Blizzard Reveals Diablo 3′s Release as “Early 2012″

Posted 23 September 2011 by Flux

Since Blizzard launched their new B.net D3 blog-style site, fans have noted that upcoming posts often appear in the right side navigation menu before they go live. That’s provided a few laughs so far, but tonight it showed something rather shocking.

“Soon” Was Too Soon — Diablo III to Arrive in Early 2012
9/23/11 1:23am

The full post is not up (but it was, until it was removed but luckily we have it preserved here) and the preview is no longer showing, but numerous fans spotted it when it was visible, and you can see it in a screenshot below, thanks to ElexorienGR. While it’s not a big surprise that D3 (apparently?) won’t be released in 2011, as often as Blizzard has said, “We’re still trying.” fans had been keeping hope alive. As much as they’re still working on — runestones being overhauled, total Demon Hunter resource and skill reshuffling, Beta running behind schedule, etc — I guess this isn’t a real surprise.

Now, for the inevitable question. How “early” is “early 2012?” Are we talking January, or April?

 

The full post went up some hours after we posted this preview, and you can see it here.

While this news might not be a complete surprise, I know that many of you were hopeful that Diablo III would ship this year. We were too. However, 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. Ultimately, we feel that to deliver an awesome Diablo sequel that lives up to our expectations and yours as well, we should take a little more time and add further polish to a few different elements of the game.

Click through for the full quote from Mike Morhaime.

We commonly use the term “soon” when referring to Blizzard releases, because we know that no matter how hard we’re working to reach a target, we’re not going to compromise and launch a game before it’s ready. For Diablo III, we were aiming to launch by the end of 2011. As we’re announcing globally today, our new target for the game is early 2012.

While this news might not be a complete surprise, I know that many of you were hopeful that Diablo III would ship this year. We were too. However, 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. Ultimately, we feel that to deliver an awesome Diablo sequel that lives up to our expectations and yours as well, we should take a little more time and add further polish to a few different elements of the game.

The upside of today’s announcement is that we will be running the beta test longer than we initially planned, which will allow us to invite more of you who have opted in.

For those taking on the Diableard challenge, we salute you — and now fear for your well-being and personal hygiene. We hereby issue an official reprieve to all Diableard participants, including Blizzard employees, if you want to trim or otherwise manage the lower half of your face. We’d still love to see your beardly achievements, and we look forward to seeing more of your efforts as we move into 2012, but not to the detriment of your workplaces and significant others.

Thank you everyone for your support and anticipation for Diablo III. We’re still moving ahead at full pace, and we’ll be keeping you fully informed of any news and developments here at Diablo3.com, including the specific release date when the time comes, so stay tuned.

-Mike Morhaime

Tagged As: | Categories: Bashiok, Blue Posts, Release Date
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106 Opinions have been expressed on “Blizzard Reveals Diablo 3′s Release as “Early 2012″”
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  • My guess would be at the end of february :) :) :)

  • Let’s hope they will use the time to redo the goofy armors.

  • oh well, early 2012 will become mid 2012, and then it leads to late 2012…

  • I have been saying 2012 since mid 2009 so no surprise for me! Hope I’m wrong though  :-)

  • Damn. Now I don’t know what I want as New Year present :(

  • Seems i was right off the bat…when i saw they intended to change the DH skill system whatever + auction house + BS. U can’t make major changes without testing and retesting them….u have to be a legitimate fool to think these changes could be finished/wrapped till the end of this year.
    U forget 90% of the Blizzard company still works to milk out wow players with noob patches…. i wonder if even the janitor of Blizzard is even working on D3…

  • NOOO, I was hoping I could lose my social life (I mean, play!) in dec-jan-feb… Oh, the horror.
    I am disapoint
    Seriously, if I played the beta for over 3 months without the game shipping I would go crazy.

  • Blue post from Mike Morhaime explaining has come out grabbed by that ‘other’ diablo sites blue tracker. as seen here http://diablo.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=811597

  • Sad if true. :( It would’ve been interesting to see just how well a major Blizzard release (not in the least D3) would do in the Christmas retail sales.

  • Sounds like D3 will come out right when Battlefield 3 starts to get boring!! Wish it was sooner though :twisted:

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