While you bring up a number of points of speculation, I just want to cut right to it and state that the reason we don’t have a release date yet is because the game isn’t yet where we want it to be in terms of our quality standards. We aren’t holding it back on account of any one piece of the game, or for any other outside factors.
There you have it. It's up to you if you want to believe Bashiok or keep your tin-foil hat on tight.
edit: Bashiok's post is actually a lot longer than this if you want to follow the link, but this is the most important thing he wrote.
And you believe it? I personally not. This whole week people were very angry and they probably were told to say something calming to the community.
Honestly there's no real way to tell if Bashiok is being real with us. The only way to know is if we find out the Korea RMAH situation is resolved, then a release date is announced within 24 hours, or ArenaNet announces a release date for Guild Wars 2 and then Blizzard responds with their own; I find scenarios like these very unlikely, but if they do happen we can all say, 'Hey Bashiok you were full of shit."
It just seems much more plausible that Blizzard is nitpicking and polishing an already finished product (by all other gaming companies standards).
While you bring up a number of points of speculation, I just want to cut right to it and state that the reason we don’t have a release date yet is because the game isn’t yet where we want it to be in terms of our quality standards. We aren’t holding it back on account of any one piece of the game, or for any other outside factors.
There you have it. It's up to you if you want to believe Bashiok or keep your tin-foil hat on tight.
edit: Bashiok's post is actually a lot longer than this if you want to follow the link, but this is the most important thing he wrote.
I agree with you and Bashiok - its not one single issue that is holding up the release of this game. Its obviously multiple issues.
And to stop the "Bug report, bug report, bug report" people cold in their tracks - YES - there are technical issues with the game. However. The Korea situation, the RMAH situation at large are very much a HUGE part of this game being held. If the ONLY thing that was holding this game back were some developers sitting in a room going "you know what - instead of runes, lets do Skittles. Yeah, they are like a rainbow of candy - lets do that" than we'd being playing Diablo 3...right...now.
Our precious, loved company is holding this game to polish it. And to make sure its shiny, polished surface brings them a boat load of money from every country on this little planet.
Of course they are polishing it, I can't understand if some people don't believe that.
It's quite obvious the devs are using the extra time to improve some features or change some others.
They can even do this until 2013 or 2014 if the direction want them to.
Either it's already a good enough game and can be release or not is though difficult to say and Bashiok won't tell you "Damn I think they should release the game !!". My bet is that direction allowed devs to improve it until an early 2012 release while maybe they manage other issues with the Korean for example. Therefore I think they have no idea yet and are waiting to see how things develop on every side (legal, development,..) and will have to take a decision come early 2012.
While it is indeed playable from beginning to end, we’re still actively working on many individual game elements and the ways that they interact with one another, with a great deal of iterative tweaking, balancing, polishing, adjusting, redesigning, and retesting going on.
I understand everything here except "redesigning".
Come on, this is NOT a time to return to the drawing board.
While it is indeed playable from beginning to end, we’re still actively working on many individual game elements and the ways that they interact with one another, with a great deal of iterative tweaking, balancing, polishing, adjusting, redesigning, and retesting going on.
I understand everything here except "redesigning".
Come on, this is NOT a time to return to the drawing board.
Seconded.
They are not holding up the game because of mechanics and technical issues.
The devs have time to play - because the Sales Department wants every child with a buck, euro, yen, rupee, chicken, blanket to trade - to be able to buy shit from them at release.
(The preceding is my layman's opinion and not fact - I'm not a Blue. Chill.)
They game is not finished = we need to reiterate stupid shit that already works like 'tool tips' and 'runestones' and 'menus' and 'display color of legendary' and 'the size of the barbarian's pecs'
Yeh Bashiok is full of it.
The real reason why its taking so long is in my signature
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Blizzard used to care about releasing Diablo III, then they all took an arrow in the knee...
While it is indeed playable from beginning to end, we’re still actively working on many individual game elements and the ways that they interact with one another, with a great deal of iterative tweaking, balancing, polishing, adjusting, redesigning, and retesting going on.
I understand everything here except "redesigning".
Come on, this is NOT a time to return to the drawing board.
That's the stuff that bothers me. When they throw out a word like "redesigning" and the only elaboration they give is (paraphrasing) "Some changes are in the works that will shake up characters," is it any surprise people will AT LEAST entertain the idea that the D3 release date is moving to the right?
It's Blizzard's right to delay their own release. And it's my right to be dissatisfied with their release timetables.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions."
-Thomas Jefferson
I disagree, I can't fathom Blizzard Delaying a finished product just to be approved by Korea, If that were true than they basically would be sitting around with their thumbs stuck up their butt and not making any money off of a finished product. There has to be more than just the RMAH.
