Diablo III, one of the most anticipated – okay, quite possibly the most anticipated – games of the year finally landed at midnight, after over a decade of development. Early buzz is positive for Blizzard’s action RPG – with some even proposing that it’s a crucial release for the entire industry.

The Lead Sound Designer on Diablo III is none other than Sound Design for Visual Media graduate Joseph Lawrence, so when you play the game be sure to open your ears. Joseph also worked on Diablo II. How’s that for continuity?

Last week, Destructoid posted an amazingly in-depth series of interviews with the Diablo III sound team, including Joseph. And if that isn’t enough, how about this hour-long panel from BlizzCon 2011? It includes a behind-the-scenes featurette about the game’s audio as well as Joseph addressing the audience beginning around the 8:36 mark:

Joseph wasn’t the only VFS grad to contribute to the game. Digital Character Animation‘s John Miller was an Environment Artist, and here’s a blog post from way back in 2008 touching on the contributions of two 3D Animation & Visual Effects alumni!