Technology Blog

(Credit: Blizzard Entertainment) One week after its release, Diablo III remains the only PC game anyone is talking about. Some of that talk is about how the game, a decade in the making, is a huge hit, with millions of copies presold before the May 15 launch. But much of the talk is also about the big bet developer and publisher Blizzard is making by forcing even solitary players to log in online to play. Dan: I've spent years attempting to divine the line between mainstream and enthusiast gaming, trying to figure out which games could cross over into popular culture, and which ones were going to stay locked into a small, but dedicated, core audience. After following Diablo III's development, and playing the beta version earlier this year, I was initially more inclined to put it in the latter category. The gameplay style was old-school, cosmetically different from its 1996 and 2000 predecessors, but with the same nerdy (in a good way) vibe as a tabletop role-playing game mixed with hack-and-slash retro arcade