The biggest news concerning Diablo in the beginning of this call wass the fact that any revenue that is projected from its release has been left out of their 2011 financial plans.
Now, this does not guarantee that Blizzard will not be releasing Diablo this year. What it means is that they are not sure if it will be and therefore, do not want to include it in their current financial plans. They did say, however, that "if a title is not released this year, that they would be releasing two titles in 2012".
Separately, someone asked why no revenue from Diablo was included. The response was basically that it is still unknown on its release date.
After the initial information, Mike Morhaime spoke about Blizzard specifically. He stated that they were very excited about Diablo III and that development continues to move forward. Unfortunately, we did not get anything specific about any dates or its progress. However, more information about Diablo III and its beta will be discussed at the next conference call in May.
Mike Morhaime also answered a question about Diablo's progress and a possible release date. His response was that they were still very excited about Diablo. The reason for the mystery behind any dates is that they are waiting for initial responses from Beta before they announce any dates. Basically, if beta goes well, it would push their plans forward and if there were multiple things they want to change, it would push the date back.
On a more speculative conclusion of this, a summer beta would be logical given that it will be talked about in the next conference call. June 28th continues to be an important date for Diablo and may follow this trend with a possible Beta start date. This would put a six month Beta finishing at the end of the year in December. This late date may be why they did not include Diablo in their financial plan for this year. The success or issues with Beta may make this date very tangible for this year or the next. Again, they did not say that Diablo will not be released this year. However, an early 2012 release is now looking more realistic according to this new information.
We can all look forward, from this point, to the next conference call in May when a date for Beta should be announced giving us a more accurate guess of the release date.
*update*
Official Blizzard Quote:
I want to make sure it’s clear that what was stated on the investor conference call was this: Blizzard has not announced a release date for its next global release. IF we don’t release a major title in 2011, then for planning purposes we would expect to launch 2 titles in 2012.
This has been misreported/misinterpreted as an announced release schedule for 2011 and 2012, which it is not. While we’re pleased with the progress of Diablo III, we have not announced a release date for it or for any other upcoming Blizzard game. We’re currently contacting a number of outlets to request that they make the appropriate corrections in order to avoid any further confusion.
What Bashiok is telling us is that we shouldn't rule out a 2011 release, but we shouldn't be too excited about having the game this year either.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the News team
Call me an optimist but I am still hoping for a 2011 release. To me, and this is just my opinion, they seem to be covering their own ass just in case it doesn't. However, it seems that they are planning on a 2011 date with the possibility of a delay causing a 2012 one. So, if everything goes to plan and beta goes well, they still want a 2011 release.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the News team
I think the beta will be later than june 28th actually I think it will be around Blizzcon time. I officially don't even care anymore because now i know it is coming and well idc about speculation or anything anymore.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Not even Death will save you from Diablo Bunny's Cuteness!
Late 2011 sounds most likely to me aswell, barring some kind of unforeseen setback.. However, considering the game was announced in 2008, I do believe it's fair to say Blizzard was wrong to not 'exclude' possible release years. Would it truly have been so risky for them to have said it would DEFINITELY not be released BEFORE 2011? Would have set a whole different set of expectations than the continuous "it might be released next year.. or it might not be".
In no way do I believe Blizzard should announce their release dates earlier than they do. But I do hope nobody will even attempt to convince me that Blizzard actually underestimated the amount of work to be done by 2-3 years.
Given the way blizzard handles release dates with "when it's done" catch phrase it could be just a ass-cover as you said.
Let's hope we see it in 2011 ;- )
Show me the last time Blizzard gave us a positive release surprise (positive being sooner than expected).
This is god-awful news, and I'm sure heads are rolling at Blizzard. If Bliz has no new releases in 2011, shareholders are gonna dump the stock like it's hot. After-hours trading the stock is down 7.2%.
To re-iterate what I said in the battle.net forums:
Blizzard's arrogant dismissal of the importance of time-to-market never ceases to astound me. They want to confuse us by saying : More time causes more quality. Not necessarily true. Better development and quality assurance models improve quality. Iteration is ONE way to achieve quality. Planning and coherent development vision is another.
I'm exceptionally disappointed, in any case.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions."
-Thomas Jefferson
Show me the last time Blizzard gave us a positive release surprise (positive being sooner than expected).
Well he specifically said that it did not mean that it was automatically a 2012 release.
