Diablo III Release "still a long way to go"
"I don't know how far out it is, but it's still fairly early in development. I think when people see it, it feels so polished and so finished, but the reality is we have a very small portion of the game done right now," Pardo explained.
He added: "A lot of the way we develop is: We wanna make sure the game is really fun and the visual fidelity we want ... we wanna make sure we have a small area that feels really done so we know what to build. So even though it looks really complete a lot of the content is just not there. We have a long ways to go to build each of the different acts in the game and put in all the quests and all the different monsters. We have a lot of development ahead of us before it will be something ... It will definitely be out after StarCraft II."
It looks like we'll be waiting for Diablo III for awhile yet. Let's just pray that Starcraft II comes out within the next few months.
Thanks gyrextt for spotting this in an interview I'd read but kinda skimmed over.
they did spend alot time polishing the demo, but promotion and developers are different sectors of Blizzard with different employees. I dont think it delayed the game too much.
Besides, Rob Pardo said that "the game looks very polished but we worked very much on the first part to have a clear idea about what game we want to make".
So it was more like a team strategy to have the aspects of the game known early on and then just to focus on the "fun part" of creating the content (which mostly includes art and level design). The game engine works very well even now, it will be flawless after the alpha and beta tests.
i'm still quite optimistic that we'll get Diablo 3 within 2009, even before winter.
That IS quite optimistic. Personally, I'm guessing about Spring of 2010. I just hope they don't come up with a release date and then decide to postpone it - such as other games...
But I seriously cannot wait. I had a dream that Best Buy was selling copies of the Diablo III demo from BlizzCon for $10. You can bet your ass I was in line for that.
but still if they work their asses off, it could be ready to start a beta after the next WWI. And after the beta its usually 2-3 months.
Well, they gave out StarCraft II beta keys at the last BlizzCon, I believe, and if so - that means the beta starts something this winter. If would be really awesome to see a Diablo III beta key handed out at the next WWI!
And some people compare Diablo III to StarCraft II in terms of work needed to be done, and the time it takes to release it. It simply isn't realistic.
StarCraft II is an RTS
It will go through A LOT of balancing to get this game up to eSport's standards, and bravo for that, but it will take months.
Diablo III is an RPG
I believe the Diablo III team mentioned they were working on the early stages of Act II (about two months ago), and if that's correct, then that is good news. They mentioned Diablo III would be about the same size as Diablo II (LoD I'm assuming), so they would have to finish about 3 3/4 acts before the single player campaign is layed out. Then they gotta design monsters, NPC's, quests, objects, items and a ton of other things. Then they gotta play it out and see if single player is good. Then they gotta go through the game to make sure it is satisfactory enough for Nightmare mode, then the same as Hell mode.
Then you gotta start adding features for online play - which seems pretty solid already. Then you gotta balance the characters and skills and a bunch of other stuff. Then they gotta polish it, pound out a beta, debug, label, and then ship it.
I'm not a game development company so I have no idea what comes after each thing LOL
Wouldn't that state that the storyline is pretty much done from start to end? Now what could be left is the creation of the world and chars but is it realistic to assume that it is 2 years? I doubt that, since Blizzard wanted to announce games closer to their release unlike they did before.
So in this case it should hit the shelfs sometime around 1-2 Q in 2009 to keep the hype up. If the release is really 2010 then they shouldn't have announced it already, cuz that would just piss alot of people off on the information politic side. A release that far away would result in having 1 major news post each month - that would be more than sad.
I had always hoped that it would get released around Q3 2009... August or September. Cause that's when I'm graduating college. Huzzah! That would be a good graduation gift for myself.
But really, if they're done in August let's say, there's really no reason that they wouldn't just hold it till Halloween or possibly Christmas time... and that would probably be the earliest they would be done. Let's keep our fingers crossed and hope they get SC2 out soon.
They should have waited until about a year to eight months before release.
There is a saying that states the first 20% of the work takes 80% of the time. If that is true in this case, and they have been working for 3 years, then by my calculations it should release in January 2009:D *crosses fingers and binds them with duct tape.*
Which conveniently enough is the same release date of the new BG(if im not mistaken).
Oct 15, 2010. Mark my words.
So when you guys say that D3 will be released in Q1 2009, it makes my head hurt that you guys are that ignorant (by definition, not flaming).
But there still are some chances to get it a few months earlier (i wouldnt consider anything before July, though).
yeah i would also be willing to pay to be able to download a demo. 10 bucks or something? i would easily pay that