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Diablo 3's first expansion pack, [[Reaper of Souls]], was officially revealed on August 21, 2013, from the Gamescom show in Cologne, Germany. Key content additions include the [[Crusader]] class, a full redesign of the [[Paragon]] system, the [[Loot 2.0]] redesigned item system, new types of [[end game]] content including [[Loot Runs]] (Nephalem Rifts), [[Adventure Mode]], and much more yet to be revealed.
Prior to the full reveal, Blizzard offered numerous hints and teases that something big was coming up at Gamescom and then much more would be revealed two months later at Blizzcon 2013[[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/diablo-3-developer-interview-podcast-part-2]].
The existence of a Diablo 3 Expansion pack was not a surprise, since the developers have never made a secret of their desire to create at least one.[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/diablo-3-will-have-several-expansions/] And fans were calling the [[D3V]] (vanilla) or [[D3C]] (classic), with the expansions designated as [[D3X]] and [[D3Y]], or D3X2, long before Reaper of Souls was revealed.
Reaper of Souls will be was released on March 25th, 2014. The closed beta test began on or around December 14th, 2013.
This suspicion was all but confirmed by a Blizzard Product Schedule leaked<ref>[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/blizzard-release-dates-leaked/ Leaked Release Schedule] - MMOGamesite.Com, 2/12/10</ref> in early 2010, which you see in the image to the right. It listed Diablo 3 as targeted for the second half of 2012, with the first expansion 18 months later, and the second 18 months after that.
Reaper of Souls was released about 22 months after Diablo 3, and when questioned about the time interval, the developers pointed to the extensive patching required on D3v shortly after release, giving the implication that time they would have spent developing Reaper of Souls was spent fixing up the initial game.
==Diablo 3 Expansion II== [[File:D3 ros tyrael lorath skovos conversation 01sml.jpg|thumb|400px|In Reaper of Souls, Tyrael mentions Skovos and Nephalem vanishing.]]Almost from the time Reaper of Souls was released in March 2014, fans were speculating on what the second expansion might bring. The consensus soon focused on the Amazon island homeland of [[Skovos]] as the most likely setting. * Skovos is featured in a considerable amount of concept art (much more than Westmarch, the setting of Act Five in Reaper of Souls).* There are numerous mentions of Skovos by the NPCs in-game dialogues.* The sandy beaches, dense jungles, and sunken Grecian temples would all provide appealing visual settings unlike anything found in the first five Acts.** The intensely-gothic style of visuals in Reaper of Souls were a reaction to fan [[art controversy]] backlash, which means Act Six could take a different, brighter art style. Fans created detailed and well-researched articles arguing that Skovos was the most likely location. [http://www.diabloii.net/blog/comments/guest-article-d3-expansion-2-skovos-and-druidamazon] Blizzard avoided commenting directly on Skovos, except in a teasing fashion. Writer Brian Kindregan offered two comments during a developer live chat in September 2015.[http://www.diabloii.net/blog/comments/diablo-3-developer-qa-this-afternoon] <blue><font color="#FFFFFF">What is going down in the Skovos Isles? Lorath and Tyrael are always going on about it. Is this a hint at upcoming new content?</font>BrianKindregan: Sanctuary is full of deadly surprises, so the New Horadrim that Tyrael is sending out to help humanity have high rates of fatality. Skovos seems to be a particularly rough place to get assigned. But many other parts of Sanctuary are equally dangerous, so Skovos is just the topic at hand between Lorath and Tryael. <font color="#FFFFFF">So how about those Skovos Isles, guys?</font>BrianKindregan: Skovos is a dangerous place!</blue> ===Skovos Gallery=== Various pieces of Skovos concept art, created by the Diablo III team between 2007-2012. <gallery>Image:Artwork 59.jpg|Massive island overview.File:Skovos peter-lee1.jpg|Sunken temples.File:Skovos peter-lee2.jpg|Temples detailed.File:Skovos peter-lee3.jpg|Watery temples interior.File:Skovos peter-lee4.jpg|Temple interior with Poseidon-looking statue.File:Skovos christian scheurer 01.jpg|View of the city and docks.</gallery> ===Why a Full Expansion Pack?=== One qualifying issue is frequent speculation that Blizzard might not create another full Expansion Act, like Reaper of Souls. After all, even fans with the most lore and story interest admit that they almost never play through the Campaign/Story Mode more than once. The [[Adventure Mode]] added in Reaper of Souls puts almost all gameplay on a randomized nature, with [[Rifts]] and [[Bounties]] the main activities. In light of that, it's often speculated that Blizzard might go more of the DLC route and just make mini-expansions with new items, maps, tile sets for Rifts, a new area or two, and a new [[class]], and sell those for $20 or some other price well below the $40 they charge for full expansions (like RoS). This seems unlikely for content and financial reasons. Given how much content the developers have been releasing for free with the regular patches in Reaper of Souls -- fans would be unlikely to want to pay for a DLC expansion when they're used to getting almost as much for free in patches. Furthermore, the content added in patches has very little new artwork or story or NPC dialogue, etc. Patches are mostly just changes to the stats of items and other programming tweaks, and can be created by smaller teams. Thus, players speculate, all of the artists and writers and sound designers and others working on the Diablo 3 team must be creating something, and if it's not in the patches it must be larger Act Six type content for an expansion. ==Pre-Release Expansion Comments== Even before Diablo 3's release the developers were fielding questions about potential expansion packs. Back in 2008 Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime talked about how they want all of their games to have more and more frequent expansions. [http://www.diabloii.net/blog/comments/diablo-3-will-have-several-expansions] <blue>Morhaime: In terms of expansions, I think a little bit more frequently is probably good with sort of the goal to get closer to an annual expansion. But I think it really depends on what content you put in the expansion. I don’t think Blizzard will ever be able to do sequels of products like a “Diablo III” or “Diablo IV” on an annual basis, but we might be able to do expansions to those games close to annually. Hmmm, is there more profit? In an ideal scenario, I think we’d probably do [expansions] a little bit more often than we’ve been able to do. But I agree — I think putting too many expansions out too frequently, you probably get to the point where people do need to start taking a little break.</blue> Other comments from Blizzard higher ups have been more "big picture" and mentioned how them only doing one official expansion each for Diablo II and Starcraft was a missed opportunity, and how they don't mean to repeat that mistake with Diablo III or Starcraft II. (SC2 was announced to have two expansions even before release.) The actual Diablo 3 developers have been very close-lipped on their long term plans, always avoiding the question by giving a standard, "we're just focused on what's right in front of us," type of reply. Here's [[Jay Wilson]] spoke on playing that game in August 2010.[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/jay-wilson-interview-indiablo.de-part-two/]
<blue><font color="#FFFFFF">WoW and SC2 have lots of expansion. D3? One game with expansions, or multiple parts of the game?</font>
<font color="#FFFFFF">Are there plans to make more regular expansions? Each 18 months?</font>
Jay Wilson: WE We haven’t really thought about it yet. All of our time/energy to make D3.</blue>
<blue>We haven’t really looked into our post-release content plans, but I would not expect us to do big content patch updates. Not like WoW or like an MMO. We’ll add in content in patches, but it will be smaller, like the way Starcraft 2 sometimes does in their patches. It won’t be something that’s on a regular schedule. It’ll be based on need, or based on “we have a really cool new thing we want to put out now and not wait on an expansion.” I’m sure we’ll do some things, but we don’t have any formal plans.</blue>
This prediction turned out to be not very accurate, and right from Diablo 3's launch, and continuing into Reaper of Souls and the [[Season]]s, the developers have turned out major content additions every few months.
==Announcing Reaper of Souls==
