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.
as cool as it may be to get a wc3 patch, y do they get precedence over d2 when ours was annonced wayyyy b4?
arg blizzard.
a little mix in games
have my mele fighter, dota-ness, and diablo refresh-ish which i can playon my laptop :).
only reason im on so much right now is cuz im doin a law brief and its less fun than ud think haha. but i finished so ill be off soon :P.
imo, with all these patches and games coming out, bliz is spinning thier wheels a little TOOO fast for thier own good.
sc2 (the many), wow expansions, D3, new mmo, d2 patch, wc3 patch, delay, delay.
they are stretched a little tooo thin to be able to provide thier usual unsurpased quality at this quantity. if they sit on thier quality over quantity method, more delays, more people pissed, the such.
in short, if it comes any time soon, IT WILL SUCK. if it comes in a year-ish. it will be true bliz.
I'll be shocked if it actually came out early next year and I swear am not being pessimistic at all. Honest.
OHHHHH yeah !!! :thumbsup: