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Aussie servers launched for Diablo III

Just ahead of the Reaper of Souls expansion launch, Blizzard has announced that Australia now has its own live servers for Diablo III.

Michelle Starr Science editor
Michelle Starr is CNET's science editor, and she hopes to get you as enthralled with the wonders of the universe as she is. When she's not daydreaming about flying through space, she's daydreaming about bats.
Michelle Starr
2 min read

Just ahead of the Reaper of Souls expansion launch, Blizzard has announced that Australia now has its own live servers for Diablo III.

(Credit: Blizzard)

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls will be landing Tuesday, 25 March, bringing with it a new hero, a new area, a new big baddie (and his minions) to defeat, and a bunch of new gameplay modes and tweaks. For Aussies, we're getting a surprise all our very own: brand new local servers, the first Blizzard has ever installed down under.

Hosted at a location in Sydney, the servers will give players in Australia and New Zealand a much smoother, faster gaming experience when playing locally.

"We've listened to community feedback and set a goal of improving the game experience for Diablo players in Australia and New Zealand," said Blizzard COO Paul Sams. "By deploying local game servers to the region in time for the release of Reaper of Souls, we aim to make slaying demons more fun—for the heroes, at least. Malthael's in for a world of hurt."

The servers will be in constant communication with other global servers for a seamless experience. Players hosting games from Australia will use the Australian servers; however, games hosted in the Americas will be hosted at the American data centre. Blizzard also noted that, in order to maintain a quality experience, Hardcore characters from Australia and New Zealand would only be playable on ANZ servers.

The servers are live and active now, at no extra cost to the player.

As for other Blizzard properties, there is yet hope for local servers in the future. "Blizzard Entertainment is committed to providing our players around the world with the best possible experiences," Blizzard said. "We will continue to explore optimal server solutions for all of our franchises in each region."