Blizzard Entertainment had pegged Diablo III for early 2012, but as fans had started to suspect, the studio might not actually hit that timeframe. Turns out that’s true, based on news during the company's fiscal call today.

Diablo III is now being targeted for a release sometime during the company’s second quarter. For reference, Activision Blizzard’s second quarter ends on June 30, so the game could arrive at any point before then.

Could. Hopefully.

“We’ve implemented changes to the game that we believe will greatly increase the game experience,” said Blizzard president and co-founder Michael Morhaime.

Morhaime said there would be “more details” about the game’s release date “in the coming weeks.”

Blizzard Entertainment had pegged Diablo III for early 2012, but as fans had started to suspect, the studio might not actually hit that timeframe. Turns out that’s true, based on news during the company's fiscal call today.

Diablo III is now being targeted for a release sometime during the company’s second quarter. For reference, Activision Blizzard’s second quarter ends on June 30, so the game could arrive at any point before then.

Could. Hopefully.

“We’ve implemented changes to the game that we believe will greatly increase the game experience,” said Blizzard president and co-founder Michael Morhaime.

Morhaime said there would be “more details” about the game’s release date “in the coming weeks.”

nooooooo

Fall 2012

Experience is spelled incorrectly, Patrick.

It'll be done when it's done

well here's a surprise

Wow! This is not about iPad 3 rumors! Great!

Anyways... Looking forward to Diablo 3. I just hope that my PC can run it.. :D

Whoa no way!

Now back to playing the beta.

Typical Blizzard delaying their games. It really isn't a shock honestly.

Really though, if the world ran on Blizzard or Valve time nothing would get done. Ever. We'd be an extinct species in a matter of months.

From now on, we shall call typos, klepos.

They've been making some big, much needed changes to beta so this isn't surprising or upsetting to me. I'm glad they are changing things around now rather than shipping something and then patching it.

Is anyone surprised?

I wonder if anyone is surprised ...

Unless the change is the game not requiring a constant internet connection then I sadly don't care. It's such a small thing but it's a deal breaker for me. Shame though, it does look quite good ...

2099

Releasing 3 games in one year isn't Blizzards style, fully expect this to be pushed to 2013.

Blizzard plans to release Diablo 3 sometime before the Apocalypse.

greately?

While Duke Nukem is the most delayed game of all time, I wonder if Diablo 3 has been delayed more individual times now.

"Game without release date delayed"

Shocking news.

Good, then I might not tank my mark in classes by playing it too much.

I'm interested to see what the reception for this game will be when it comes out, because from my experience with the Beta visually it looks maybe on par/inferior to something like a Dungeon Siege 3. I could see this being Blizzard first critical failure in awhile. Though the game play is still fun and the crafting system is interesting, so it's not without merit.

It's just when you sit for half a second and actually look at the character detail on the select screen it's hard for your brain not to say, "Holy shit this looks like something that should have come out 5 years ago".

Blizzard will not doubt be successful in some sense with it's release of Diablo 3, the strenght of their studio zeitgeist won't allow them to fail, However I can't help but feel this might not hit the mark to the same degree some of their relatively recent titles have.

Potentially overlooked: "More than a million annual passes have been sold in the west" (from same investor call) - meaning there's already over a million Battle.net accounts that own Diablo 3.

That's a lot of Diablos.

@MattSchwabby said:

Getting pretty sick of this. The beta had me very excited for the game, but delay after delay and vague answers regarding the release date just puts a sour taste in my mouth. It really feels like they don't give a shit about the fans.

This is just typical Blizzard. They care a lot about the final product they release and are willing to anger people a bit now to put out something fantastic later.

Yeah why wait 'till so late in development to add something that will "greatly" enhance the experience? Obviously Blizzard will take their time with this, but if Path of Exile beats D3 out of the gate I might never pick it up.

A Blizzard game getting delayed??? Such a shocker!

@MattSchwabby said:

Getting pretty sick of this. The beta had me very excited for the game, but delay after delay and vague answers regarding the release date just puts a sour taste in my mouth. It really feels like they don't give a shit about the fans.

If they didn't care about the fans wouldn't they just go ahead and release an incomplete product and patch it later?

