How Many People Did It Take To Break Diablo III’s Servers?

12 years ago

April 25, 2012 at 4:00 pm

There was a Diablo III open beta over the weekend. You may have played it. Then again, you may have sat around like a bunch of other people trying to play it and being unable to because Blizzard’s servers were melting.

Which sucks, seeing as its essentially a singleplayer game, but hey, welcome to 2012.

Anyway, those wondering just what kind of capacity it would take to create server issues with a company like Blizzard, know that the number of people playing concurrently “peaked at around 300k”.

Which is a lot. And that’s what betas are for! So Blizzard can say, OK, 300,000 people created problems, so when the game actually launches, we need to be ready for more.

Bashiok [Twitter]

Comments

33 responses to “How Many People Did It Take To Break Diablo III’s Servers?”

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PiratePete1911

April 25, 2012 at 4:21 pm

I thought I read somewhere that 1.2 million people had the annual pass which gives you Diablo 3.

I think they need to upgrade their servers! Or you know, make single player not need an internet connection…. But what do I know about games!

Reply
1. JediKilla
  
  April 25, 2012 at 5:46 pm
  
  The main reason why Diablo 3 Single Player needs an internet connection is to stop pirates and Illegal copies. But just like StarCraft 2 they’ll find a way around it.
  
  Reply
  1. Trex
    
    April 25, 2012 at 6:49 pm
    
    Cause thats the best way to stop pirates and not affect paying customers. Yeah right.
    
    Reply
  2. weresmurf
    
    April 25, 2012 at 7:15 pm
    
    Seriously, show me a computer these days that doesn’t have some form of bloody perpetual internet connection and I’ll show you an outdated PC that you’re showing me…
    
    Reply
    1. Lach
      
      April 25, 2012 at 7:25 pm
      
      Pain in the ass for laptops though, especially on trains or flights. I live in Rural australia, and it’s a 9hr train trip from Armidale to Sydney with no Wifi…
      
      Reply
      1. thyco1
        
        April 25, 2012 at 7:53 pm
        
        WHAT THE FUCK! its only a bloody 2-3hr car trip from armidale to sydeny. what the train doing ? going up to lismore then back down to newcastle then on to sydney!?!
      2. Zap
        
        April 25, 2012 at 10:11 pm
        
        6 hours minimum.
      3. Zap
        
        April 25, 2012 at 10:17 pm
        
        ….yup. 523km. Three hours hey? What sort of car do you drive that hits 175km/hr?
      4. Zap
        
        April 25, 2012 at 10:21 pm
        
        Location – ARMIDALE, New England Region, New South Wales
        Population 24,675
        Postcode 2350
        Transport Access Car, train, bus/coach, flight
        Distance to Sydney 526 km
        Drive to Sydney 7 hours 20 minutes
        Train to Sydney 8 hours 15 minutes
        Bus/Coach to Sydney 10 hours
        Flight to Sydney 1 hour 10 minutes
        Drive to neighbouring towns 1 hour 30 minutes to Tamworth
        2 hours to Coffs Harbour
      5. N3RD1001101
        
        April 26, 2012 at 1:20 pm
        
        No way thyco1, Lach is right, i used to go to uni up in Armidale…
      6. SirHamsalot
        
        April 25, 2012 at 11:43 pm
        
        Get a phone with a hotspot and tether your laptop to your phone.
    2. Chris
      
      April 25, 2012 at 10:03 pm
      
      Those working and living at sea may not have a connection that good.
      
      Reply
      1. Gaz
        
        April 25, 2012 at 10:51 pm
        
        ARGH! Tis game will keep company on the lonely seas ! Wait … nooooooooooo
    3. Another Melbourne Gamer
      
      April 27, 2012 at 3:42 pm
      
      Not to mention I’ve been at my new residence for over a month now and I still don’t have a proper internet connection.
      
      Reply
  3. MrBS
    
    April 26, 2012 at 8:23 am
    
    It’s not about stopping piracy. Its about creating a perpetual revenue stream by marrying the real money auction house to the game.
    
