A 12-year wait for this? Thousands of video gamers furious as they are unable to play Diablo III after huge demand brings down servers

The long-awaited launch of Diablo III has been marred by server issues - much to the frustration of eager video gamers. Anticipation for the fantasy demon-killing game has bubbled over because the previous entry in the series was released 12 years ago, a lifetime in the gaming world when compared with franchises like World of Warcraft and Call of Duty, which receive regular updates.

But servers struggled under huge volumes of traffic during Tuesday's midnight launch, leading thousands of disgruntled fans to take to the internet to voice their frustrations. Gamers received an 'Error 37' message saying servers were too busy, which prevented them from logging into the game from Blizzard Entertainment.  The server issues even became a trending topic on Twitter, according to CNBC.  @SoulPusha ‏ Tweeted: 'Argh, trying to play Diablo 3...but unfortunately, the servers are down.' While @NitrozK added: 'I got to play 20 minutes of DIablo 3 last night before the EU servers went down for the rest of the night. Sort it, Blizzard.' Gamers still seemed to be experiencing problems in the early hours of Wednesday morning as Blizzard Entertainment Tweeted: 'We're aware players may not be able to connect to the Americas region, or are having difficulty stay in-game. We are investigating.'

More than 1,500 fans gathered together on Monday night around a shopping center located about a mile from the developer’s headquarters to witness the game's launch. 

 Diablo fans huddled around the stage to watch Blizzard artists sketch characters from scratch, view never-before-seen footage, take part in trivia contests and attempt to catch free swag during 'loot storms'.

Ian Noble, 24, wanted his collector's edition autographed by developers. 'There's nowhere I'd rather be tonight,' he said. 'I've been waiting for this moment for a long, long time.' ‘It takes a long time to make a Blizzard game,’ explained lead designer Jay Wilson. ‘We're very focused on quality. If we think something is not good enough, we make it better. We redo things, which is really uncommon in game development. If we build a level and don't like (it), we'll throw it out.' In the third chapter of Diablo, players choose among five classes - barbarian, demon hunter, monk, witch doctor or wizard - and battle hellish minions across the landscape of Sanctuary. 

Wilson hopes new sprawling battlefields, real-money auctions, a deeper combat system and increased online capabilities for Diablo III will appease even the frustrated fans. 'If we could have done anything different, we probably wouldn't have announced the game when we did,' said Wilson.

'We could have waited a little longer. 


We thought we were closer to release. We want people to get excited, but we don't want them to feel like they're strung along. We always try to have a dialogue with the audience and exceed their expectations.'

Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhati said Diablo III, only available to play on PC and Mac computers, not game consoles, has the potential to sell more than 4 million copies. He estimated Blizzard would sell 3.5 million copies this year. Diablo II, released in the summer of 2000, sold 4 million copies in the year after it debuted. The game is already the biggest pre-seller ever, according to CNBC.