Following Blizzard's recent announcement that the publisher would be temporarily excising PvP functionality from its upcoming role-playing game Diablo III in the hopes of getting it out to stores sooner, we expected we'd hear a finalized release date for the game soon after. And now we know.

Blizzard today revealed that Diablo III will finally be released on May 15, both at retail and via Battle.net. Those who pre-purchase the game via Battle.net will get to play "as soon as the servers go live"--just not in PvP of course.

Granted, the vast bulk of the comments from that previous announcement seemed totally fine with leaving the PvP for another day, so long as they could get their hands on the single-player and co-op content all the sooner.

Of course, the real issue with this forthcoming release date (as mentioned on twitter by Giant Bomb family friend Giancarlo Varanini) is that it's hitting stores right around the time most American students have finals, all but ensuring more Fs than society has ever seen at a single time. Grades will have to be repeated, whole years of college will go down the drain, and ten years from now, an entire generation of role-playing fans will suddenly find themselves on the wrong side of a gas station counter studying up for their air conditioning repair exams while wistfully staring out the smog-stained window, wondering where it all went wrong.

Thanks, Blizzard.

Following Blizzard's recent announcement that the publisher would be temporarily excising PvP functionality from its upcoming role-playing game Diablo III in the hopes of getting it out to stores sooner, we expected we'd hear a finalized release date for the game soon after. And now we know.

Blizzard today revealed that Diablo III will finally be released on May 15, both at retail and via Battle.net. Those who pre-purchase the game via Battle.net will get to play "as soon as the servers go live"--just not in PvP of course.

Granted, the vast bulk of the comments from that previous announcement seemed totally fine with leaving the PvP for another day, so long as they could get their hands on the single-player and co-op content all the sooner.

Of course, the real issue with this forthcoming release date (as mentioned on twitter by Giant Bomb family friend Giancarlo Varanini) is that it's hitting stores right around the time most American students have finals, all but ensuring more Fs than society has ever seen at a single time. Grades will have to be repeated, whole years of college will go down the drain, and ten years from now, an entire generation of role-playing fans will suddenly find themselves on the wrong side of a gas station counter studying up for their air conditioning repair exams while wistfully staring out the smog-stained window, wondering where it all went wrong.

Thanks, Blizzard.

Yes!

Getting my clicking hand ready

I am fucking READY!!

Yeeesssss!!!!!

FUCK YEA!

Couldn't care less. Call me jaded, but I can't stand Blizzard anymore.

Time to drop £1000 on a new PC to run this? hmmmm...

Get in

@plamenasenov said:

Time to drop £1000 on a new PC to run this? hmmmm...

are you retarded

That font.....is all I needed to see.

@plamenasenov said:

Time to drop £1000 on a new PC to run this? hmmmm...

Blind speculation, but I wager the game will scale really well and that most machines will be able to run it. I mean, Blizzard.

@SockLobster: yes, yes I am

I wonder how many things they cut to make that date :)

My Body. It's ready.

It will also stay a while and even listen if time permits.

So, kids, if you don't want to fail out of college, play Max Payne 3 on May 15th instead.

@plamenasenov said:

Time to drop £1000 on a new PC to run this? hmmmm...

A pc for 500£ can run it on max.

Do the servers have to be live to play it at all? Kinda like what happened with Assassins Creed not too long ago? Because if so, I'm out. I refuse to own a game that requires another machine to validate me playing a single player game while I'm playing it.

Can I buy it on Steam?

Oh yes! hopefully this works on my laptop.

@HKZ said:

Do the servers have to be live to play it at all? Kinda like what happened with Assassins Creed not too long ago? Because if so, I'm out. I refuse to own a game that requires another machine to validate me playing a single player game while I'm playing it.

Thank you. People are against EA and Ubisoft online DRM, but not this. For me, I'm against anything that requires me to have any sort of online DRM in order to play and I pity gamers that are OK with this.

@teh_destroyer said:

Oh yes! hopefully this works on my laptop.

blizzard's games are probably even better optimised/scalable than Valve's games these days (based on sc2, anyway) so I wouldn't worry.

@SockLobster said:

@plamenasenov said:

Time to drop £1000 on a new PC to run this? hmmmm...

are you retarded

He's John Davison in disguise.