This is god-awful news, and I'm sure heads are rolling at Blizzard. If Bliz has no new releases in 2011, shareholders are gonna dump the stock like it's hot. After-hours trading the stock is down 7.2%.
You mean like the years and years they had with WoW as their only new game? I don't see any reason why they would do so much more poorly with a early 2012 release and WoW subscription fees from 12 million people.
Blizzard's arrogant dismissal of the importance of time-to-market never ceases to astound me. They want to confuse us by saying : More time causes more quality. Not necessarily true. Better development and quality assurance models improve quality. Iteration is ONE way to achieve quality. Planning and coherent development vision is another.
I'm exceptionally disappointed, in any case.
Yes, and planning and coherent development vision and iteration is the best way. Blizzard has developed games like this for 20 years now. Why in the world would they start doing any differently?
It is out of my mind how can people still be "okay" with these results. The game's being made for so many years now and nothing is still certain about it. Even Mike is uncertain about the whole D3 situation.
Of course hes uncertain about D3's release date. What hes not uncertain about is the beta release. They know when its coming out, they just don't know how much work the feedback is going to lead to. He seemed to say that if there were not huge problems after the beta it would be late 2011, while if there were more problems it would be early 2012. I don't see how that can be bad.
Oh, and by the way, why are you guys so sure there will be beta coming any time soon. "More info on the beta next time" doesn't mean "beta announcement next time". In Blizzard style "more info on the beta next time" means "still no news on the beta guys, sorry".
What other information can you say about a beta? Even if there are any other good reasons to mention it, an announcement (as in some solid timeframe or date as to when it'll be out) would still be well in the range of possibilities.
PlugY for Diablo II allows you to reset skills and stats, transfer items between characters in singleplayer, obtain all ladder runewords and do all Uberquests while offline. It is the only way to do all of the above. Please use it.
Supporting big shoulderpads and flashy armor since 2004.
No. You will be proven wrong! December 31st!!!!!!! YOU WILL BE WRONG!!!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
www.myspace.com/mpotatoes for all your Trans Siberian Orchestra listening pleasure
If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last
By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask
Im glad the first game I decided to fully follow, turns out to be the longest developement time in the history of gaming. (duke nukem forever doesnt count, no one actually followed that for 14 years).
This is god-awful news, and I'm sure heads are rolling at Blizzard. If Bliz has no new releases in 2011, shareholders are gonna dump the stock like it's hot. After-hours trading the stock is down 7.2%.
You mean like the years and years they had with WoW as their only new game? I don't see any reason why they would do so much more poorly with a early 2012 release and WoW subscription fees from 12 million people.
Because the market, and shareholders, expected a D3 2011 release.
Blizzard's arrogant dismissal of the importance of time-to-market never ceases to astound me. They want to confuse us by saying : More time causes more quality. Not necessarily true. Better development and quality assurance models improve quality. Iteration is ONE way to achieve quality. Planning and coherent development vision is another.
I'm exceptionally disappointed, in any case.
Yes, and planning and coherent development vision and iteration is the best way. Blizzard has developed games like this for 20 years now. Why in the world would they start doing any differently?
Exactly my point. I don't see any evidence of coherent planning and vision. They seem only to use iteration. Just look at how many times resource systems and skills have been re-designed.
It is out of my mind how can people still be "okay" with these results. The game's being made for so many years now and nothing is still certain about it. Even Mike is uncertain about the whole D3 situation.
Of course hes uncertain about D3's release date. What hes not uncertain about is the beta release. They know when its coming out, they just don't know how much work the feedback is going to lead to. He seemed to say that if there were not huge problems after the beta it would be late 2011, while if there were more problems it would be early 2012. I don't see how that can be bad.
Very few if any software companies in the world don't know when their products are going to be released. They set a deadline and they meet that deadline. They tell their customers what that deadline is. They have internal "stretch" deadlines, and externally facing "committed" deadlines beyond which they do not pass. This is BASIC project management. Why does Blizzard feel so above this process? Obviously it's outrageous to their customer base.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions."
-Thomas Jefferson
I was a bit bummed but so far, even with the delays, Blizzard always delivered top quality games. A top quality game is what i've been waiting for so long. I wouldn't want a bad one just to get it early.
I'll wait. And when the game comes i'll be getting it immediately and will have fun with it for a good half decade to say the least
What other information can you say about a beta? Even if there are any other good reasons to mention it, an announcement (as in some solid timeframe or date as to when it'll be out) would still be well in the range of possibilities.
