I think people didn’t quite read this through, all it says is that the classes and Act I are not done to the level that Tristram and the other classes were at BlizzCon. It does not mean they have gotten nowhere, just that you should look at everything with an open mind! Bashiok is just pointing out that “everything isn’t done and held back”, but that doesn’t mean “nothing is finished”. These last 2 months since BlizzCon they have obviously spent more time WORKING on the game than making things PR-ready for releases.

Just because they don’t make things PR-ready and show it to us does not mean they are not nearing their goal etc. Seeing how early they were to announce SC2, I think they might even be extra short on D3, releasing it before the end of 2009!

@ KillaMike: I think that’s a bit optimistic, to be honest, but you are right on principle. Laying the groundwork is the most complicated. Knowing what you want, designing it and making it work. After that it’s mostly polish and graphics. Mind you, with Blizz, that’s over half the job, sometimes, with the level of detail they create.

It took one year for the Diablo 2 expansion (assuming they started on it directly after the release of Diablo 2) to get released, and that was one act, Act 5.

I don’t see how Blizzard can finish Diablo 3 in one year when they have all Acts left to finish, and with all the balancing, etc. We are in for a long wait.

Diablo 2, which was notoriously delayed, was released two years after it was announced. This sets up a pessimistic release date of Summer 2010 for Diablo 3. Optimistically, maybe December 2009.

By the way…
“Things like WWI and BlizzCon takes a lot of time, and if it’s a bit quiet right now, then that’s just great news for getting the actual GAME out quicker.”
I mostly reject this line of thinking. The actual developers have little to do with such events. You certainly don’t see the code monkeys and artists giving BlizzCon talks or drafting press releases. Even creating the playable demo probable only took a day or two from a couple people, polishing a test build.

I’m not criticizing Blizzard for lack of information. Like Apple, it’s how they work, and that’s fine. But it’s more of a marketing strategy than a relentless focus on work. We all need breaks, and some developers clearly enjoy interacting with the community anyway.

Just because they haven’t finished Act I doesn’t mean they haven’t went ahead and started the other acts. i am pretty sure they have a little bit of every act done. And im sure they know what characters they are making and stuff like that. its just not 100%. Big Deal. Nothing will be until near release. My guess is still June 2010 if they want to keep the tradition. If not, then early 2010 like Jan or Feb. I say that Blizzard will release at least 2 parts to the SC2 Trilogy before we see D3. I actually wont be surprised if the entire SC2 trilogy comes out first.

@DeusEx: They did say that D3 would come before Part 2 of StarCraft.

@Nasarius: D3 has already been notoriously delayed. They were early with announcing SC2, and from talking to the devs, I got the distinct impression they were a bit annoyed they announced it too early, and D3 is now a lot closer to completion than SC2 was in 2007. In theory, it would mean less delay, but this time, they didn’t set out a release date, and take more care.

“I mostly reject this line of thinking. The actual developers have little to do with such events.”

This is actually untrue. At least the SC2 devs spend a LOT of time preparing for events like this, among other things rehearse with PR what to say and what not, getting all answers prepared for any possible questions etc. The game client they use are naturally not polished when they try out classes/monsters or SC2 races, so the weeks before an event they spend a lot of energy on specifically polish and remove bugs that would normally be left until further progress, add things like voice acting, and special effects on spells.

They might not be crafting the press release, but whatever work they have accomplished is the framework for the press release, and you would be surprised on how much time even a small event like the press tour for SC2 took in March from the development.

As an example, look at all the panels and power point presentations on WWI and BlizzCon. They were hardly made by PR alone. An almost one hour presentation will take significantly longer to make, and then refine, learn etc.

In addition to that, they do continuous BlizzCasts etc.

Point is that polishing a specific part of the game to the “Blizzard level” in order to show it to others DOES indeed take a lot of time. That’s probably the only reason we haven’t seen much new stuff recently. Even making pages on the web page takes many work hours away to make it to the level of those pages. Sure, that’s a lonely good or web editor that makes it, but it’s time he could have spent on writing quest dialogue…

I can’t see any reason for them to lie about it. It was a casual and friendly discussion, and they don’t really get any brownie points or the like regardless of whether they would lie about it or not.

if they really are nearly done with all the classes (in terms of overall build, not looks cuz who cares about that until the release) then no wonder we havent heard an update on that topic: like the WD, theyre probably expecting a lot of negative response (not at all completely negative, though) regarding the name/function/spell tree for the other classes.  at this point, doing so would draw the public’s attention away from things that they actually are interested in getting some feedback on, and toward totally subjective suggestions on altering these new classes.  i’m sure they will not be changing the yet-to-be announced classes’ builds in any major ways, so releasing this information would be a waste of everyone’s time.

i think they’re doing a great job based on what i’ve seen and heard so far, so let’s give them the support they deserve, rather than making a fuss over not releasing new information in a while.  although, of course, i would really really like to know what the other classes will be asap!

I know lots of us want Diablo news asap as well as wanting to play the game eagerly but I certainly don’t want them to rush anything that will cause the greatest game of all time to be a flop at launch. So far everything we have seen looks great!

im not sure i got this: so hes saying they have lots to go, or that they just have not disclosed anything?