It's a fairly logical post, better than most of the crap being posted in the forms. I like to think of it as RMAH or they have no effing clue what they are doing... I'm hoping its just RMAH because if its the latter... oh boy.
Also why wouldn't they want to delay due to a region? Korea has a huge blizzard following I doubt they would want to piss off that fan base... yes the rest of the world is pretty huge but in the end QQ and all people will still buy the game. If you exclude a region for XX amount of months while everyone else gets to play is guaranteed less sales than the first scenario IMO. Imagine the backlash if they released D3 in every country except the States.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Playing Diablo since 97. I know nothing and having nothing good to say, I be a troll.
I find it extremely unlikely that Blizzard will have a beta for Diablo 3 longer than 6 months =) so I'm betting on a late January/early February release
So you believe some guy who routinely makes stuff up as opposed to someone that works at Blizzard? It seems like you REALLY want to continue wearing your tin-foil hat.
Blizzard isn't going to delay the game because of RMAH issues in one country, period. That's just not logical and just doesn't happen in the real world. Especially when it's so easy to turn it back on for the country at a later date. If that were the reason for the delay, Blizzard would have said so. There's really no reason for them not to.
Blizzard doesn't delete links to his blog, it just doesn't get mentioned because people know he's full of it.
While it is indeed playable from beginning to end, we’re still actively working on many individual game elements and the ways that they interact with one another, with a great deal of iterative tweaking, balancing, polishing, adjusting, redesigning, and retesting going on.
I understand everything here except "redesigning".
Come on, this is NOT a time to return to the drawing board.
That's just it, Blizz are seeking for flaws in every single element of D3 cause they have nothing else to do. If you listen/watch/play/eat/drink something to much on a regularly basis, you WILL find something to complain about. The big issue here it the Korean RMAH and yes there are more, but not as big as this. This is something that has to be resolved before Blizz can do anything regarding the release date.
That's why they are redesigning everything (of course nothing is perfect, hence there's always a flaw, but this is to much). They have nothing else to do, they are waiting for the Korea RMAH thing to be settled.
I'm gonna bring this up again, but Blizz initially "aimed" for a late 2011 release. This must mean something if Blizz of all companies says something like this...they must've been confident in this release date. But something happened...
What if Blizz give us a narrowed release date this December (lets say Feb) according to how they think the RMAH in Korea will get resolved (ie in early Jan). Then comes early Jan and Korea hasn't made a decision yet...Blizz is gonna crap their pants and people will rage. That's why Blizz isn't gonna announce "another" release date before they are 100% sure of it.
I don't believe him for a second. Read http://daeity.blogspot.com/ if you want to know a lot more about this. it isn't my blog, but I discovered it a few weeks ago. I very very much recommend it. It will all make sense if you read this thing. I can guarantee you that the RMAH is holding them back, and that alone. The reason why there are so many things they are still working on is because they suddenly got a lot more time because the RMAH hasn't been approved in Korea yet. The report from Korea comes in january, and that's when we will get a release date. Blizzard simply doesn't know when the game will be released, because it is entirely up to the government of Korea. In short, blizzard is prioritizing Korea over the rest of the world, and they decided to balance the game further because they now have unexpected development time.
The guy writing the blog above says it so much better than me, and in far greater depth, so go read it. There's a reason why they delete every post on the official forums that contains links to the blog above, because it's the truth. Trust me.
After more than 4 years of development it is very hard to say that the game is not finished. At this period they made so many changes that diablo 3 could be split in 5 different games. If they stick with one design and model, the game would've been released back in 2010.
Haha I wanted to say this when I read the OP! They have made so many iterations to D3, it's scary, they probably can make about 5 games with all the content they went through.
What's the difference between polishing and making changes that effect core game play elements? Those 2 statements seem to be being used interchangeably and they are polar opposites in my mind.
Official Blizzard Quote:
While you bring up a number of points of speculation, I just want to cut right to it and state that the reason we don’t have a release date yet is because the game isn’t yet where we want it to be in terms of our quality standards. We aren’t holding it back on account of any one piece of the game, or for any other outside factors.
There you have it. It's up to you if you want to believe Bashiok or keep your tin-foil hat on tight.
edit: Bashiok's post is actually a lot longer than this if you want to follow the link, but this is the most important thing he wrote.
Honestly there's no real way to tell if Bashiok is being real with us. The only way to know is if we find out the Korea RMAH situation is resolved, then a release date is announced within 24 hours, or ArenaNet announces a release date for Guild Wars 2 and then Blizzard responds with their own; I find scenarios like these very unlikely, but if they do happen we can all say, 'Hey Bashiok you were full of shit."
