Blizzard Still Shooting For 2011 Release Date For Diablo 3

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Ah, the dungeon crawler. Hack and slash action rose to fame due in large part to the Diablo series, and while we’ve had plenty of solid dungeon crawlers in the past few years, Diablo did it best. Anticipation for Diablo 3 is high, but unfortunately, Blizzard still hasn’t committed to a release date yet.

Blizzard’s hesitancy to commit to release dates has always been a double-edged sword. On one side, you know that Blizzard is going to take their time to deliver a great game, but on the other, the wait for these great games can excruciating, especially because a Blizzard game typically doesn’t show up on store shelves until years after it’s been announced.

The good news concerning Diablo 3 is that Blizzard is still aiming for a 2011 release date. The bad news? Your guessed it: they’re not going to commit to that just yet. Blizzard’s Mike Morhaime explained how they’re approaching Diablo 3‘s release date in an investors call:

We are still working hard to ship before the end of the year, but we are not ready to commit to a release date at this time. The timing on the Diablo 3 release date will come down to a lot of moving parts in putting out a complex release. We talked about the new auction house technology which has not been fully tested. We’re not yet in beta, and it’s just going to come down to when the game is ready for primetime. So, we’ll know more when we hit beta and when we’ve put some of these new systems into test. It’s a brand new infrastructure with a lot of moving parts.

The new “auction house technology,” Morhaime is talking about was revealed earlier this week. It will allow players to put in-game items up in the game’s auction house for real money, a feature that Morhaime explained further during the investors call. He says that Blizzard decided to implement such a feature because of the amount of people who obtained in-game items in Diablo 2 through third-parties. Blizzard figures that since so many people did this, they may as well give them the option to buy through the game, which cuts (usually shady) third-parties out of the mix.

Hopefully Diablo 3 will be out before the end of the year, but honestly, I think my wallet would prefer it if Blizzard waited until 2012 to ship it. With so many big titles coming out this fall like Skyrim, Gears of War 3, Uncharted 3, and Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (to name just a few), I don’t think I’d have the time to give Diablo 3 the attention it demands if it releases this year. What about you? Head to the comments section and let us know what you think about Diablo 3!