Finally! DIABLO III Realease date anounced

Hooah. :)

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/blog/4612389/Diablo_III_Launching_May_15_%E2%80%93_Digital_Pre-Sales_NOW_OPEN-3_15_2012

Glad it came out before my Diablo III t-shirt was worn out!:D

Amazon had the release date about a week ago. Pre-orders in for boxed copies. By the time I wake up on the 15th it will be on my doorstep so no need for a digital copy.

Hmmm... don't you think that perhaps Diablo III is a little too old-school? Modern RPG gamers I think are going to want more.

It's kinda hypocritical for me to ask this question, since I defend Starcraft II as NOT being too old school. However, I view the original Starcraft as being nearly the perfect refinement of its genre of RTS (WC III made some improvements). I don't really see much to improve on. Even then, SCII came out with some major improvements in single player campaign mode, match-making, and even more complex and varied strategies and combat mechanics. But the core was essentially the same.

However, the original Diablo II had lots to improve on. Skill trees lead to overwhelming reliance on single spells (or just a couple), the simplicity of combat mechanics made it too prone to cookie-cutter builds, there was an over-reliance on gear, the end-game content was almost non-existent, and then all the hacking and duping that ruined multiplayer. The intervening years have seen vast improvments in the RPG genre, with games coming out with far more dependence on skill, FAR more complex combat mechanics, very open-ended quests, large, explorable worlds, etc. Diablo III looks like nothing more than a graphically upgraded Diablo II. I hope I'm wrong about this, but if not, it will be Blizzard's first major failure.

I can't entirely disagree with you but "we shall see" is the outlook I am holding to. I am actually getting it more for 'sentimental' reasons than anything else.;)

I really do hope it is good though since I have much more invested in Activision-Blizzard than just what I spend on their products.

All I want from D3 is being fun and a solid foundation for future upgrades. They can add fancy stuff later, once they ironed out all the kinks at the start. If it can deliver that I am happy and will probably play it casually for the next 5+ years - like I did with D1 + D2. :)

why the hell would i want to bother with isometric view and little ugly characters when there's witcher 2? diablo is laughable. its success will come from brand recognition and nostalgia.

diablo is laughable. its success will come from brand recognition and nostalgia.

Even if those are the only reasons that Diablo III is a success, the revenue dollars will still add up the same way.