Diablo 3 Arrives on the Mainland: "Sorry I’m late!"

Only two years after its release, Diablo 3 is finally making the Pacific leap to China where it will finally reunite with its Blizzard line-up brethren (Hearthstone, Heroes of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm, StarCraft 2 and World of Warcraft). Diablo 3 had been banned while it was being reviewed by the Chinese Ministry of Culture (likely a lengthy endeavor considering the franchise’s liberal use of skeletons and corpses, which the Chinese government is less than tolerant of in entertainment media), though it didn’t stop gamers from acquiring and playing it anyway.

Blizzard is once again partnering with NetEase, their Chinese operator for all their other games. In the press release published on the Diablo 3 Chinese website, Blizzard Entertainment co-founder and CEO Mike Morhaime stated, “We are very excited to welcome the many enthusiastic players from mainland China to Sanctuary! We are grateful for the support Chinese gamers have given us from the beginning, and hope they enjoy Diablo 3!” NetEase CEO and founder William Ding added, “We’re very excited that with our effort, all five of Blizzard Entertainment’s game series will be delivered to Chinese players. We’ll continue to work closely with Blizzard to prepare for a smooth Diablo 3 launch in China so that local gamers can start playing this epic adventure as soon as possible.”

Diablo 3 announces its Mainland release by writing, “Sorry I’m late! [cry]”

On Weibo, users wondered whether there would be an “anti-harmony” patch, which would undo all the changes that the Ministry of Culture likely inflicted on the content. Others complained that it’s come too late, and that nobody will be interested in the “harmonized” version. Others simply wanted to know the release date, and whether it would be available on Mac. User水木三又木 asked, “I don’t know, what kind of harmonization did they do? The bodies aren’t all like Hello Kitty now are they?”