Diablo 3 Launch Issues 'Embarrassing' For Blizzard - Analyst

Diablo 3's launch problems have subsided, with many players overcoming the errors experienced at launch.

"The launch issues were pretty embarrassing, given Blizzard's long experience in dealing with huge peak demand," Wedbush Securities' Michael Pachter told NowGamer. "I suppose they guessed
wrong this time."

On whether the issues were indicative of sever-based gaming or 'always-on' DRM in general, Pachter responded. "I can't say it's an argument against anything other than poor planning."

EEDAR's Jesse Divnich felt it's too early to come to a conclusions on online-based single-player games, and how the Diablo 3 launch will impact Blizzard's long-term reputation.

"As an industry we should at least give the game 3 months before deciding how the DRM placement has impacted not just Diablo III game sales, but Blizzard's reputation," he told us. "If we just had to go off the first few days of sales, I can certainly say they are much stronger than what I expected."

Diablo 3 enjoyed 2 million pre-orders, while Pachter previously predicted Blizzard would shift 3 million copies of the game this quarter, and an additional 1.5 million by the end of 2012.