It just seems much more plausible that Blizzard is nitpicking and polishing an already finished product (by all other gaming companies standards).
I agree with you and Bashiok - its not one single issue that is holding up the release of this game. Its obviously multiple issues.
And to stop the "Bug report, bug report, bug report" people cold in their tracks - YES - there are technical issues with the game. However. The Korea situation, the RMAH situation at large are very much a HUGE part of this game being held. If the ONLY thing that was holding this game back were some developers sitting in a room going "you know what - instead of runes, lets do Skittles. Yeah, they are like a rainbow of candy - lets do that" than we'd being playing Diablo 3...right...now.
Our precious, loved company is holding this game to polish it. And to make sure its shiny, polished surface brings them a boat load of money from every country on this little planet.
Their "standards" include "making money".
Monkalicious: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/OptimusPrime-12194/hero/79139477
It's quite obvious the devs are using the extra time to improve some features or change some others.
They can even do this until 2013 or 2014 if the direction want them to.
Either it's already a good enough game and can be release or not is though difficult to say and Bashiok won't tell you "Damn I think they should release the game !!". My bet is that direction allowed devs to improve it until an early 2012 release while maybe they manage other issues with the Korean for example. Therefore I think they have no idea yet and are waiting to see how things develop on every side (legal, development,..) and will have to take a decision come early 2012.
It may be that the Korean RMAH is still an issue, but it's apparently not the only one.
Official Blizzard Quote:
While it is indeed playable from beginning to end, we’re still actively working on many individual game elements and the ways that they interact with one another, with a great deal of iterative tweaking, balancing, polishing, adjusting, redesigning, and retesting going on.
I understand everything here except "redesigning".
Come on, this is NOT a time to return to the drawing board.
Seconded.
They are not holding up the game because of mechanics and technical issues.
The devs have time to play - because the Sales Department wants every child with a buck, euro, yen, rupee, chicken, blanket to trade - to be able to buy shit from them at release.
(The preceding is my layman's opinion and not fact - I'm not a Blue. Chill.)
Monkalicious: http://us.battle.net/d3/en/profile/OptimusPrime-12194/hero/79139477
Yeh Bashiok is full of it.
The real reason why its taking so long is in my signature
That's the stuff that bothers me. When they throw out a word like "redesigning" and the only elaboration they give is (paraphrasing) "Some changes are in the works that will shake up characters," is it any surprise people will AT LEAST entertain the idea that the D3 release date is moving to the right?
It's Blizzard's right to delay their own release. And it's my right to be dissatisfied with their release timetables.
-Thomas Jefferson
Also why wouldn't they want to delay due to a region? Korea has a huge blizzard following I doubt they would want to piss off that fan base... yes the rest of the world is pretty huge but in the end QQ and all people will still buy the game. If you exclude a region for XX amount of months while everyone else gets to play is guaranteed less sales than the first scenario IMO. Imagine the backlash if they released D3 in every country except the States.
The AH for example is buged as it can be. Achievements are also completly bugged.
Looks like even early 2012 seens a bit unlikely. I believe 2012.2 is the best guess right now.
So you believe some guy who routinely makes stuff up as opposed to someone that works at Blizzard? It seems like you REALLY want to continue wearing your tin-foil hat.
Blizzard isn't going to delay the game because of RMAH issues in one country, period. That's just not logical and just doesn't happen in the real world. Especially when it's so easy to turn it back on for the country at a later date. If that were the reason for the delay, Blizzard would have said so. There's really no reason for them not to.
Blizzard doesn't delete links to his blog, it just doesn't get mentioned because people know he's full of it.
i see wut u did thar
That's why they are redesigning everything (of course nothing is perfect, hence there's always a flaw, but this is to much). They have nothing else to do, they are waiting for the Korea RMAH thing to be settled.
I'm gonna bring this up again, but Blizz initially "aimed" for a late 2011 release. This must mean something if Blizz of all companies says something like this...they must've been confident in this release date. But something happened...
What if Blizz give us a narrowed release date this December (lets say Feb) according to how they think the RMAH in Korea will get resolved (ie in early Jan). Then comes early Jan and Korea hasn't made a decision yet...Blizz is gonna crap their pants and people will rage. That's why Blizz isn't gonna announce "another" release date before they are 100% sure of it.
+1 Yeah, I also read his blog, he just have some info we don't even know about.
Haha I wanted to say this when I read the OP! They have made so many iterations to D3, it's scary, they probably can make about 5 games with all the content they went through.