==Starcraft II First==
[[Image:Diablo_III_Logo.jpg|right|400px]]
There were some rumors in 2008[http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/d3-release-date-rumors/] that Diablo 3 was further along in the development cycle than Starcraft 2. Blizzard immediately denied that, they always said Starcraft 2 would be released first, and it was, on July 27, 2010. With Diablo 3 still nowhere near beta testing at that point, that's as thorough a rumor debunking as you're ever going to see.
==Diablo III==
[[File:Fanmade_Diablo_3_game_boxRelease-date-bliz1.jpg|right|thumb|350px250px|The D3 in "Next Few Years" [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/diablo-3-will-not-be-released-in-2010/ as of late 2009].]]No one at Blizzard has ever yet given any hint of a release date, or schedule, or estimate, or anything of the kind for Diablo 3 game box as interpreted by , other than to say it would not be out in 2010[http://s93diablo.photobucketincgamers.com/homeblog/comments/rob-pardon-on-d3s-release-date/sirashington sirashington], and that as of late 2009 it was in their pipeline for the "next few years."[http://diablo.]incgamers.com/blog/comments/diablo-3-will-not-be-released-in-2010/]
tvvvvNo one at Blizzard has ever yet given any hint of a release date, or schedule, or estimate, or anything of the kind for Diablo 3. Their only other public comments on the "when" question are terse official statements [http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/blizzard-responds-to-diablo-3-release-date-rumour/] that Diablo 3 does not have a release date, whenever a new rumor pops up and gains enough traction that they feel it's necessary to restate the obvious.
As of July 2010, fansite Diii.net had tagged more than twenty-five news items with [http://diablo.incgamers.com/categories/category/release-date/ the "release date rumor" keyword], showing just how often this sort of thing pops up.
http://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/no-d3-in-2010-not-even-for-playboy-bunnies/
As for Diablo III, the demo was very playable and seemed well-polished when the public was first given a hands-on opportunity at [[BlizzCon 2008]], and even more so at [[BlizzCon 2009]]. The [[D3 Team]] has repeatedly cautioned overeager speculators though; they say they have a great deal of work yet to do on it, and while what's been shown looks great, they're showing only a tiny fraction of the total game. Production was said to be well into Act 2 as of fall 2008, but with an estimated 4 acts to complete, they are nowhere near finished.
Estimates of a percentage completed are discouraged by Blizzard development teams, since there's no way to quantify the process in that fashion. They spent years working on the foundation of Diablo III: programming the game engine, trying out numerous different styles of art design, coming up with a plot and character concepts, etc. The hardware and foundational work takes as long or longer than adding in the content, which makes it impossible to estimate the overall percentage completed.
We can wager a guess Almost since the game was announced in June 2008 the developers have said that they were well into content production.[[Act Ihttp://diablo.incgamers.com/blog/comments/diablo-iii-heavily-into-development/]] is relatively close to "completion", (Meaning that the engine and basic game functions were all locked down and [[Act II]] is as wellworking properly. At this time) Content though, especially in Blizzard has said this titles, is the order such a huge area of work that experienced Blizzard-watchers expected the acts, but anything can change before releasecontent production and balancing would take years. The order of And with the acts might very well be something completely different. No hints have been made about Act IIIearliest feasible release date coming in mid-2011, wethey're expecting more information ll have had at [[BlizzCon 2010]]least 3 years of intensive content development by that point.
==Diablo III Demo==
Blizzard has not said anything specifically about the upcoming demo of Diablo III, but when talking about StarCraft II, they said they had plans for a demo, and that they "use to do that after release". Most likely, we can expect a trial version of Diablo III ''after release''.
==Guess the Release Date==
If you're the betting type, there's a well-advanced release date prediction pool [http://forums.diii.net/showthread.php?t=700147 you can join in here].
==Rumours==
There has been rumours on an off about a release date, and we're listing them as they appear here:
===The Dol Rune Conspiracy - 09/09/09===
Circulating on forums first in mid-September 2008, and the idea is that the {{iw|Dol Dol rune}} holds the truth of the Diablo II release date. Through lots of mathematical formulas and Hex code, the date was supposed to be 2009-09-09.
Besides being logically flawed all the way, it's obviously just a rouse. However, it has continuously been spread on fansites and video game sites up until shortly after the end of 2009, when it became overly apparent it could not be true.
* '''[http://forums.diii.net/showthread.php?p=6802602 ~ Within Lies The True Secret Of Diablo ~]'''
* '''[[Dol Rune Conspiracy]]''' - DiabloWiki entry.
===Battle.net Trolling - Spring 2010===
Shortly after [[BlizzCon 2009]], rumours began spreading on Battle.net that Diablo III would be released around spring 2010. There was no evidence to support this, but the topic kept popping up for a period of time.
<gallery>
File:Release-date-fye1.jpg|Fye's very wrong January 2010 estimate.httpFile://diabloRelease-date-gameshop se1.incgamersjpg|Swedish Gameshop: December 31, 2010.com/blog/comments/d3-releaseFile:Release-date-rumorsnewegg1.jpg|NewEgg.com: December 31, 2010.</ gallery>
[[Category:Basics]]
[[Category:Diablo III]]
[[category:release date]]