http://www.joystiq.com/2012/01/07/best-buy-thinks-diablo-3-is-coming-out-on-february-1-2012/

Now my only question is, is all the stuff that's in the CE worth the extra $40?

Damn, if it is coming out soon then I need to build a better PC quicker :C

2-1-12, huh? does that mean the soundtrack is going to be done by Rush?

@Animasta said:

2-1-12, huh? does that mean the soundtrack is going to be done by Rush?

http://instantrimshot.com/

Say whaaaaaat?!

The beta isn't over yet, and there's talk of a release date in under 3 weeks?

I was going to say theres no way they would release it that soon without having an announcement by now, but after reading the story it sounds pretty legitimate.

That's one day before my birthday.

Happy Birthday, BoG.

@BoG

That's one day before my birthday.

Happy Birthday, BoG.

And it's 25 days before MY birthday! Never too early to celebrate.

Well, either we get Diablo 3 a lot earlier than we thought, or someone from Best Buy is the worlds biggest troll...

@Cronus42: No, no, it seems to be legit. Follow Arthur Gies on Twitter(https://twitter.com/#!/aegies), he's been tweeting about several retailers coinciding with the same release date.

@Animasta said:

2-1-12, huh? does that mean the soundtrack is going to be done by Rush?

I love you.

oh wow, the other story posted about the other store in U.K. claiming the same thing, but with this many listings showing up at once. Holy shit we get D3 in 3 weeks O.o

It's not coming out in three weeks.

So glad to see love for Rush. 

But, yeah...I doubt we'll be seeing it that soon.

Holy shit if thats true that is less than a month away, fuckin awesome.

Edit: Looks like February is misspelled :(

It's 7-1-12 today, though.

LOL, try 8/1 maybe. We'll know for sure by E3 imo.

Who knows anymore when it's Blizzard behind the scenes. I would love it to come out in Feb. but something tells me it's a ploy for people to get their pre-orders in!

Someone say Rush?

First it was Skyrim, now it's Diablo III. I'll never get my social life back.

February is spelt wrong and the "Midnight Opening" heading deosn't seem to line up correctly, also this tweet from a community manager at blizzard makes me think this might be fake.

Edit: Seems like the sign is real. I don't want to get my hopes up but it's starting to look like this could be true.

The signs are real from what I'm hearing. It just depends on whether they are actually RIGHT or not. Maybe I'm being foolish but I believe this could be legit.

Seems like alot of retailers are putting up Feb/March Dates, I think this is coming sooner than expected

Edit: Browsing Battlenet forums and apparently a few days ago, Bashiok (A Blizzard Employee), made a post saying Diablo 3 was still on for Q1 2012 by mistake, when blizzard has only officially said early 2012.

I'm going to hope this is real.

Ugh. There are too many fucking games out right now. Push this off another year.

So, you know, take retailer release dates with a moon-sized grain of salt, but this is looking more and more likely the longer I think about it. First off you have a Best Buy with a cardboard standee with an actual release date and a countdown timer; something more elaborate than the usual release date showing up on a retail site scenario we're all familiar with. Then you have UK retailer Gameplay marking the release date of the game at February 3rd around the same time that this Best Buy says the game will come out two days earlier in the states. Taken alongside the reports of the game being refused classification in South Korea due to its real-money auction house being too similar to gambling suggests that the game is in certification at ratings boards right now, which would mean a release date of about a month away would be viable.

It's mostly the last bit, that the game has at least been submitted for classification in South Korea, that makes this seem somewhat viable as a release date.

Jesus, i had some games i wanted to play first...ah well, my body is ready.

Assuming the sign is real, I think it's from an older release date that since been pushed back. The state of the beta, the messaging from Bashiok, the fact that they're running a beta invite contest that lasts until Jan 23rd, the fact that no finalized rune design has been announced, the fact that every Blizzard game in the past 5 years (WoW and every expansion, SC2) has closed down its beta for a month before the game's release, all make me think that this release date simply won't happen. Maybe ~5 months ago Blizzard thought this could be the release date and told their distributors this date so stores could prepare, but not now.

