Diablo 3 - Release Date Rumor

But RPGWatch had D3 in their 'best RPG to look forward to in 2009' poll, so it must be true!

(as an aside, can someone create an 'eating my hat' smiley, just incase)

Here's a little analysis of this release rumor. And as pointed out by Flux, if you check out the about section of kaputik.com you'll find this interesting piece of material.

This website lets anyone register and post your own news. As well as discuss hot topics and write yor own articles.

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Seems anyone could post news there. So much for credibility.

DArtagnan said:

That said, their latest expansion for WoW - and numerous patches before that - seem to indicate they've grown less determined, as would seem a common evolution for companies getting that fat and content with themselves.

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What's wrong with WotLK that would indicate a decline in the famous Blizzard polish/quality?

Thaurin said:

What's wrong with WotLK that would indicate a decline in the famous Blizzard polish/quality?

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Beyond simply being released too early - the last few patches as well as the expansion has had more technical difficulties and much more blatant balancing issues than what used to be the norm.

Beta testers were being very loud about a multitude of issues before launch - and I think many of us were surprised that it was released when it was. I expected at least 2-3 months of additional polish and balancing.

I think this has been the case for quite a while with WoW - and I seem to recall them having a much clearer vision of classes and PvE/PvP balancing during the first couple of years.

Not that balance wasn't always a concern, but it certainly seemed like they took it a lot more seriously pre-WotLK.

Also, and I'm not sure they fixed it yet since I haven't played since the first month of WotLK release, but there was a VERY serious bug with players using mouse-look. They would pop around on the screen as if they were affected by some very serious lag, and beyond being merely incredibly annoying - it was a problem in PvP because you couldn't be too sure where they were. People weren't really registering this until they were made aware of it, because they assumed it was normal lag - especially in conjunction with launch.

A bunch of players reported this with strong evidence - including myself - and AFAIK they didn't even acknowledge this and certainly ignored it for a couple of months. I doubt they've addressed it yet.

Such a thing I wouldn't have expected of Blizzard a few years ago.

kalniel said:

But RPGWatch had D3 in their 'best RPG to look forward to in 2009' poll, so it must be true!

(as an aside, can someone create an 'eating my hat' smiley, just incase)

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Yes, that Blizzard press release couldn't possibly be lying to us...

I think another factor that will determine whether it gets released this year or not might be how badly Blizzard needs the money. I know it's a mega-corporation with a history of sizable profits, but in this economy everything is iffy. If WoW is keeping the coffers relatively full, and the Starcraft2 release is market-analyzed to generate a husky enough profit, Blizzard has all the time in the world to polish and perfect D3, and might even prefer to save it for 2010 to ensure some sizable income then. OTOH, if D3 MP is in any way pay-to-play(pure speculation on my part), that's income for next year anyway.

If the economy is pinching them badly enough, I suppose it's possible they may push everything out the door and plan on playing patch-the-new-releases all next year. I wouldn't even begin to presume to predict what will actually happen at this point.

DArtagnan said:

Such a thing I wouldn't have expected of Blizzard a few years ago.

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Even though the truth hurts, all of us should embrace ourselves and face the fact that even Blizzard have started selling out. They're still way better than most high-profile companies, but they have begun sliding down the hill regardless...

r3dshift said:

Even though the truth hurts, all of us should embrace ourselves and face the fact that even Blizzard have started selling out. They're still way better than most high-profile companies, but they have begun sliding down the hill regardless...

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Yeah, that's my definite impression as well.

I can't be altogether certain, and I don't particularly blame them for not caring deeply about WoW at this point. I know I would probably be sick to death of it, as a developer by now.

The next title they release will determine - for sure - if my fears are justified or not.

r3dshift said:

Even though the truth hurts, all of us should embrace ourselves and face the fact that even Blizzard have started selling out. They're still way better than most high-profile companies, but they have begun sliding down the hill regardless...

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Well there's no business sense in over-engineering something. If your product is already good enough that everyone who buys computer games is going to buy it then you're simply wasting money by making it any better, when that money/dev time could go on getting the next best selling game out sooner.

I think it's a bit silly to talk about Blizzard selling out regarding D3 and SC2 - I'm sure they want both games to be a success, but whatever money they gain from those games is insignificant compared to the money WoW makes every month.

Quick math:
11 million subscribers (active accounts), all of them paying about 10 euro per month (some more, some less, depending on where you live). That's 110 million euro every month, which is a *lot* more than D3 and SC2 will bring in combined, no matter how super smash hit super size they become.

I don't even know why Blizzard would want to develop anything but MMOs at this point, unless they do it because they want to (passion). Money is certainly not the issue.

kalniel said:

Well there's no business sense in over-engineering something. If your product is already good enough that everyone who buys computer games is going to buy it then you're simply wasting money by making it any better, when that money/dev time could go on getting the next best selling game out sooner.

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Waste of time is not an objective thing.

Some people - namely those that aren't inclined to sell out - might actually WANT to "waste time" even if it means potentially less money. But there is such a thing as respect - and I can promise you that Blizzard didn't build their reputation by doing only what's essential or necessary to sell in the short-term.

They've been building possibly the most solid reputation in the industry over a period of many years, and some of us are concerned that they're changing. Something which - I might add - is almost universally the case when companies keep growing and growing.

Eventually the bubble bursts.

DArtagnan said:

But there is such a thing as respect - and I can promise you that Blizzard didn't build their reputation by doing only what's essential or necessary to sell in the short-term.

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But once you've got what you need to sell in the long term then there's no need to go further.

Even if they only considered the short term, is there actually any difference? If the best game you can buy is still Blizzard and it's good enough for everyone to want it then your sales will be the same.

And a Blizzard PR manager responded to the release rumor with the usual 'no release date has been set'.

kalniel said:

But once you've got what you need to sell in the long term then there's no need to go further.

Even if they only considered the short term, is there actually any difference? If the best game you can buy is still Blizzard and it's good enough for everyone to want it then your sales will be the same.

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That's the thing.

The best game you can buy might be perceived as a Bliz game RIGHT NOW, but not necessarily in the future. That's pretty much the idea, isn't it.

If you want to maintain that kind of luxury position, you can only rest on your laurels so long before someone exceeds your past work.

DArtagnan said:

If you want to maintain that kind of luxury position, you can only rest on your laurels so long before someone exceeds your past work.

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True, but then you just up the ante as and when required - no point wasting the time and money before then.

kalniel said:

True, but then you just up the ante as and when required - no point wasting the time and money before then.

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No, I can't agree.

If you want to assure your position as numero uno, you'd have to be a moron to let it slip even a little bit - because that would be an obvious risk of losing it forever.

Also, let's not pretend like it's a trivial thing to maintain the standard of pre-WoW Blizzard, and now that they're MUCH bigger - things just might have grown too big for that level of artistry.

But who knows, I guess time will tell - as it always does.