Back in September, Bashiok made the hopeful proclamation that we would be seeing a tangible update on the patch within a week's time. As the days, and weeks, rolled by, he eventually made another statement, which excluded the week-hopeful but unfortunately contained no new information (see Diablo II Patch 1.13- More Delays, Hopefully a Brighter Future).
As a long month has passed since any substantial updates, concerns shifted to the patch emerging as a myth in gaming history and essential vaporware. The clock has come full circle finally, however, and there is a slightly different demeanor that Bashiok bares in his latest response to patch news:
Official Blizzard Quote:
It has been a while since the last update, and I'm sorry about that, but we haven't had any new developments until recently. As much as some people want daily affirmations, they aren't helpful. We'll give updates when they matter, and [highlight]we have a meaningful one going up this week[/highlight].
As opposed to the nebulous hope he had stated more than a month ago, it seems that we may be nigh on the edge of real news, perhaps even a date, considering how long this patch has been in development. Take it as you will, this provides some semblance of hope in the growing disinterest in an elusive patch.
UPDATE November 18, 2009:
Official Blizzard Quote:
Update - 11/18
We've recently completed a revised version of the Diablo II 1.13 patch that removes the increased stash size. A larger stash will unfortunately no longer be a feature included in patch 1.13 due to the previously mentioned concerns. As higher priority work continues on Warcraft III we're hoping to complete our quality assurance tests for the 1.13 patch in the next few weeks. But as always, the types of issues that may appear and take higher priority are rarely foreseeable. We continue to plan a release based on our best intentions.
I... Have nothing to say to that. Well spoken
rite
I predict the meaningful statement will be a statement stating that they will soon have a major statement to make.
Oh my. That wouldn't surprise me in the least.
They did say the PTR would be up first.. makes sense. So maybe they'll have information on the PTR?
That's what I'm thinking it might be. Either that, or they finally had a breakthrough with the increased stash and just have to share the news with all of us (and then proceed to say that the patch will be released "soon").
Blizzard time > Valve time, y/y?
Lol you'll be regretting this in another 2 years when D3 is released and tops all other sales on both consoles and comps.
I don't know... 4.7 million on the first day of sale for Modern Warfare 2 is pretty hard to beat..