Diablo III recently turned one, and Blizzard have released a sprawling infographic packed with player statistics. Did you know, for example, that the entire population of the Earth could be fed for four days if the total number of gold pieces generated were grains of rice? Do you care? If so, you'll love poring over facts, figures and details below.

Diablo III is celebrating its first birthday, so it's only fitting that Blizzard are handing out party bags in the form of a free buff. Players who log in between now and May 21st will receive a 25% boost to Magic Find and +EXP, which should reward veterans and perhaps convince a few lapsed fans to rejoin the fray.

More details are available on Battle.net.

Despite Diablo III's 'always-on' infrastructure making co-op a breeze, Blizzard have admitted that it's not "living up to its full potential." After all, you can pause the game, choose your own route and farm to your heart's content on your lonesome. Diablo III's next patch plans to make cooperative play much more rewarding.

Blizzard have released another look at Diablo III running on PS3, which boasts "a reimagined interface, updated camera, direct character control, and enemies tailored specifically for the console." I'll let you guys be the judge of that.

This sizzle reel made its debut at PAX East, where Blizzard told Polygon that the PS3 version will allow for offline and online trading between characters. No cross-platform PC multiplayer, Battle.net integration or auction house functionality will be included.

World Of Warcraft lead systems designer Greg Street believes that making MMOs work on consoles would be a "huge challenge," but an opportunity that Blizzard are excited to explore.

What Does This Mean For Diablo III On Consoles?

Following on from our post yesterday regarding the Playstation 3 / 4 versions of Diablo III, word has emerged today that the upcoming console version of the ARPG will be a complete separate entity from the PC version, with Battle.net accounts not used at all. Blizzard community manager Vaefire took to the official forums to state that as it stands, no cross-platform play is in the works.

Blizzard & Sony Form "Strategic Partnership"

Off all the unexpected guests that bowled onto Sony's New York stage, Blizzard's Chris Metzen was easily one of the most unexpected. Out of the blue, Blizzard's SVP of franchise development revealed that the two companies have entered into a "strategic partnership" that will see several games releasing exclusively for the PlayStation 4.

The first of which is an optimised port of Diablo III that supports local single-screen in addition to online multiplayer, releasing for both the PS3 and PS4. We don't yet know whether it will be integrated into the PC ecosystem, but either way, this is pretty exciting news for anyone who isn't already playing Guild Wars 2.

StarCraft II's upcoming expansion, Heart Of The Swarm, promises to deliver "new ways to play" for commanders at both ends of the experience spectrum. Newcomers can learn the ropes with new training modes and tutorials, whereas veterans can freely hone their skills unranked play or get stuck into a new levelling system in ranked matches.

Heart Of The Swarm is due on March 12th. Expect more details about eSports features and other tweaks before then.

Something StarCraft This Way Comes

Blizzard have launched an intriguing teaser website for Project Blackstone, which seems to have ties with the StarCraft universe (if not the Heart Of The Swarm expansion).

Blizzard have issued a preview of upcoming Diablo III patch 1.0.7., headlined by the brand new duelling mode. This new "minimalist" take on PvP plans to provide an uncomplicated and above all safe way to battle against other players, free from Diablo II's all-too-familiar griefing. More details below.

Queen Of Blades Kerrigan and the ravening Zerg will make their return on March 12th, 2013, by way of the long-awaited Heart Of The Swarm StarCraft II expansion. Blizzard have blown the lid off the new additions to the series and two collector's editions, which we've rounded up below.

According to the author of Blizzard's unofficial biography, the company was once working on a Diablo-style RPG set in space. Nicknamed 'Starblo,' the project reached a playable prototype stage, featuring customisable space ships, numerous planets to explore and dangerous aliens to loot.

Blizzard's Rob Pardo believes that big-budget singleplayer games are dying out due to piracy, rental and a growing desire to "connect everyone."

4v4 Deathmatches & Reward Tokens

The dedicated folk over at Diablo Fans have datamined deep into Diablo III's client and emerged with some interesting nuggets of information regarding PvP reward tokens and arenas.

Just a quickie: during a panel at the Valencia eSports Congress (reported by PCGamesN), Starcraft 2 design lead Dustin Browder stated that Blizzard are "looking at free to play as an option for the multiplayer." However, getting the monetization balance right could be an issue.

"We don't know how we would monetise it," he elaborated. "While it might be good fun for me to play against someone with only half the units available to them, that's not going to be an enjoyable experience for them."

Starcraft 2 (and its predecessor, notably) is a legitimate eSport, but its competitors such as League Of Legends and DotA 2 are either free to play or relatively inexpensive; allowing them to reach a wider audience. Would you get involved if Starcraft 2's multiplayer went freemium?

Blizzard have released the full patch notes for Diablo III v.1.0.5, which adds a new monster power system that allows players to control how challenging enemies are on different difficulty levels. Upping their health and damage to different "power levels" (over 9000?) will result in boosted XP, as well as increased magic find and gold find for Inferno players.

A new event for level 60 players will also be included, alongside a big fat nerf for the Trail Of Cinders skill rune and numerous tweaks. You can read the full patch notes on the Battle.net forums... unless you're too busy playing the exceptional Torchlight II.

If you're a diehard WoW player and want to remember 'where you were' when upcoming expansion Mists Of Pandaria launches, you might want to get yourself into London on the evening of September 24th. Blizzard will be throwing a bit of a launch bash at Cafe De Paris, Coventry Street, from 20:00 - featuring appearances from developers, "special guests," giveaways and an "evening of activities."

You can read more details on the official site (we assume that you might need to register when more details go live over the next few days). Note that several retailers will also be holding midnight launches around the country.

Witness The Changelog Of Champions

Heads-up: Diablo III's European servers will be offline from 03:00 GMT to 13:00 tomorrow (August 22nd) in order to roll out patch 1.0.4.

This meaty update is easily the biggest the game has seen so far, rolling out the new Paragon progression system, multiple buffs and balances for each class, bug fixes, retooled Magic Find stats and more... much more.

Update 1.0.4. boasts one of the biggest changelogs I've literally ever seen, and it doesn't even include the class-specific tweaks! We've got it after the break - you can read up on the class changes on the forums.

Blizzard recently promised that Diablo III would provide its max-level players with something to do besides the item hunt, and they've come through in a big way. Patch 1.0.4., which will release very soon (maintenance is scheduled for today) will deploy one hundred extra character levels to pursue - entitled the Paragon system.

Balance Through Buffs

Blizzard promised that a "metric-ton" of class changes are included with Diablo III patch 1.0.4. - so many that each class will need their own separate preview/changelog.

The Barbarian and Wizard previews are now live, showing off a newly rebalanced Barbarian (Bash and Cleave will be buffed to compete with Frenzy) and a wizard dripping with newly improved Hydra variants.