Diablo III game director neither confirms or denies April 17 launch rumor

Shawn Knight

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Diablo III could be released next month which aligns with Blizzard’s proposed launch window of Q2 2012 for the highly-anticipated title. A report from mmorpgitalia (Italian) claims that Activision Italy has informed retailers in the region that the game will be release on April 17, prompting some stores to put out pre-order boxes.

Amazon.it was one such retailer that initially ran with the April 17 release date but as of writing, it’s been changed to the much less specific ‘2012’.

Game director for Blizzard Jay Wilson has been fielding questions regarding the rumored date on Twitter. When asked if he could confirm or deny the date, he tweeted that he “cannot debunk or confirm” the proposed release date, adding fuel to the fire rather than dousing it before it spread further.

Diablo III has garnered extensive media attention over the past several months in reference to when the game might launch. Blizzard started a closed beta for the game in September 2011 with many hoping the title would be released in time for the lucrative holiday buying season. Blizzard, however, has remained steadfast in not releasing an exact date, rather stating that the game will be ready when it’s ready.

Wilson did leave us with one more tidbit via Twitter. @ChrisFW asked the game director to comment on how close an announcement is on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being not even close and 10 being imminent. Wilson replied with a 9.

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To how close the game is being released, he said a 9! Yes it's got to be April, then. Goodbye life!
 
idk its been a decade since d2 so a 9 could mean another year, but likely not, if they knew the release date i bet theyd tell us, april seems unlikely i think sc2's release date was announced 2-3 months before it was released as well as every wow expansion. So im thinking june-july but i thought it was gonna be out in 2011 so who the heck knows.
 
Technically, he was asked to comment on "how close an announcement is on a scale of 1 to 10"...Not necessarily that it would be released soon..and we all know that blizzard release dates are subject to change.
 
"Diablo III game director neither confirms or denies April 17 launch rumor"

Thanks for the update....
 
Lets hear about a good game like Grim Dawn, Path Of Exile, or even Torchlight 2.
 
Diablo 3 is going to suck on launch, to be blunt about it. The fans keep putting extreme pressure on Blizzard to release it and they will rush and cut corners to get it released, and as a result it won't be as good as it should be. Best to wait until after probably the first big 3 patches they make to the game before buying it.

But it's kind of ironic, the fans claim it's going to be the best game ever, or act like it will be. Which I don't doubt, but those same fans are the ones that will cause it to be incomplete/sloppy because of their constant "I want it now because I'm an entitled child who deserves everything!" whining.
 
there is no rush. its supposed to be 70% complete a year ago when they anounced the last class and showed gameplay footage of how the hero combats.

this is just taking forever.

-Grim Dawn Legendary key holder (mehehe)
 
I have enjoyed the series so far. For all those who are in the "gimmie gimmie" mode. I'm sure they have plenty of other things (games, work, maybe a life) to eat up the time until the game is actually released. I for one would love the game to be released with only minor bug fix's needed.
 
Path of Exile, Torchlight and Grim Dawn all look promising but Diablo 3 is almost here and they are basically clones with minor changes. Played D3 demo and finished it with all classes and I will say that the game is shaping up pretty well. Yes the graphics are dated, but then again Diablo 2 graphics were atrocious. The core game play is as addictive as it was 12 years ago and for me the game starts in nightmare mode and then hell mode anyways. Yeah the demo is very easy, but it's just a taste of what's coming and so far I really like what I see. When the other three aforementioned games come out, I will get them as well because I love loot and killing monsters.
So far the Witch Doctor and Monk are my favorite classes.
 
I pre-ordered this game on Amazon about 3 years ago. Maybe 4 years ago.

This might be one of the most long-anticipated games since Duke Nukem Forever. And that was a HUGE disappointment.

I hope D3 won't be, but Blizzard don't usually disappoint.
 
i pre-ordered mine about 2-3 years ago . Can't wait . I love one of the posters says it will suck because they rushing it , lol , it's the least rushed game in history , my god its been beta'ed and tweaked for a year.
 
hello ...

pre-ordered too very long time ago, yet want the collector's edition :p

can't wait to know the when !

cheers!
 
RH00D said:
Diablo 3 is going to suck on launch, to be blunt about it. The fans keep putting extreme pressure on Blizzard to release it and they will rush and cut corners to get it released, and as a result it won't be as good as it should be. Best to wait until after probably the first big 3 patches they make to the game before buying it.

But it's kind of ironic, the fans claim it's going to be the best game ever, or act like it will be. Which I don't doubt, but those same fans are the ones that will cause it to be incomplete/sloppy because of their constant "I want it now because I'm an entitled child who deserves everything!" whining.

Wait what?

I'm in the beta program and since the FIRST beta I felt the game was just what I expected it to be, since then they've made many changes and each time it just gets better.
So NO.. its not gonna suck, the beta already kicks *** and it can only get better from here.

No one is whining like an entitled brat, we just want some progress reports. I'm pretty sure the employees working on this has some specific deadlines and goals they work towards. It's not like they all just code in the dark and then suddenly one Friday morning they go "Oh wow look, its all done, we TOTALLY did not see that happening!" Is it that much to ask for some updates on a game we really want to play because we loved the previous version?
 
I'm in both the Diablo 3 beta and the Path Of Exile beta. Diablo 3 sucks. Path Of Exile is going to be a much better game. Not to mention it will be free to play, but not pay to win. Diablo 3 will cost money to buy then it will be pay to win. The game has lost it's dark and gloomy dungeon crawling feel that Diablo fans loved. Path Of Exile feels more true to the roots of Diablo than Diablo 3 does. While Diablo 3 sucks and Path Of Exile is good, we also have Grim Dawn and Torchlight 2 to look forward to (they both look promising from an outsiders perspective).
 
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