reducing the amount of loot that drops while improving the overall quality, introducing targeted Legendaries, and giving players ways to directly customize their character's armor—both visually and mechanically. We're also looking into ways to reduce the impact of the Auction House. While we think the feature does provide a lot of value, it shouldn’t feel like the end-all-be-all force driving character progression.

We've built a solid foundation for the future of Diablo III and we're focused on staying true to the core essence of the game, while pushing boundaries to evolve gameplay in ways that will keep players like you excited. We hope you'll agree that with each update, the game keeps getting better and better, and we're only just getting started.

In the future, we'll be focused on preserving the core fantasy by cultivating the roots of the Diablo storyline, fine-tuning the heroes for what lays ahead, and creating new monsters and demons that will once again plant the seed of fear in your hearts. While some Diablo players out there are just looking for a fun single playthrough of the game, for many others, part of the appeal of the game is coming back again and again to test their mettle against challenging foes in an ongoing search for rare treasures, with the goal of making their heroes more and more powerful. We want to give those players, and really everyone, even more reasons to keep coming back to Sanctuary, and we have some great ideas brewing for ways to address randomization, what our endgame should offer, and how to make playing online with friends truly fulfilling.

To this end, you can expect to hear more from our designers, producers, and directors about what we have in store.

Thanks for being a part of the Diablo family, and we'll see you in Hell!