@BelligerentEngine said:

I'm interested to see what the reception for this game will be when it comes out, because from my experience with the Beta visually it looks maybe on par/inferior to something like a Dungeon Siege 3. I could see this being Blizzard first critical failure in awhile. Though the game play is still fun and the crafting system is interesting, so it's not without merit.

It's just when you sit for half a second and actually look at the character detail on the select screen it's hard for your brain not to say, "Holy shit this looks like something that should have come out 5 years ago".

The thing is, that you're describing just about every game they've released. They almost all look kind of dated when they come out. I'll be honest - I loved D1 and D2, but I'm worried about D3. Blizzard North is gone and the rest of Blizzard has actually never put out anything I really liked. To me they're that studio that puts out "okay" games and for some inexplicable reason are absurdly successful.

I've waited a billion years already, I can wait a couple months more.

Isn't March the first month of Q2?

They must need more time to add more micro-transactions and payed auction house features.

If they can make this actually fun and different from all the other Diablo-clones out there, it's well-worth the wait. I don't want a nicer Torchlight, I want something as awesome and novel as Diablo I and Starcraft I were.

Surprise!

Until Blizzard states a day, never ever even give it more credit than a crazy man screaming at a street corner because those dates are coming from people who run on dates (publishers and stores). Blizzard is above dates until they are gold.

While I am in no way surprised, i'm still annoyed. I've been following the beta extremely closely, and Blizzard's updates, forums and the like. It was bad enough when they posted the huge system changes weeks back. I could not help be reminded of 3D Realms. The changes themselves, while make sense, just seem overly obsessive, but hey that's Blizzard, but that don't mean I gotta like it.

The jokes that they would next remove the rune system almost seemed possible. The 100,000 US beta keys doesn't help either. Again makes sense, but man am I holding out on a hope for some EU keys, hell I'd take a 1000 keys chance.

It's not been delayed if it never had a date to miss. I wish people would accept this.

My computer needs some much needed maintenance.. so this is good for me.

I stopped giving a shit about Diabo a long ass time ago. Nothing better then 12 god damn years for a sequel.

Go, Torchlight 2! You can still get in before Diablo 3! I believe 2012!

@MattSchwabby: If anything they seriously DO give a shit about the fans. Also, literally every single Blizzard game ever made ever has gone through very similar delays. They refuse to release games that do not meet their standards. World of Warcraft, being an MMO, is a little different but even then it was a comparably stable release. There are literally hundreds of games to play while you wait for Diablo III. They never give concrete dates because people go ballistic when those dates are missed. Imagine how much more angry you would be if they gave you a concrete date. I wouldn't give one either. How many games get released and could have used some extra time? Blizzard has the money, workforce, and reputation to be able to delay their games like this for the good of the game. To make you, in the long run, a happier consumer. Give them what every artist or developer in the world needs. A little more time.

Eh, after playing the beta a couple months ago I don't mind the wait, it's nothing I'm looking forward to and need to have right now.

Calling it: they're delaying it so they can have the console versions day-and-date with the PC version.

"Nobody remembers if a game is on-time, only if it is great." -paraphrase from Jay Wilson

Take your time, Blizzard. Seriously.

I've got plenty of games to play between now and when you guys finally release Diablo 3 and it warms my heart to see you go against the forum whiners and make drastic, sweeping changes to Diablo for the sake of the experience.

The removal of the need to identify, odd crafting contraptions, an entire merchant, town portals, etc. have all been great decisions that seem to go against the "Diablo Code" in favor of a more entertaining experience. Keep it up!

If I want a game that is going to carbon-copy Diablo, I'll wait for Torchlight 2.

So, expecting it in 2013?

Prepare for new changes in the following months that will push the game to Holiday 2012 :) but Blizzard won't release two games so close to each other so D3 slips to 2013. This is so funny because D3 is just a mindless dungeon crawler. What's so challenging to develop? Blizzard, you are so overrated.

They keep announcing rather large game changes, so another delay does not come as much surprise. This might encourage me to actually try out the beta. I was holding off to have everything fresh on day one, but now I may take a reserved peek.

Take all the time you need Blizz, still got a 2011 backlog the size of the moon to go through right now.

I stopped giving a shit about Diabo a long ass time ago. Nothing better then 12 god damn years for a sequel.