Diablo III Release Date Tipped in the U.K.

Diablo fans were equally disappointed and miffed when Blizzard announced back in September 2011 that it was delaying the release of the franchise's third major installment, Diablo III, into "early 2012." Blizzard was apologetic about the delay, though said in a statement that despite hoping to launch the game in 2011, the publisher "never committed to it." Fair enough, but Blizzard did commit to early 2012, and it looks as though everything is on track.

U.K. games retailer GamePlay lists Diablo III being released on February 3, 2012, shipping in plenty of time for Valentine's Day, assuming your significant other would prefer a PC game to a box of candy hearts. Granted, we wouldn't want to bet the farm on a website listing, but there's also at least one Best Buy shop in the U.S. advertising midnight availability of Diablo III on February 1, 2012, a couple days ahead of the U.K. launch. A picture of the ad was posted to Twitter and later pulled, but not before Joystiq confirmed with the Minnesota location that it was real.


"A store employee politely assured Joystiq of the endcap's existence and noted the February 1 launch date, which will conicede with a midnight opening (at least at her location)," Joystiq said.

On top of it all, Best Buy's online listing shows the same release date. Go ahead and mark your calendars, one hell of a good time awaits.