Dutch Ad Points to a Diablo 3 Launch on April 19
Jaw Wilson said a Diablo 3 launch announcement will be made in the near future. Meanwhile, there's talk that Diablo 3 will go retail on April 19.
Blizzard's Jay Wilson said in a public letter to the community that Diablo 3 fans should expect a launch date announcement from the team in the "near future."
The news arrives in a long post defending the team's outlook on where the game stands in its development cycle, bashing talk that the team is "unsteady" in its outlook. The uncertainty seemingly started with a post by Community Manager Bashiok who told fans to lower their expectations for Diablo 3.
"I too worry that we won't be able to meet the expectations people have built up for themselves," the forum post reads. "Part of my job is managing people's expectations, so... eh... stop it. Stop thinking about how awesome this game could be. Just imagine it's a new M. Night Shyamalan movie. Sure Sixth Sense was amazing and Unbreakable had it's moments, but this right here is the sequel to The Village ... or The Happening ... or Signs ... or any of the movies besides the two I first mentioned. So just like, lower those expectations, but still definitely buy the game please, and everything will be just fine. K?"
But Wilson puts all naysayers in their place, both official and unofficial, reassuring fans that beta testers and the Diablo 3 team feel that the game is in great shape.
"We get a lot of sympathy from the other teams because of the long hours of crunch our design team is putting in, but the secret is that playing through the game as we do final tuning, bug fixes, and optimizations is a real joy. We always know a Blizzard game is almost ready when we have to ask members of the team to stop playing so they can get their work done. That’s definitely been the case around here."
What he doesn't say is that Diablo 3 will be available soon. We already know that won't be the case, as Activision Blizzard recently stated that nothing new will be released in 1Q12. That said, Diablo 3 will likely launch in 2Q12, or rather, sometime between April 1 and June 30, if all goes well, that is.
Still, saying that a launch announcement will be made in the near future is far better than saying Diablo 3 will be done "when it's done." There definitely seems to be a light at the far end of the development tunnel.
"See, I didn’t say 'soon,' so I’m not taunting you," he said. "You’ll know as soon as I know for sure the exact date. We think Diablo 3 is coming along great and we can’t wait for you to get your hands on it. We’re doing all we can to ensure you have one hell of a time once you step foot in Sanctuary."
Diablo 3 recently saw massive changes to the core systems, leading to speculation that the game would be delayed. It was at one time unofficially slated for 1Q12, but is still expected to launch sometime this year along with the second installment to StarCraft 2, Heart of the Swarm, even though a particular quarter hasn't been locked down by the developer.
To read Jay Wilson's full address to the Diablo 3 nation, head here.
Update: A Dutch toy manufacturer claims Diablo 3 will be released on April 19, 2012. Here's the evidence.
The game is nice, but it is NOWHERE near release.
A game where game-changing items can be bought from blizzard for real-world dollars, so you will suck, relatively, if you don't want to pay.
Yup, I can see why you're all so eager for release - you all want to not buy and make the release a failure in order to force companies to rethink their evil methods - I'm so proud of you all.
1.5 hours? Maybe 1.4 hours as the part where the guy layed down to let his lawn mower devour him was at least interesting
And then the most recent patch came out, where they changed the rune system. I no longer think the game is anywhere close to ready.
I just hope they didn't make D3 into WoW2.
Day late for me, April 18th. I don't mind a late birthday present in this case
While I hope that it isn't a disappointment, if it was at least we would have closure that the series has went downhill and not need to think "what could have D3 been if they didn't trash it?" From friends who happened to get in the beta, they said that it's coming along well. I really hope so...
I was hearing they changed too much... To me i think i'm going to enjoy this game if it is close the the prior games. Although I love trying a new innovative game (like "The World Ends With You" which did some amazing battle features) but if it was too different I'd be nervous that they may have killed one of the key components that made me love the previous games.