Blizzard Bumps Diablo III Release to Early 2012

Blizzard Bumps Diablo III Release to Early 2012

Sunday, September 25, 2011 - by Paul Lilly
It isn't our intention to rub salt in the wounds of Diablo fans who missed out on participating in the Diablo III closed beta program, but while those lucky gamers are getting their next-generation hack-and-slash on, everyone else will have to wait until next year. Blizzard made the unfortunate announcement that Diablo III is officially being delayed until early 2012.

"With every game we make, the temptation is always very strong to launch as soon as possible. However, we didn't put so many years of work into Diablo III to release a game that was almost ready," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment. "The beta test is going very well, and we look forward to making the most of the extra time we're taking to deliver an experience that lives up to our vision for the game and the expectations of our players. Next year is going to be an incredibly busy one for Blizzard, and we hope an incredibly fun one for Blizzard gamers."


Those who are in the closed beta will get to spend some additional time with the pre-release build, and Blizzard said it's possible it would add more players to come test out the game. If you're interested, you'll need an active Battle.net account that's attached to any Blizzard game. That's step one. Step two is heading over to Battle.net account management to opt in for a chance at participating in the beta.
Via: Blizzard | News Archive | Tags: games, Blizzard, videogames, Diablo III
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By blah310 on Sep 25, 2011

Although unfortunate that many players will have to wait a longer time for such a highly anticipated game to be released, definitely a wise move by Blizzard. Perfecting the game and adding finishing touches is necessary, rather then releasing a game full of bugs because it was rushed..and it's not like it's getting delayed for years :)

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By akumu on Sep 25, 2011

I was really hoping it would be released this year, but i suppose there are no shortage of great games coming out this holiday. Here is hoping they expand the beta pretty soon.

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By omegadraco on Sep 25, 2011

This is very typical of Blizzard and one of the reasons why they have one of the best reputations as a high quality game company.

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By JConway on Sep 26, 2011

 

I had mixed feelings when I heard the news for the first time. Between the announcement of the Diablo 3 live beta and this, I'm glad development is taking more time to meet post developed standards. What makes me wonder however is the fan base lay in wait because the timeline for the game is behind schedule? Or is the extension adding to an already highly anticipated spit polish? How would you feel if the release in 4th quarter of 2011 was pushed to 2012 so the PC version of the game could launch at the same time as the console version?  The battle.net forums have frequent updates on bugs and game feedback, one would think that unexpected bugs and fixes as such would have been built into the beta test waves with an internal timeline for solutions. It's just arrogant to think a giant company of any market has no deadlines and simply is what it is. I'm still personally looking forward to the finished D3 product and I DO intend to buy. Based off the Diablo series predecessors I don't have a shadow of a doubt that this will live up to community and public expectations. 

 

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By realneil on Sep 27, 2011

JConway:
Subject:Moderation

Good morning,

I just had a simple question for you this morning. I've been keeping track of back-links, posts, sites I've subscribes to, dates, times and such. I noticed you moderated my post for a Diablo 3 topic. Nothing was really changed except for the removal of the back link. I'm not a bot, or a spammer and I don't go looking for off topic posts. I suspect perhaps it had something to do with establishment and or association. I also did not see you on the list of moderators, unless you use an alias. I was wondering if you you e-mail me back, or comment as to of why you moderated/edited the post.

HotHardware is becoming a very popular internet web site these days. Our content, our members, and our multiple prize giveaways are helping to make that a fact.
As a result, we are inundated with SPAM posts of every type, in every flavor imaginable, all day long.
I am just one of several mods here and it takes a lot of my time to help control this situation. All of the mods dedicate a lot of time to help keep this under control.
We can get to be a little hypersensitive at times, I guess. But we have to react in a timely manner when we see what could be SPAM. And we do.
As for your post.
Your one and only post ever on our site had a link to another site's review on the same topic and it was not the manufacturer of the subject game.
I usually delete the entire post in cases such as this, but liked that in your comment, you were trying to contribute to the discussion on our site, so I didn't. Try posting a few times without linking to other sites, especially the same site over and over, and you'll be off of my radar.

Your commenting is knowledgeable and I think you would fit right in here at HH.

RealNeil

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