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Anyone who is familiar with Blizzard’s release history knows that release dates are regularly, and eagerly ignored. Blizzard releases games on Blizzard’s schedule, not on anyone else’s. So, today’s announcement shouldn’t come as any surprise: Diablo III has been delayed until 2012. You really can’t fault them, though. Blizzard has had the same philosophy since they released Warcraft II in 1995 and it has led to consistently excellent titles. Plus they obviously have a sense of humor about it; their press release opened with “Despite a sterling record of always hitting its release targets…” Mike Morhaime, CEO and co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment broke the news: “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. 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.” 
Either way, Blizzard is planning to use this extra time to continue beta testing Diablo III. They’re even toying with the idea of adding more testers. Hopefully this will be the only delay, but I wouldn’t count on it. By Josh Engen |