Put your best “surprised face” on because Blizzard has just announced that Diablo III will ultimately be delayed till early 2012, keeping in line with what Blizzard business practices. “I know that many of you were hopeful that Diablo III would ship this year,” writes Blizzard president Mike Morhaime. “We were too,” he added stating that he had pulled the teams all together and unanimously came to the decision that releasing it by the end of 2011 could not be done while maintaining the quality of the game. And we have to agree, Blizzard has rarely, if ever, failed in the department of delivering quality games.

But all is not lost, Diablo fans. Mike has announced that the beta will be extended a little longer as well due to this so those of you who didn’t get in on the beta invite, make sure to check your e-mail vigilantly to see if you got one of those elusive invites that everyone’s looking for. Then you can strut around on campus and watch as about 90% of the student population not caring at all but for the other 10, you will be the object of hatred for 5 minutes or more.

No news about changes to the “always online” policy though.

Source: Battle.net