Blizzard just confirmed on the Q&A panel that the game is going to be region locked and there are no plans to add cross region play ever.  
 
Fail tbh.

Well that's disappointing. Bummer... hopefully that changes.

" Well that's disappointing. Bummer... hopefully that changes. "

I don't think it really matters. When people in Europe are online the people in America is sleeping or at school/work. etc.

" I don't think it really matters. When people in Europe are online the people in America is sleeping or at school/work. etc. "

It's a little known fact that world peace is actually being held back by Blizzard.

What? No.....
 
Any link that confirms this?

" What? No.....  Any link that confirms this? "

" I don't think it really matters. When people in Europe are online the people in America is sleeping or at school/work. etc. "

Considering their other games this really shouldn't come as any surprise.

" @gamefreak9:   If people want it that bad you can always just buy another copy.    anyone I would want to play online with lives nearby, I guess that's why I don't think of it as a problem "

They's making some bad decisions for a while now.
Can't wait to see how they keep going...

" @Cyborgmatt: Im confused why did my name pop up? All i said is that it was cool when i had one copy in the US and was playing with EU ppl. "

If this is true, then I'm probably not buying it. 
 
I live in Denmark, and many of my gaming friends are from the US, if I can't play with them then there isn't much reason for me to play it at all. (A big part of the Diablo fun for me was playing with friends)

This has no effect on me.

Considering how that people bitch about bad ping and bad lag from European, Asian and Aussie players, I don't see the point. There's honestly no way Blizzard can appease you whiny bitches.

" Considering how that people bitch about bad ping and bad lag from European, Asian and Aussie players, I don't see the point. There's honestly no way Blizzard can appease you whiny bitches. "

Lame.

I'd rather play with people who don't have a shit ping.

The only problem is when I have my late night gaming sessions most people are asleep. I predict D3 will be stupidly popular so I don't think that'll be too big of an issue.

Guessing that the main reason for this is that they are doing it because of the pvp stuff they threw into this game. Personally I'd rather have non-region locked game that didn't have the pvp in it due to playing pc games at odd hours where it might be easier to find someone across the pond to join in.

Ugh, another backwards choice made for no other reason than greed. I could write a long-winded rant, but it would be pointless.

Ping isn't really an excuse for not being able to play with people from other regions at all (without gaming the system by buying a copy from another region, which then procludes you from playing games with people in your own region).  There should at least be the option for private games that don't have region restrictions for friends in different parts of the world that want to play together.

Dosent effect me dont care.

"

Guessing that the main reason for this is that they are doing it because of the pvp stuff they threw into this game. Personally I'd rather have non-region locked game that didn't have the pvp in it due to playing pc games at odd hours where it might be easier to find someone across the pond to join in.

"

OH FOR FU- Great, yep, another game from Blizzard I'd want to play with some American friends but can't.

With as much lag as Battle.net already causes, cross region play being included would be terrible.

Big F'n deal

Fucking idiotic and backwards.  Imagine if Xbox Live or PSN did this crap, noone would stand for it.  Another game I can't play with Pat...  At this point I may never buy Diablo 3.  It's not even because of lag, we played SC2 beta flawlessly.  It's pure greed.

" Considering how that people bitch about bad ping and bad lag from European, Asian and Aussie players, I don't see the point. There's honestly no way Blizzard can appease you whiny bitches. "

I only ever played Diablo with friends, and you know what? Some of my friends live in Europe. They're my fucking friends, I'm okay with their pings being bad. I see no reason for Blizzard to region lock Diablo other than to necessitate additional purchases.

What? I liked playing with Asians. They're always competitive yet nice about helping when needed. Damn greedy Activision/Blizzard.

The solution they had in SC1/Diablo 2 etc which allowed you to choose what realm you wanted to play on was fine. 
 
The region lock is only there for greed purposes and seriously, the amount of ignorant people in this thread is unbelievable. 
 
Like I said, imagine if it continued down this downgrade road and PSN/XBox Live became region locked, I'm sure it would be a "Big F'n deal" to some of you then. 
 
Also for the people complaining about "lag", well I hate to break it to you but Blizzard already allow Australians to play with the Americans in SC2, the same thing will happen in D3 because of the lack of Aussie players.

" Fucking idiotic and backwards.  Imagine if Xbox Live or PSN did this crap, noone would stand for it.  Another game I can't play with Pat...  At this point I may never buy Diablo 3.  It's not even because of lag, we played SC2 beta flawlessly.  It's pure greed. "

None would stand it? Are you sure of that?  Players normally bitch and moan about the stuff like this, and then grovel and buy it anyway. So why should Blizzard care about what the players want?

" @Meteora said:

" Considering how that people bitch about bad ping and bad lag from European, Asian and Aussie players, I don't see the point. There's honestly no way Blizzard can appease you whiny bitches. "

You know what would be an easier solution? Adding a filter so that you can play with people from whatever region you want.  Unfortunately that method doesn't earn Blizzard hella skrill. "

" @Jeust said:

None would stand it? Are you sure of that?  Players normally bitch and moan about the stuff like this, and then grovel and buy it anyway. So why should Blizzard care about what the players want?

You got a point.  I should say very few wouldn't bitch and moan.  Most people don't have the backbone to stand by their choices. Personally I haven't bought Starcraft 2 yet, and the region locking did play a part in that decision. "

"The thing is I'm pretty sure that Blizzard is not making these decisions, it's mostly Activision. Being the well oiled business that Activision is, they must have a pretty good idea of the costs and benefits of such a move and must have figured they'd make more money from this than they would lose. Either way in the end this doesn't affect me personally since I only play with people in NA, but I don't think gamers should just accept this "downgrading" of features in games: it's a slippery slope in my opinion. "

I was halfway toward making a post defending Blizzard for this, but you know, it is pretty lame. 
 
I can't blame them, because the gamble WILL pay off, because I (Nor I bet a significant amount of people.) will not stop from buying the game because of this.  Still though, we should be allowed to play cross-region SOMEHOW without buying multiple copies.

Pretty obvious if you look at how SC2 is handled... 
Why would they change it for another game that runs on the same multiplayer platform? :/

But what about those of us who want to play the game with ridiculous lag? We're going to have to find someone in our own region with horrible ping instead of just playing against some guy across the world! GAH! Blizzard, you're on my shit list!

Anyone who didn't see this coming needs to get their head checked.   Diablo III is soing to use Battle.net 2.0, SC2 uses Battle.net 2.0..
 
I can even tell you the regions right now.
 
There will be a North America Region,
an EU Region,
and a SEA Region.
 
The exact same regions that there are for SC2.