Diablo III from Blizzard Games celebrated after long-awaited release

Hundreds of fans gathered Monday to celebrate the midnight release of Diablo III, the third chapter of the famed video game series that had been 12 years in the making.

Anxious gamers had begun sharing their excitement online since word of a third installment hit the web, but the anticipation became tangible when nearly 2,000 eager fans gathered at the Irvine Spectrum Center in Orange County, California.

"When we first started doing midnight launches, we didn't think anyone would come, but now we do them for all our games, and they get bigger and bigger," explains Rob Pardo, VP of game design at Blizzard Entertainment Inc. in The Washington Post. "It's great for not only the fans but also the development team. They get to be here when everyone is buying the game and see the excitement."

Fans huddled around the stage to watch the artists sketch Diablo characters live, view never-before-seen footage and indulge in a little trivia. "Loot storms" provided Diablo fans with an opportunity to catch some free swag.

"There's nowhere I'd rather be tonight," shared Ian Noble, 24. "I've been waiting for this moment for a long, long time."

Doing his best to answer the one question that had to be on the mind of every fan in attendance, lead designer Jay Wilson explained why the latest chapter took more than a decade to release.

"We were just goofing off mostly," Wilson joked. "No, it takes a long time to make a Blizzard game. We're very focused on quality. If we think something is not good enough, we make it better. We redo things, which is really uncommon in game development. If we build a level and don't like (it), we'll throw it out."

In the third chapter, players must choose among five classes — demon hunter, barbarian, monk, wizard or witch doctor — and battle a legion of hell-raising minions "across the landscape of Sanctuary."

Wilson is hoping the new battlefields, increased online capabilities, real-money auctions and a deeper combat system will justify his team's 12 year quest for perfection.

"If we could have done anything different, we probably wouldn't have announced the game when we did," revealed Wilson. "We could have waited a little longer. We thought we were closer to release. We want people to get excited, but we don't want them to feel like they're strung along. We always try to have a dialogue with the audience and exceed their expectations."

Diablo III, which is only available for PC and Mac gamers, has the potential to surpass the second chapter's total sales of more than four-million copies after its release in 2000, according to Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhati.

Will you be picking up a copy of Diablo III? Let us know in the comments below!

(Screengrab The Washington Post)