They should have given us a timeframe for the beta, a between "this" and "that" would have received a lot better feedback than "fuck you guys nothing new here dev is slow as usual don't get your hopes up for 2011 as it is looking to not be the case."
This is basically what they told us. I love being optimistic but it looks as if 2012 is become more likely the case. And with blizzard you know it will happen. They will receive feedback and take everything and revamp it cause people said it didn't look good enough or it didn't flow well enough even though it works fine. Then we'll have to wait another 5-6 months till everything's ready and thats if they don't have some other idea they wanna throw in there to "make it a better game" cause then it'll be another year after 2011 and forget it no one will care by then.
I'm hoping for a June 28th beta release although I HIGHLY doubt it. My worst case scenario is beta announced at Blizzcon 2011, and my most likely scenario is the beta will be released around Blizzcon maybe on the day of or the day after so that after all that Blizzard news they can give us all the chance to play. Then with that I can see a June 28th 2012 release, and if it gets delayed I can see a December or October 2012 release. If it is a major setback like a serious engine malfunction I could see them halting everything and making this game come out after Titan is announced well into development.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Not even Death will save you from Diablo Bunny's Cuteness!
The conference call should be taken in context of the fiscal year for 2011, which ends September 30, 2011 (oct-dec 2011 is the 2012 fiscal year).
Anything released after that date will technically be part of their 2012 "financial plans".
False, considering this conference call was entitled:
Activision Blizzard Fourth Quarter Calendar 2010, you may want to check your particulars there. This was the report for Fiscal Year 2010 Q4, which means, of course, that Q42011 doesn't end until Feb 2012.
Edit: I think I just replied to your same post on battle.net with the same post. sorry to be the double harbinger of bad news.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions."
-Thomas Jefferson
Need to ask about this beta everyone is talking about,
will it be free for all users or you have to own sumtin or pay for it to get access to it? Am not quite informed about betas...
Basically you opt-in your Battle.net account, submit your system specs, and, if you're lucky, you get chosen for a key. So no, you don't have to pay or own anything (besides a computer, obviously, but it seems like you've probably got that covered), but it's not exactly for all users either. But anyone who wants in has an opportunity to get in.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Now, this does not guarantee that Blizzard will not be releasing Diablo this year. What it means is that they are not sure if it will be and therefore, do not want to include it in their current financial plans. They did say, however, that "if a title is not released this year, that they would be releasing two titles in 2012".
Separately, someone asked why no revenue from Diablo was included. The response was basically that it is still unknown on its release date.
After the initial information, Mike Morhaime spoke about Blizzard specifically. He stated that they were very excited about Diablo III and that development continues to move forward. Unfortunately, we did not get anything specific about any dates or its progress. However, more information about Diablo III and its beta will be discussed at the next conference call in May.
Mike Morhaime also answered a question about Diablo's progress and a possible release date. His response was that they were still very excited about Diablo. The reason for the mystery behind any dates is that they are waiting for initial responses from Beta before they announce any dates. Basically, if beta goes well, it would push their plans forward and if there were multiple things they want to change, it would push the date back.
On a more speculative conclusion of this, a summer beta would be logical given that it will be talked about in the next conference call. June 28th continues to be an important date for Diablo and may follow this trend with a possible Beta start date. This would put a six month Beta finishing at the end of the year in December. This late date may be why they did not include Diablo in their financial plan for this year. The success or issues with Beta may make this date very tangible for this year or the next. Again, they did not say that Diablo will not be released this year. However, an early 2012 release is now looking more realistic according to this new information.
We can all look forward, from this point, to the next conference call in May when a date for Beta should be announced giving us a more accurate guess of the release date.
*update*
Official Blizzard Quote:
I want to make sure it’s clear that what was stated on the investor conference call was this: Blizzard has not announced a release date for its next global release. IF we don’t release a major title in 2011, then for planning purposes we would expect to launch 2 titles in 2012.
This has been misreported/misinterpreted as an announced release schedule for 2011 and 2012, which it is not. While we’re pleased with the progress of Diablo III, we have not announced a release date for it or for any other upcoming Blizzard game. We’re currently contacting a number of outlets to request that they make the appropriate corrections in order to avoid any further confusion.
What Bashiok is telling us is that we shouldn't rule out a 2011 release, but we shouldn't be too excited about having the game this year either.
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the News team
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the News team
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the news team.
