Update: Added Jay Wilson's reply on Twitter.
Official Blizzard Quote:
can you debunk the rumor of april 17th or confirm?
I cannot debunk or confirm.
Diablo 3 - Release Date Rumor: April 17th
We are getting a lot of PMs about a leak from an Italian website and at this point it's probably worth mentioning on the front page. A site named mmorpgitalia.it supposedly received information saying that Diablo 3 will be released on April 17.
Even if this news comes with the price structure for the regular and collector editions of the game, it still seems very strange that only one website got the news. Also keep in mind, Blizzard said they would like to give us a two month window before the game is released. This date would only give a little over a month window.
Amazon also reflected the change of date on their italian website but at this time, it's still a very much unconfirmed rumor and it should not be taken as fact yet. Feel free to use this news post to consolidate all discussions about it, and keep in mind that this is probably the 20th rumor we have seen about a release date. The only difference is that Jay Wilson confirmed that an announcement will happen soon.
Quote from(Google Translation)
Activision has revealed Italy to several large retailers Italian release date, some yet to be confirmed at the world average by Blizzard but rather than trust, of Diablo III . This would be the April 17, and prices are now set at € 54.90 for the standard edition and € 89.90 for the Collector.
Since the source is the Italian branch of the same publisher, I would say that after Easter to all the fans who are eagerly awaiting the release of the game will be more than positive. The rest of the dungeon crawler par excellence is almost ready for some time, and the latest statements have been conducted to art to increase even more hype.
I hope it is not the Extra large titanium keyboard then... LOL
B
"You cannot join this game with the Starter Edition" which means even the starter addition is already coded into the game, everything is falling into place now!
Sign of the release!
You guys remember Bash also said that they decided to make it Q2 the week before the conference call on Feb 9:
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
It'll be fine. We'll have some info real soon on skills and runes, a new patch, and we'll be cookin' on the road to Releaseville.
Can't we just enjoy eachothers company?
We've only ever said "early 2012". And we just decided we'd need until Q2 this week. Seems like the conference call was as good a place as any to announce that.
This means they needed an extra BIT of time to polish the game even more! (well that's how I interpret it) They wanted to release it "early" (Jan-March) but "pushed" it back into Q2 (April-June). So April is very possible!
Also Bashiok and Zarhym went to Paris (and eventually Brussels):
Official Blizzard Quote:
Paris, the Blizzard office in Versailles next week, and then Brussels!
Official Blizzard Quote:
@Bashiok & I are syncing up with our EU CM team to trade strategies. And my gf's seizing the vacation opportunity with me!
Also:
Official Blizzard Quote:
It's actually pretty much done. We're just in the process of preparing and scheduling it for release.
Source (Feb 24; I'm not Twitter, or I'm retarded)
Dunno if Bash is still there, but Zarhym is already back in the US. They went to Brussels, it's in Belgium...next to Germany...where Blizz will be for the CeBit event...showcasing D3...haha yeah thought I had good thing goin!
also
https://twitter.com/#!/Angryrobotics/status/176116505023488001
Official Blizzard Quote:
can you debunk the rumor of april 17th or confirm?
I cannot debunk or confirm.
not really a surprise there
http://news.yahoo.com/diablo-iii-no-more-delays-despite-blizzard-layoffs-201003456.html
Haha cool. So I guess this leak might even turn out to be true! They'll probably fire the Italians and make them part of the 600!
You don't fuck with Blizz:
They -have- to give a least a month for all the release procedures they have to go through. I'd guess this rumor is false, but I won't totally dismiss it.
that quote was referring to the 2 month they were talking about, which they dont have to do, they also dont -have- to do a month either.
Yeah they are going to do a least month for sure, all their recent games have (only not being the first wow) but they dont have to.
I'm guessing he can't debunk it because it's true, and can't confirm it because they wanted to annouce the release date later next week.
Oops, my bad. Still, even though it may not add anything it'd probably be a good idea to do so anyway, if only so that people won't try to create useless threads here or on d3 because the person couldn't be bothered to scroll through previous posts.
I looked at the front page, it was there? unless its a forum post -> news article update glitch
No, I can see it there now. Just one of the pitfalls of instant replies.