Diablo III releasing 'early 2012'

[Chaptorial]

Blizzard confirms Diablo 3 will miss its projected 2011 release date; promises "additional testing phases," extended beta.

• By Eddie Makuch, GameSpot
• Posted Sep 23, 2011 6:01 am PT

Just three days ago, Blizzard Entertainment brought good news to Diablo III fans in the form of the launch of the closed beta for the action role-playing game. Now, the California-based developer has some less-than-wonderful information to share: Diablo III will not ship in 2011, as had been previously suggested. Instead, the game is now scheduled to find its way to store in "early 2012," according to Blizzard.

Activision Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime explained that the studio was "hopeful" that the game would ship in 2011, but ultimately that launch window became impossible to meet. "This week we pulled together people from all of the teams involved with the game to decide whether we felt it would be ready before the end of December, and we grudgingly came to the conclusion that it would not," he explained.

According to Morhaime, the extra time will afford Blizzard the opportunity to "further polish to a few different elements of the game" and open the beta to more users than was originally planned. Gamers interested in opting in to the beta for Diablo III can visit Battle.net to express their interest in taking part.

Diablo III is the first title in the series since 2001's Diablo II: Lord of Destruction expansion and will add a variety of new features, character classes, and a new auction house system designed as "a new way for the company to pull revenues from the game."

For more on Diablo III, take a look at the GameSpot Gameplay Session showcasing the content currently on show in the closed beta.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6336340/diablo-iii-releasing-early-2012?tag=updates;editor;all;title;1

 

[ViviTheMage]

they better let me in!

 

[Aikouka]

http://nooooooooooooooo.com/

 

[Kaekae]

Bummer!

 

[Glitchny]

Hmm maybe I'll get a Beta invite now.

However this gives me time to play some of the other games coming out in the next few months. Too many good games releasing close together.

 

[Anubis]

i told you it wouldent come out in 2011

 

[Aikouka]

i told you it wouldent come out in 2011

It may mean that we'll see Torchlight II in 2011 though.

 

[Anubis]

It may mean that we'll see Torchlight II in 2011 though.

oh god i hope so

 

[Wyndru]

The company also has a history of declining to set release dates, choosing to instead take as much time as needed, generally saying a given product is "done when it's done."

I'd rather have it this way than have a buggy product TBH.

 

[Onita]

Was anyone actually expecting it to release this year?

 

[Redshirt 24]

Nah--December earliest IMHO, but even then I don't think anybody really expected them to pull that off. That said "early 2012" is conveniently vague...

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

lame I was hoping to play within a few weeks lol.

 

[gorcorps]

I'm fine with this. I'll be busy enough with other stuff, games and otherwise. As much as I want to play it... I know I wouldn't be able to get into it like I want to.

 

[tedrodai]

Was anyone actually expecting it to release this year?

Can't say I actually expected it, but with how often they dropped the words "trying to get in out in 2011", I thought they might do it...to the detriment of the game lol. You can tell from the beta that it's definitely polished enough to be ready for beta (unlike so many recent online games), but they still have plenty left to do before it's ready.

 

[RPD]

Disappointing (esp since I haven't been invited to the beta) but not surprising. This really opens a door for TL2 to shine.

 

[dfuze]

Eh, waiting 10 years, what's another couple of months (the answer is pure hell of course )

 

[CottonRabbit]

Predictable, Blizz has been making major changes even now during the beta. The demon hunter's resource was reworked, and all spell damage has been converted to be based off weapon damage. It seems that they are suffering from Duke Nukem Forever syndrome. At some point Blizz needs to stop iterating endlessly trying make the perfect game.

 

[SMOGZINN]

I wonder if this has anything to do with their announcement that they are working on a console port.

 

[RebelCapitalist]

Maybe with the extra time they can remove the need to constantly be connected to the Internet to play.

Or not.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Predictable, Blizz has been making major changes even now during the beta. The demon hunter's resource was reworked, and all spell damage has been converted to be based off weapon damage. It seems that they are suffering from Duke Nukem Forever syndrome. At some point Blizz needs to stop iterating endlessly trying make the perfect game.

Blizzard games don't suffer from DNF syndrome. They perfect their games where as DNF jumped from new engine to new engine, and from what I understand during most of it's early development it wasn't even being really seriously worked on with just a few people making demo videos to make it look like they were.

 

[tedrodai]

I wonder if this has anything to do with their announcement that they are working on a console port.

I doubt it, unless they have designs to release the console port simulateously for some reason. You can tell from their user interface that they've been very mindful of a console port.

 

[thespyder]

Was anyone actually expecting it to release this year?

Kind of this.

I remember waiting and waiting and WAITING for the release of the Original. Blizzard is very good at missing "Projected" release dates. Sometimes by YEARS.

I fully expect it to be out when I see it on the store shelf and not before. But I also expect that it will be a solid and fully tested game by then, so I am happy to wait.

 

[Aikouka]

I remember waiting and waiting and WAITING for the release of the Original. Blizzard is very good at missing "Projected" release dates. Sometimes by YEARS.

I thought that they've been pretty good about meeting projected release dates or at least only suffering from relatively short delays (1-3 months). The only WoW expansion that got delayed (that I can remember) is The Burning Crusade, which was pushed back from an early December launch to a mid January launch.

 

[Malak]

Wait I thought it was projected 2012 for the last year or so?

 

[thespyder]

I thought that they've been pretty good about meeting projected release dates or at least only suffering from relatively short delays (1-3 months). The only WoW expansion that got delayed (that I can remember) is The Burning Crusade, which was pushed back from an early December launch to a mid January launch.

Not having played WoW, I can't speak to that. But other releases have been long delays. Admittedly some of them have been based on "Hopeful Speculation" on the part of the fan base, but I think if you check you will see Diablo (the original) was delayed almost a year from at least one projected release date (which was firmly believed by the fans).

It isn't without cause that they are known for "It will be released when it's done!" They have used that enough to earn a reputation for it (again, not with all titles).

and if you do a google search for Diablo 3 release, you will see atleast one header reading "Blizzard: No Diablo 3 Release for 2010!", which should tell you something.