Regardless if the date is real (looks legit to me), Blizzard isn't going to let Best Buy push them into an unceremonious, off the cuff announcement.  I'm sure Blizzard has some extravagant, self-fellating event planned to announce the date.
If I had to guess, I bet they announce it during an NFL playoff game,

I was just reading a post about this on the official Blizzard forums someone was saying they couldn't possibly release the game so soon as they still have to press all the discs package them and then ship them. Could it be possible that the discs are already pressed and being stored in some Blizzard warehouse somewhere and the'll just issue a release day patch.

Im interested to see if Patrick has been doing some investigating over the weekend, hopefully there will be an article addressing this tomorrow. I assume that if this is just completely wrong Blizzard would have released a statement saying so. So hopefully there is an air of truth to this.

Man, I hope this is turns out to be true

Blizz tweeted that there is no release date. And BestBuy was just guessing. The sign has been removed.

Can you please name the month?

Coming from a non-american country I have to spend a little while working out which system you are using. ( I was able to work it out this time =) )

This is the Internet, please try and at least feign international sensitivity.

What date is 3-12-2012? 3rd of December or 12th of March? Its really kinda annoying.

I've had my rant.

I'd expect Blizzard to make some sort of official announcement rather than just sort of letting journalists find out by doing research.

@bio595: It's March because we say March 12th here in NA.

@Pinworm45 said:

It's not coming out in three weeks.

Yeah, I'm inclined to take this stance, too, unfortunately.

*wishes it were true*

I am inclined to believe that it isn't coming out February 1st, although I wish it was. If it is I have to get my hand on one of those posters. A typo on the release poster for one of the biggest games of the decade is something that I can't allow myself to pass up. "Feburary"

Convenient lighting blocking out the year. Obviously this will be out Feburary of 2013. Marketing strategery win.

We're probably looking at a june / july release for diablo III, if it somehow gets delayed (again) I doubt it will go beyond the end of august.

That seems a little soon.

you guys have fun guessing when a blizzard game will be released

They still haven't even started taking pre-orders for the Collectors Edition in Europe yet.

It's not coming out anytime soon.

Sometime in February or March could be possible if you take a look at the time the SC2 beta started (Feb 17, 2010) and ended ( July 19, 2010 ) and when the game was released (July 27, 2010), that is roughly six months (inclusive). The D3 beta started sometime in September 2011 six months after September is February. Diablo 3 requires less fine balance than SC2 because it they aren't gearing multiplayer towards e-sports so I think it will be in the next couple of months.

@Feikken said:

you guys have fun guessing when a blizzard game will be released

I keep telling myself Diablo 3 is a 2013 game, that way I can't be dissapointed. They can't be so slow that they miss 2013, right guys? Guys?

@WinterSnowblind said:

They still haven't even started taking pre-orders for the Collectors Edition in Europe yet.

It's not coming out anytime soon.

define "they"?

If you mean "Blizzard", then I guess you are correct - but neither has the US Blizzard store. Plenty of stores (quick search finds at least 10 Swedish stores, Amazon.de, etc...) are taking collector's edition pre-orders, though.

Doesn't seem to be on Amazon.co.uk, Game.co.uk or Gamestop.co.uk though :P

But yeah, you're best off just taking it easy and playing some of the other great games that have announced release dates, while waiting ;)

The CE is nothing but complete awesomeness. I always figured a March release.

say something to community to stop this "no release date" madness. You are CMs! Commuticate with us!

We don't have anything to communicate that'll make you happy. No set release date yet. Them's the facts.

Source.

Q: Right now I see May, maybe April as being the earliest it will be released. As much as that sucks.

A: Just stop. Please don't take that two and put it with the other two. They don't need to be mashed together in a downward spiral where everything said is between the lines. It's not. I'm not using a language you need to decode. I'm trying to get you to stop thinking there are secret implications behind our words. Read what is being said and think about it for a least a few minutes before deciding how it is/isn't a sign of when the game will be released.

I didn't say the company isn't discussing release dates. I... :(

We told you at the end of last year we wouldn't be shipping the game until 2012. That didn't mean we'd have the final details ready to announce by January of this year. We'll share with you whatever information we can whenever we can.

Source.

So, yeah, it's unlikely to be Feb, and let's leave it at that for now? :P