Tag Archives: beta

Diablo 3 goes beta

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Blizzard has today made public it’s highly anticipated beta of the sequel to the 2000 hit game, Diablo. The company, which is well known for the Starcraft franchise in addition to Diablo is known for long development cycles, and this is no exception. However, gamers will be excited to hear they might finally get a turn to play Diablo.

Well, that is, if they opted into the beta, ran a system analyzer and were lucky enough to be selected for this phase of participants. In a post on the Diablo Blog, Blizzard announced that “The fiery gates leading to the Burning Hells have begun to swing open, and the Diablo III beta test is officially underway.”

When Starcraft 2 was in beta a few years ago, the company allowed groups of users at a time into the beta, with a small test group initially growing into thousands of users over multiple months. Blizzard also say they’ll be giving out keys through beta promotions and giveaways, what these actually are is not clear right now.

Diablo 3 has been in beta for some time, but an NDA was in effect stopping users from sharing it with the world. The team now says that;

If you have a beta license, you are free to show, share, or talk about any portion of the beta content to which you have access, as this beta test is not confidential.


Due to the popularity of the Diablo 3 beta, the games giant points out that phishing attempts are extremely likely, and if users receive an email they should log in to Battle.net and check if the game appears on their dash rather than clicking links.

The team says that for those who received an invite, “we thank you for helping us test out our server stability and hardware” and “for those of you still hoping for an invite, we wish you the best of luck.” Giveaways and promotions will appear on the Diablo 3 community site.

Multiple sclerosis drug rejected by health watchdog

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Health campaigners have expressed disappointment after the medicines watchdog rejected the first pill to treat multiple sclerosis.

The MS Society urged the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) and drug firm Novartis to work together so Gilenya (also called fingolimod) can be re-appraised.

In draft guidance which is subject to consultation, Nice rejected the drug due to “uncertainties” over its effectiveness, a lack of appropriate data and concerns over cost-effectiveness.

It said it was unclear how much the drug would help the specific group of people for whom it was licensed – adults with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) who experienced at least one relapse a year despite being treated with beta interferon drugs.

Another group of patients suitable for the drug were those with rapidly evolving severe RRMS, who experience two or more disabling relapses regardless of their treatment.

Nice said Novartis had submitted data mainly looking at a subgroup of patients with the former type of MS.

Novartis also only submitted data comparing Gilenya with a placebo and with a type of beta interferon not believed to be widely prescribed on the NHS, according to Nice.

Multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis

Professor Carole Longson, director of the health technology evaluation centre at Nice, said: “While it’s important that people with multiple sclerosis have treatment options, Nice has to ensure that the NHS provides treatments that bring benefits that are value for money.

“Unfortunately our independent committee wasn’t given sufficient evidence to show that fingolimod could reduce relapses considerably better than the other treatments currently being used.

“Based on the available clinical evidence and economic analysis, our independent committee concluded that fingolimod would not be effective good use of NHS resources.”

Simon Gillespie, chief executive of the MS Society, said: “This is disappointing news for people with MS and it will leave some people with no effective treatment option.


“Access to MS treatments in the UK is very poor – in fact people with MS would be better off living almost anywhere else in Europe, and this decision will only deepen that inequality.

“We’re concerned at how this decision has been reached and now strongly encourage Nice and Novartis to work together to look at how the treatment can be better re-considered and evaluated.”

Novartis said Nice had suggested best supportive care (no active treatment at all) as the appropriate comparator for Gilenya.

But it said this did not reflect current clinical practice in the UK according to neurologists.

A statement said: “Novartis believes that comparing fingolimod to best supportive care will unfairly restrict access to fingolimod, as well as any future new treatments.

“It will be very difficult for any new therapy to demonstrate cost effectiveness against best supportive care.

“This approach is likely to restrict new treatment options in the UK to symptom management medicines only, which could result in continued relapses.”

MS has traditionally been treated with injectable drugs. Around 100,000 people in the UK have MS.