Just weeks ago, a Dutch toy manufacturer claimed that Blizzard's highly-anticipated Diablo 3 for the PC will be released on April 19, 2012. Now there are reports that Amazon accidentally leaked the release date too, reporting that it's slated to arrive just two days before the Dutch date: April 17, 2012. So far that's two leaked dates pointing to a mid-April release. Coincidence? Let's hope not.
As CVG points out, retailers typically throw in a placeholder projected release date that publishers may or may not actually provide. Sometimes they're way off the mark, and sometimes they're right on the money. Strangely enough, the date Amazon listed has mysteriously disappeared since the initial report surfaced, suggesting that there may be some credibility behind the slip-up.
So far Diablo 3 is still slated for a Q2 2012 release, meaning it could appear any time between April 1 and June 30 if development stays on track. Just recently Blizzard's Jay Wilson said that they'll make a launch announcement sometime in the "near future."
"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."
He also said the action-RPG is in great shape despite what Community Manager Bashiok indicated when telling fans to lower their expectations.
"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," Wilson added. "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."
