Diablo III Ready for Release, PVP Arenas Cut

As Diablo III gears up for release, Blizzard has announced that one major feature will not be making the cut because it’s not living up to the standards of what Blizzard has come to expect of itself. Instead of delaying the release of Diablo III even further, Blizzard will be cutting out the PVP Arena system to put into the game at a later time, post-release.

Blizzard made the post on the official Diablo III website, stating that it would be punishing anyone who wants to play the game for its campaign and core solo/co-op content, which they say is “just about done.”

The PVP Arena system will be implemented back into Diablo III in a post-release patch, once it’s re-designed and polished to Blizzard standards.

Blizzard’s Jay Wilson wrote:

When the PvP patch is ultimately ready, it will add multiple Arena maps with themed locations and layouts, PvP-centric achievements, and a matchmaking system that will help you and your team get into fairly matched games quickly and easily. We’ll also be adding a personal progression system that will reward you for successfully bashing in the other team’s skulls.

We know a lot of you are looking forward to PvP, and we’ll be focusing our post-launch efforts on making sure the Arenas are as brutal, bloody, fast-paced, and awesome as we know they can be. In the meantime, we’re in the process of putting the finishing touches on what we think is a truly epic campaign and co-op experience for launch.

It looks like those rumors that Diablo III will be released in April 2012 may be true after all. The game is exclusive to the PC and Mac.