Seriously doubt that it will be ready anytime soon from the sounds of it, think I'll just wait for Torchlight2 instead. Though if they ditch the silly idea of pvp then sure it might get done by then. So many other games work fine with just single player & co-op but seen too many games change many things between normal play & pvp.

@langdonx:probably not, Blizzard has none of their other games on steam.

@plamenasenov said:

Time to drop £1000 on a new PC to run this? hmmmm...

Blizzard are so greedy that you'll be able to run the game on a pocket calculator.

Good God yes!

@langdonx: Likely no, but you CAN buy it digitally. Blizzard does their own thing typically

Lol naaaaah. It'll be pushed back again.

@pw2566ch said:

@HKZ said:

Do the servers have to be live to play it at all? Kinda like what happened with Assassins Creed not too long ago? Because if so, I'm out. I refuse to own a game that requires another machine to validate me playing a single player game while I'm playing it.

Thank you. People are against EA and Ubisoft online DRM, but not this. For me, I'm against anything that requires me to have any sort of online DRM in order to play and I pity gamers that are OK with this.

Good, pity me, I'll be playing games and enjoying myself. Enjoy your boycott, or moral outrage, or whatever it is you have.

I was thinking of purchasing digitally, but why is it more expensive then buying it in stores or online?

I was looking forward to skipping discs and boxes, but its not worth the extra price.

God damnit, my local Eb says that the CE pre-order sold out back in sept, not fair :( there wasn't even a release date. procrastination bites me in the ass again

@phrosnite said:

@plamenasenov said:

Time to drop £1000 on a new PC to run this? hmmmm...

Blizzard are so greedy that you'll be able to run the game on a pocket calculator.

I uh, I mean, obviously you sell more copies if more people can run yr game, but if that's greedy and evil, we could do with a bit more evil and greed in this industry.

my last final is on May 11th, this date is perfect for me!!!!

WOOOT

A day before my birthday and right in the middle of exams. Great/terrible timing, Blizzard.

"It's done when it's not really done at all. So it will be released when we take out some of the stuff in it" 

"A major game's release date is announced, let me make sure I can make a snarky title for the article."

At last... took them 11 years :)

Can't wait for the online petition to only release it with PvP so we can have sarcastic headlines about both sides!

Damn I was hoping for a console announcement but O well my rig is good enough to run anything not called Crisis

For those complaining about the online thing, it's a bit different then the whole Ubisoft deal. There is a real money auction house. Pretty sure we're all aware of the cheating that went on in D2. They don't want people duping items and selling them for real dollars. I'm sure it has to do with piracy and all that as well, but at least they have some other reasons to fall back on this time.

FUCKING FINALLY! Jesus christ, I don't even want to count how many years they've been talking about this.

I think I'm gonna wait for the console versions...

@mason_pat: I don't have moral outrage, nor am I trying to form a boycott. I just don't see how an external server is required to play a single player game. If they have that requirement, then I won't buy it. If they don't require an internet connection and continuous validation with a server to play a single player game, then I will buy it. I'll buy it day one in fact. I just don't see supporting a company that treats a legitimate customer like that, no matter who the dev is and what game it is. I don't have to call Apple or Microsoft, or be connected to the internet, every time I boot my computers to use them so why should I have to do that with a game? I bought it, one time activation should be enough. If they think that isn't enough, then I won't buy their games and they'll lose money. Even if it is an insignificant amount. By purchasing games, or anything for that matter, from companies that treat legit customers like criminals encourages this behavior. It may be all for naught, but hey you gotta draw the line somewhere and stick with what you believe in.

(I know that reply wasn't directed at me, I just wanted to clarify my stance, which I'm sure that @pw2566ch would agree pretty much with what I said)

I'm waiting on the console announcement.

@phrosnite said:

I wonder how many things they cut to make that date :)

I think it's safe to assume the only major cut was the PVP, which will be added on later. The game has been in development for 10 years, I highly doubt they had to cut anything to make the date.

Perfect timing for me. My finals are done first week of May. Time to finally pre-order I suppose.

I'm guessing that they'll be working on pvp for a while and that'll be something they'll showcase at Blizzcon'll.

I'll actually be done with school by the 15... so bring on Diablo 3