Changes

Almost since the game was announced in June 2008 the developers have said that they were well into content production.[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/diablo-iii-heavily-into-development/] (Meaning that the engine and basic game functions were all locked down and working properly.) Content though, especially in Blizzard titles, is such a huge area of work that experienced Blizzard-watchers expected the content production and balancing would take years. And with the earliest feasible release date coming in mid-2011, they'll have had at least 3 years of intensive content development by that point.