Diablo III Schedule Speculation for 2014 Predictions about the patches and releases coming in the rest of the year

Patch 2.0.5 - Arriving Soon™

Patch 2.0.5 is the upcoming bug fix and balance patch for the Diablo III PC / Mac client. There is a good chance that it will be released on next Tuesday, May 13. That will put it in place for the big celebration of the second anniversary for Diablo III, and that date will be just over a month since patch 2.0.4 arrived.

is the upcoming bug fix and balance patch for the Diablo III PC / Mac client. There is a good chance that it will be released on next Tuesday, May 13. That will put it in place for the big celebration of the second anniversary for Diablo III, and that date will be just over a month since patch 2.0.4 arrived. If for some reason patch 2.0.5 doesn't go live on May 13, it will likely arrive the following Tuesday, on May 20.

Implementing a Diablo III patch requires server maintenance of at least 6 hours, and those are posted by Sunday evening in the Service Status forum of the Blizzard Blue tracker. If the announcement is not there by a Sunday evening, don't expect a patch to go live that week.

As detailed in the Future Patches guide, patch 2.0.5 will bring a large number of bug fixes and some changes to Legendary drops. According to Diablo III game director Josh Mosqueira, the Diablo team has been focused on patch 2.0.5. We may see skill changes in the patch, as the developers look to balance skills and provide more build options for the classes. Of course, if those changes need more time, that could push the patch release back.

Diablo III Second Anniversary - May 15

This next Thursday is the second year anniversary of the original release of Diablo III. There will be big celebrations throughout the Diablo III community for the milestone, as there were last year.

There was a free buff in the game last year for a week, as part of the celebration. Since then we've had even bigger community event buffs. Will we see a big community event buff this year? We'll know soon enough!

Here at Diablo Somepage, we have some fun features and news as part of the second year anniversary celebration.

Patch 2.1 - Major Content in the Summer

Patch 2.1.0 is the next major content patch for Diablo III on the PC / Mac. Patch 2.1 is in heavy development right now, and will need to be tested extensively on the Public Test Realm before it goes live. We expect it to arrive on the PTR in June; if it shows up then, it is likely to go live in July or August.

is the next for Diablo III on the PC / Mac. Patch 2.1 is in heavy development right now, and will need to be tested extensively on the Public Test Realm before it goes live. We expect it to arrive on the PTR in June; if it shows up then, it is likely to go live in July or August. Patch 2.1 will bring large additions to Diablo III, including Tiered Rifts and Seasons. There will be new Legendary items as rewards from those features, that will each have unique powers. The developers will likely use this as an opportunity to expand the choice of items that are currently used as the basis for many builds. There have not been any announcements of the specifics for those items, but we could see alternatives to some of the Popular Legendary Items like the Cindercoat , with boosts for other elements.

, with boosts for other elements. We might see another small patch before patch 2.1, like a patch 2.0.6, but we are not expecting anything major. Any such patch would most likely be small and focused on any emerging critical bugs that need to be fixed. Major client changes or skill balancing after patch 2.0.5 will probably be rolled up into patch 2.1.

see another small patch before patch 2.1, like a patch 2.0.6, but we are not expecting anything major. Any such patch would most likely be small and focused on any emerging critical bugs that need to be fixed. Major client changes or skill balancing after patch 2.0.5 will probably be rolled up into patch 2.1. As detailed in the Future Patches guide, Patch 2.1 is also scheduled to include underlying changes to the game. One of those is a revamp to the Achievement system, to fix long-standing bugs there. The patch might also provide a revamp to the crafting resource management, by changing crafting materials so they are just listed in the user interface like Blood Shards, and are no longer items. These are the sort of big changes that can only come in a major patch, to be tested fully on the PTR before they go live.

Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition

Diablo III: Ultimate Evil Edition will bring Diablo III to the PlayStation 4. That next-generation console version of Diablo III has long had a release date of sometime in 2014. The console group in the Diablo III team is busy finishing up this version of the game, and we could see it arrive this fall.

will bring Diablo III to the PlayStation 4. That next-generation console version of Diablo III has long had a release date of sometime in 2014. The console group in the Diablo III team is busy finishing up this version of the game, and we could see it arrive this fall. The big question about the Ultimate Evil Edition is whether or not it will also arrive on the Xbox One at the same time as the PS4. The game is being developed for the Xbox One alongside the PS4 version, but Blizzard has not announced any release details so far.

is whether or not it will also arrive on the Xbox One at the same time as the PS4. The game is being developed for the Xbox One alongside the PS4 version, but Blizzard has not announced any release details so far. See the Next-Generation Console Content info for further details about this version of the game.

Reaper of Souls on PS3 and Xbox 360

Once the Ultimate Evil Edition is released for the next-generation consoles, the Diablo III console team will focus on updating Diablo III for the older consoles. This is part of the standard staggered release schedule for the various editions of Diablo III.

is released for the next-generation consoles, the Diablo III console team will focus on updating Diablo III for the older consoles. This is part of the standard staggered release schedule for the various editions of Diablo III. We know that the expansion (or console DLC) will eventually arrive on the console, but we don't know when, and so far Blizzard isn't saying. The later in the year it goes before the Ultimate Evil Edition is released, the longer it will be before the expansion comes to the older consoles.

BlizzCon 2014

BlizzCon 2014 is the celebration of Blizzard's games, running this year on November 8 and 9. The schedule means that by BlizzCon, the Diablo III team will have had time to look at how the first Season went, that is happening in patch 2.1. We are likely to hear about any changes that they want to do for the second Season, and maybe teasers of new rewards for that season.

BlizzCon is a always great opportunity for Blizzard's developers to interact with their fans, and this was taken even further at BlizzCon 2013. The popular Storytime with Wyatt discussion provided deep perspective from Wyatt Cheng on how the Diablo III development team was looking at the many changes for the Reaper of Souls expansion. Mr. Cheng has stated his interest in "Storytime 2.0" for BlizzCon 2014, and we're certainly hoping to see that.

While we expect a few small post-2.1 patches (feasibly patches 2.1.1, 2.1.2, etc.), if there is a patch 2.2 planned, it won't arrive until after BlizzCon. The convention provides an excellent time for the Diablo III developers to provide details about any big changes for the game. Any news about a patch 2.2 will likely be promoted at that time.

The Diablo III second release anniversary is coming up next week, which naturally lends itself to looking back at the Diablo III history over the past year. But first, we decided to try to predict what we are likely to see for the game during the rest of 2014. This is very speculative, especially with Blizzard's standard motto of "It's done when it's done" for release dates. With that in mind, let's take a look at what we can expect and hope to see for Diablo III over the next 7 months.See the Future Patches guide for many more details on the upcoming patches for Diablo III.That takes us out to near the end of 2014, and the limits of our attempts at prognostication. We'll be covering all the Diablo III news here as it happens, whether that matches our forecast or not. Follow us on Facebook Google+ , or via our RSS news feed for details on all the Diablo III patches and events.- Since the consolehas now been announced as coming to all 4 consoles , these predictions are already out of date. The expansion will be arriving on August 19, coming simultaneously to the PS4, Xbox One, PS3, and Xbox 360. The console Diablo III team has done great work, being able to get the expansion content ready for all of those consoles at once.