Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls release date announced

March 25 2014 is Westmarch's day of reckoning. That's when the angel of death, Malthael, unleashes his hideous hordes to overrun the once-secure Paladin haven, adding a new act to Diablo 3 in the process. How nice of him to give us a bit of advance notice. Diablo 3's first expansion pack also adds a new class, The Crusader, and adventure mode, which opens up the whole world map and fills existing zones with new challenges, like Nephalem rifts: combat dimensions swarming with foes that must be defeated to tempt loot-filled boss out of hiding.

According to Battle.net , the expansion is available to pre-order now at a cost of £33 / $40. There's also a deluxe edition priced at £50 / $60 which comes with extra digital bonus bits listed on the store page .

That seems pretty pricey, at first glance. Act Five will be similar in size to Act Two in Diablo 3, and Reaper of Souls includes one class, rather than four. Adventure mode is a major addition, and RoS raises the level cap of all four existing classes to 70, but is it enough to justify full-price? On the plus side, there will be a free update to Diablo 3 around the time of Reaper of Souls' release which will completely revamp loot ahead of the closure of the auction house.

For more on the expansion's new zones, and the new class, check out our Reaper of Souls hands-on account .

Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.