Release Date or Release Fake?
Excitement and dashed expectations both contributed to the hype behind a recently posted image, supposedly a leaked email containing the full itinerary of this year's BlizzCon. Among the now-known reveals of the weekend's events, it also contains:
In addition to the accurate BlizzCon reveals and itinerary, the image also has a unalterable imgur.com upload date for a period two months ago (see bottom of linked web page.) All this together makes for a compelling argument for a leaked release date.
At a cursory glance, this is all fine and dandy. But maybe there's more to this supposed leak than meets the eye. After letting the initial heat of discovery run its course, deeper inspection implores reason.
Besides wondering at why someone would go through the trouble of directly posting images of slideshow slides in an email and not simply typing the information out (if this were coming from a legitimate source, why would slides be needed to add authenticity?), the date, itself, is subject to scrutiny. In fact, the date shown below the hosted image reflects only its upload date.
The email is simple enough. Sending two empty slide images to himself, the supposed email recipient could then snap a picture, upload it to imgur.com, and wait a couple months. With the information revealed at BlizzCon, the uploaded image could then be edited directly with the website's software--without changing the upload date.
Last, we wonder why on earth Blizzard would want to release a game into the market on Thanksgiving of all days, a day when most Americans--a major audience--aren't even home to rush to the stores or man cash registers?
All this to say, please be careful when you read supposed "leaks" about release dates. As we like to warn our members, any release date not from the lips--or fingers--of an official Blizzard representative can easily be faked, as we have seen in numerous cases in the past with faked Diablo III game boxes and faked Diablo III announcements. A simple image editor and some human ingenuity can go a long way, and so can gullibility.
As previously said, even legitimate leaks aren't always correct. This post is very correct.
I hope they release it around February / March. But if it's March it'll compete with Mass Effect 3... I don't know. Go ask a salesman.
(As I doubt my sanity would last if D3 doesn't get released before February...)
I've been waiting over 10 years for this game, no doubt I'm getting the CE!
Why don't they just send this to Blizz and let them confirm it's fake? Wouldn't be much effort for them to confirm/deny it.
"If it's true I will once again trust Blizzard. My optimistic hopes have been dashed again and again, so when I heard Q1 2012, I decided to go with the worst case scenario..April 2012. The sooner the better Blizzard! Tomorrow would be great! :)"
Wait.. you realize April isn't in Q1 2012, right?
I agree. That is barely two months away and they are still deciding exactly what to do with runes. That seems like more of a core system than a finishing touch. The idea of discs being manufactured and sent to stores in less than 10 weeks from now seems really unlikely to me. Maybe I'm jsut a pessimist.
They'll probably have a patch available for download upon release of the game, regardless of when it's released.
Exactly, they are probably manufacturing disc's now, if not complete and ready to ship to stores already. The core game assets are and have been complete. All the polish and changes are easily applied with a patch.
I hope you are right, but I am doubting they have master discs yet. Even if they do, some of the system changes they are still playing with in beta seem very broad for a game near completion. (Things that will require balance and play testing, plus maybe docuemntation changes.) I know they can and will tweak the game often, and there will almost certainly be a patch at release but they are going to want the game to feel ploished at launch. It is not good for customer satisfaction if large ammounts of patching are required on release day, or if game systems feel sloppy and require sweeping changes constantly after release. Also if you look at Starcraft II as an example, it was nearly three months before the release date when the announcement came out. We are barely 2 months from January 3, and just went through Blizzcon, which would have been the perfect time for an announcemet if they were that close to completion. The beta hasn't really ramped up to the size needed to stress test the servers has it?
I do take it as a good sign that they finally announced the contents of the Collector's Edition (and that the pictured items look like production items.) Still, if I had to guess, I would say the game discs are not even in production yet, and that we probably won't see the game for a few months. I do hope I'm wrong though. I'm anxious to play.
The Master Disc is right now, a simple way to tell the retailers "here's your chance, even though we're counting on digital sales and you're last priority".