By Alec Meer on January 9th, 2012 at 10:02 am.
Today is not Thursday, April 26th and this is the not-news.
Diablo III will not be released in February this year, despite assorted internet-wide reports to the contrary. Retailers do not know a date for the hacky-slashy game’s release, according to Blizzard’s community manager, and will not know one until the entire world knows one, via press release. So any news you might read claiming the game will be released on Feb 1 or February 3 is not news. That’s not the same as not-news, of course.
Today’s not-headlines in summary, then: we still do not know the release date for Diablo III.
In other not news today, I have not yet drunk a cup of tea or eaten any breakfast, Skyrim 2 has not been announced and the British economy is not showing any signs of meaningful recovery.
09/01/2012 at 10:10 MrEvilGuy says:
No comment.
09/01/2012 at 10:10 bear912 says:
Another demonstrably false internet rumor.
09/01/2012 at 10:13 Syra says:
You’re fucking kidding me
09/01/2012 at 10:19 bear912 says:
Somehow, I doubt Alec is kidding you or fucking you…
I could be wrong, of course.
09/01/2012 at 10:31 baby snot says:
Did I just blush at the thought, oh my…
09/01/2012 at 11:03 Meat Circus says:
I don’t think he’s ready for that jelly.
09/01/2012 at 12:18 lowprices says:
Monday morning and we’re at RPS slash-fiction already? Crikey.
EDIT: Unless of course Syra is a woman. Wrong of me to assume.
09/01/2012 at 15:39 Syra says:
I am not, but I’m okay with that.
09/01/2012 at 10:16 Sentient Waffle says:
Well, it also doesn’t say it WON’T be released in February, just that retailers don’t know anything we don’t.
So February is still an option. At least, in my hopes and dreams. That surely will be crushed.
09/01/2012 at 10:24 MrMud says:
Considering Bashiok recently said that we would get a release date announcement about 2 months before release the chances of a Feb release are slim to zero.
09/01/2012 at 11:45 Sentient Waffle says:
See? Crushed.
10/01/2012 at 11:25 wyvaud says:
Personally I find it hard to believe it will be out in February, as they are still handing out beta keys. However I would love to be proven wrong…
09/01/2012 at 10:17 westyfield says:
An announcement of not an announcement? Oh, RPS. That scraping noise is Kieron Gillen turning in his grave.
09/01/2012 at 11:40 roryok says:
we should never have let him have that shovel
09/01/2012 at 12:09 Llewyn says:
Never mind shovels, it could have easily been avoided by killing him before burying him.
09/01/2012 at 10:19 hydrarulz says:
the only wierd thing is this image in a BestBuy shop
release date
09/01/2012 at 13:17 Hanban says:
It’s probably a cruel joke from the clerks.
Having to spend every day dealing with people asking – “DERP WHEN IS DIBZIII GUNA BE RELEASED BRO!? BRO!? BRO C’MON BLIZZ PROBS TELL YOU ALL THE SECRETS!” – they decided it was time for payback.
09/01/2012 at 10:24 sneetch says:
Edit: Damn you reply system! Damn you to all seven hells (in order and repeatedly)!
Edit Edit: Wait, not a reply system fail, the post disappeared. I’m sorry reply system, it was wrong of me to blame you, can you ever forgive me?
09/01/2012 at 10:26 Sheng-ji says:
You should eat breakfast, it’s good for you
09/01/2012 at 10:44 Rudel says:
The beta was so disappointing that I couldn’t care less… unless Blizzard did some really major changes in the past 3 months. :P
09/01/2012 at 12:53 MrMud says:
What is there to be dissapointed about?
Its less than the first 10th of the game on the easiest of 4 subsequent difficulty modes.
09/01/2012 at 15:10 Rudel says:
I was mostly disappointed by the difficulty. It’s so easy, you do not even have to look to the screen. I know, it’s the 1st of 4 difficulties but you cannot choose. You have to play through the kindergarden ones before getting to the real ones!
Furthermore, the graphics are horrible and remind of games 10 years ago. I really don’t care about graphics that much, but in times where you play games like Skyrim it shouldn’t look that horrible. I don’t like it that Blizz/Activision tune down the game so much that EVERYBODY can play it, regardless how old their computer. Just go and buy a decent PC, if you want to play current games.
Finally, the whole game experience itself feels like it’s a Diablo 2.5. This would have been great 2-3 years after Diablo 2, but not in 2012.
EDIT: Forgot one thing – I just hate it, how Blizz tunes down their games for the casual-player who never played games before. No skills, talent trees/points etc. See Mists of Pandara and WoW. They are trying to focus their games on a broad target group, making it possible for everybody to play. This always leads to games that are not designed for core gamers. I play computer games since 1984 on my C64 and expect at least some level of difficulty / complexity.
09/01/2012 at 15:42 Bremze says:
Try playing through act 1 until Stony Field on normal. It’s piss easy and almost plays by itself. That is how much of Diablo 3 you’ve seen, the Skeleton King is basically Blood Raven.
I could care less about the graphics, but the painterly art style is done amazingly well.
And the “Blizzard tunes their games for casuals” argument is so bullshit, I won’t even touch that.
09/01/2012 at 10:46 roryok says:
I can’t believe they’re not-releasing Skyrim 2 already. Christ, I’ve only just not-finished the first one.
09/01/2012 at 10:53 Meat Circus says:
Surely they’ll not release Fallout 4 first?
09/01/2012 at 11:39 roryok says:
Not looking forward to that one too much though.
Oh dear I’ve not-confused myself
09/01/2012 at 11:15 Carra says:
They were so proud that they were gonna release 3 games this year.
I’ll be happy if they manage to release one :)
09/01/2012 at 11:38 Kill_The_Drive says:
As long as we get Torchlight 2.
09/01/2012 at 11:56 ReV_VAdAUL says:
At least this way Torchlight 2 has a better chance of being released first and maybe Grim Dawn will get out an Alpha before Diablo 3 steamrolls em?
09/01/2012 at 11:59 Teronfel says:
It’s gonna be released February 31th.
09/01/2012 at 13:42 BoZo says:
Decimal time, of course.
09/01/2012 at 15:52 johnpeat says:
Kingdoms of Amalur will be relieved, I imagine…
09/01/2012 at 16:00 Cheese says:
Unrelated, but why Skyrim 2 instead of TES VI? Is it a joke I’m failing to understand?
09/01/2012 at 16:16 deadly.by.design says:
I used to be interested in Diablo III, but then I …
(wait for it)
…stopped caring.
Sure, the cinematic trailer is pretty and I enjoy the celebrations of the original games’ birthdays. Yeah, re-watching the cinematics from D1 & 2 get me a bit nostalgic and itching to re-install that carpal tunnel-inducing clickfest of an action RPG. At the end of the day, though, I just don’t find myself eager to play the game. It’s been over ten years since D2 and about four years since I last played it. Maybe 6 years since I actually played it to completion.
Something just isn’t doing it for me with what I’ve seen of the gameplay and overall feel of the game. Either that, or my distaste for everything related to WoW has soured anticipation for all future Blizzard releases.
09/01/2012 at 17:31 MythArcana says:
I gave up caring somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 years ago. I agree exactly with the above regarding the WoW Factor; that whole franchise seeped into ALL their products giving everything they make seem like an interactive anime game. Perhaps you could call it soured, but I’ve been completely put off after the Diablo 2 days. And from what I’ve seen, I’d rather play Vulture NetHack or Stone Soup.