DiabloFans: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Live Chat
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the news team.
DiabloFans: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Live Chat
In no way do I believe Blizzard should announce their release dates earlier than they do. But I do hope nobody will even attempt to convince me that Blizzard actually underestimated the amount of work to be done by 2-3 years.
All in all I find this a bit poor =)
Show me the last time Blizzard gave us a positive release surprise (positive being sooner than expected).
This is god-awful news, and I'm sure heads are rolling at Blizzard. If Bliz has no new releases in 2011, shareholders are gonna dump the stock like it's hot. After-hours trading the stock is down 7.2%.
To re-iterate what I said in the battle.net forums:
Blizzard's arrogant dismissal of the importance of time-to-market never ceases to astound me. They want to confuse us by saying : More time causes more quality. Not necessarily true. Better development and quality assurance models improve quality. Iteration is ONE way to achieve quality. Planning and coherent development vision is another.
I'm exceptionally disappointed, in any case.
-Thomas Jefferson
You mean like the years and years they had with WoW as their only new game? I don't see any reason why they would do so much more poorly with a early 2012 release and WoW subscription fees from 12 million people.
Yes, and planning and coherent development vision and iteration is the best way. Blizzard has developed games like this for 20 years now. Why in the world would they start doing any differently?
Of course hes uncertain about D3's release date. What hes not uncertain about is the beta release. They know when its coming out, they just don't know how much work the feedback is going to lead to. He seemed to say that if there were not huge problems after the beta it would be late 2011, while if there were more problems it would be early 2012. I don't see how that can be bad.
What other information can you say about a beta? Even if there are any other good reasons to mention it, an announcement (as in some solid timeframe or date as to when it'll be out) would still be well in the range of possibilities.
Find any Diablo news? Contact me or anyone else on the news team.
DiabloFans: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Live Chat
You're not dead yet 2011! Right...?
No. You will be proven wrong! December 31st!!!!!!! YOU WILL BE WRONG!!!
If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this
Christmas thing last
By helping a neighbor
Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask
Exactly my point. I don't see any evidence of coherent planning and vision. They seem only to use iteration. Just look at how many times resource systems and skills have been re-designed.
Very few if any software companies in the world don't know when their products are going to be released. They set a deadline and they meet that deadline. They tell their customers what that deadline is. They have internal "stretch" deadlines, and externally facing "committed" deadlines beyond which they do not pass. This is BASIC project management. Why does Blizzard feel so above this process? Obviously it's outrageous to their customer base.
-Thomas Jefferson
I'll wait. And when the game comes i'll be getting it immediately and will have fun with it for a good half decade to say the least
Anything released after that date will technically be part of their 2012 "financial plans".
They should have given us a timeframe for the beta, a between "this" and "that" would have received a lot better feedback than "fuck you guys nothing new here dev is slow as usual don't get your hopes up for 2011 as it is looking to not be the case."
This is basically what they told us. I love being optimistic but it looks as if 2012 is become more likely the case. And with blizzard you know it will happen. They will receive feedback and take everything and revamp it cause people said it didn't look good enough or it didn't flow well enough even though it works fine. Then we'll have to wait another 5-6 months till everything's ready and thats if they don't have some other idea they wanna throw in there to "make it a better game" cause then it'll be another year after 2011 and forget it no one will care by then.
I'm hoping for a June 28th beta release although I HIGHLY doubt it. My worst case scenario is beta announced at Blizzcon 2011, and my most likely scenario is the beta will be released around Blizzcon maybe on the day of or the day after so that after all that Blizzard news they can give us all the chance to play. Then with that I can see a June 28th 2012 release, and if it gets delayed I can see a December or October 2012 release. If it is a major setback like a serious engine malfunction I could see them halting everything and making this game come out after Titan is announced well into development.
False, considering this conference call was entitled:
Activision Blizzard Fourth Quarter Calendar 2010, you may want to check your particulars there. This was the report for Fiscal Year 2010 Q4, which means, of course, that Q42011 doesn't end until Feb 2012.
Edit: I think I just replied to your same post on battle.net with the same post. sorry to be the double harbinger of bad news.
-Thomas Jefferson
Basically you opt-in your Battle.net account, submit your system specs, and, if you're lucky, you get chosen for a key. So no, you don't have to pay or own anything (besides a computer, obviously, but it seems like you've probably got that covered), but it's not exactly for all users either. But anyone who wants in has an opportunity to get in.