Blizzard has yet to commit to an official release date for the highly anticipated Diablo 3, but that hasn't stopped Amazon from posting what they believe the release date should be.
According to the online retail giant, Diablo 3 will release on April 17th.
This, of course, is only speculation as Blizzard has neither confirmed nor denied a release date for Diablo 3. Online retailers often list release dates for popular games before they've officially been dated. The majority of the time it's just a placeholder, but they are correct from time to time. As of now, the release date has been changed to just "2012".
The predicted April 17th release for the game does fall within Blizzard's latest release window which was pushed back until Q2 2012. During an Activision Blizzard conference call, Mike Morhaime confirmed that Diablo 3 would be delayed again into the second quarter which spans from April to June.
"Given the popularity of the action RPG genre, and the keen interest in Diablo III, we expect this launch to be a big opportunity for Blizzard. We can also confirm that we are targeting a Q2 launch for Diablo III," said Morhaime.
Recent job cuts by Blizzard has led to additional fears that Diablo 3 would be delayed again, although Blizzard has emphasized that the layoffs will not affect Diablo 3's release.
In the meantime, the developers continue to improve on the Diablo 3 beta, most recently releasing Beta Patch 13 which completely revamped the game's character skill and rune systems. Blizzard detailed the new, streamlined systems right now which separates the skills into separate left click attack, right click attack, and action bar abilities. The full explanation for the skill and rune system changes was detailed in a blog post by Blizzard's Jay Wilson.
While release dates for Diablo 3 remain uncertain, one thing can be said for sure: Blizzard is waiting to put together their best product possible before they release the game – even if that means another delay.
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[CVG]