    Reply
Liam

April 25, 2012 at 4:23 pm

Pathetic choice always needing a connection for single player, this puts you at the mercy of the developers when you want to play this game years down the track when the game is no longer supported. Never the less I will be buying it.

Reply
1. Mic
  
  April 25, 2012 at 5:42 pm
  
  On the other hand, it’ll prevent the rash of duped, hacked characters and provide secure transactions for people selling said items and characters. No longer having to trust eBay or other dodgy sites. Diablo 2’s still going strong, so I wouldn’t worry about D3 being unsupported down the line.
  
  Reply
  1. thyco1
    
    April 25, 2012 at 7:55 pm
    
    exactly, this blizzard, not fucking EA
    
    Reply
    1. Will
      
      April 26, 2012 at 12:32 am
      
      Exactly.
      
      Reply
    2. Wilkshake
      
      April 26, 2012 at 1:53 pm
      
      Might not be EA, but it’s still Activison.
      
      Reply
  2. Ty
    
    April 26, 2012 at 1:58 am
    
    How the hell does always online DRM prevent duped items? Those are all issues with online gameplay. Singleplayer games don’t have that issue. And they already had online-only characters in Diablo II, with no always online DRM bullshit. I sincerely doubt the Internet Hate Machine is taking time out of its busy schedule to hack your gibson and plant duped items on your offline machine.
    
    Reply
Shannon

April 25, 2012 at 4:26 pm

Lucky for you then Liam that you are buying a blizzard game, the company which has continued to provide support for a 12 yr old game even though it’s sequel is put.

Reply
flipflap

April 25, 2012 at 4:49 pm

I’d say it’s likely that Blizzard did this so they could find that magical crash number and work out how many servers they need based on pre orders and annual pass numbers. Hopefully this means no crash on launch day.

Reply
Kad

April 25, 2012 at 5:56 pm

They intentionally throttled many functions to get a bead on what could go wrong on overflow. At least that is what was claimed.

Reply
Brett

April 25, 2012 at 6:56 pm

At the end of the day, a SINGLE PLAYER game – or at least the single player portion of it being unplayable because of server stress is really shitty.

Reply
1. McGarnical
  
  April 25, 2012 at 7:07 pm
  
  Yep. I love the Diablo series and would love to jump to Blizzard’s defence on this, but I can’t.
  
  Reply
Bangers

April 25, 2012 at 8:11 pm

I played the beta before it was open to everyone and I didn’t think that the always online was a problem (with the exception of when the servers went down for maintenance) but over the weekend when the servers were busy there was lag in my single player game. That bullshit does not make sense.

Reply
Chazz

April 25, 2012 at 8:25 pm

I love that the image used shows another dungeon that’s BLUE in colour. Why oh why did Blizzard make a WoW guy their main Art Director? Children may be good with blocks but it doesn’t mean you make them CEO of a construction company..

Reply
spizzaza

April 25, 2012 at 9:15 pm

this is actually wrong. blizzards servers are currently set up to support the beta only and there is only location at the moment.
blizzard also intentionally capped the servers during the open beta in order to perform tests.

it is in no way a real representation of what their server capacities will be like at launch. and they have already commented/discussed this.
pretty poor article.

Reply
smashingcones

April 25, 2012 at 9:25 pm

I downloaded late friday night and had no problems playing it over the weekend bar an hour on sunday morning. Ended up playing through the beta 9-10 times in the end. Can’t wait for May 15th now 😀

Reply
Susan_boyle

April 26, 2012 at 8:29 am

Play a different game while you’re away from the net, or read a book or even spend time with loved ones. Then when you have the net connection back ignore life for Diablo 3.

Reply
Peter

April 26, 2012 at 8:38 am

Played with no issues over the weekend, even when messages came up saying they were limiting access. Only time I couldn’t play was a server restart.

My mate had an issue connecting at login screen, but tried again and worked perfectly.

Looking forward to May 15, and dropping some real cash on some sweet epics.

Reply
Dean

April 27, 2012 at 5:44 am

So, just to clarify. I won’t be able to play this offline? gay…

Reply

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How Many People Did It Take To Break Diablo III’s Servers?

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33 responses to “How Many People Did It Take To Break Diablo III’s Servers?”

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