Diablo III Now in the Home Stretch, Might Launch This Year

Blizzard has just revealed that the development on Diablo III is now entering the home stretch, so we might see the eagerly awaited role-playing dungeon crawler appear on the market at the end of the year.

Blizzard is definitely taking its time with the creation of Diablo III, as gamers have been awaiting the new role-playing game for about 11 years, since 2000's Diablo II.

Now, after years of spoon-fed details, Blizzard is getting ready to release the game and, according to the director of Diablo III, the team is entering the home stretch of the creation process.

"We're definitely in the home stretch," said Wilson to the New York Times. "We're crunching. This is when the magic happens."

Blizzard's infamous release strategy won't see a game be launched until it's perfect and will satisfy players, but, while the legions of Blizzard fans are sympathetic with this creed, their patience is running a bit thin.

According to a previous statement from the company, the release of Diablo III depends on the feedback it will get from a presumed beta stage that might appear this summer.

If the feedback is great and the changes required are minimal, then Blizzard will launch Diablo III onto the market at the end of the year, just in time for the winter holiday season.

If the feedback isn't all that great and there is still a lot of work to be done on the title, then the company will push its release back into the beginning of 2012.

Blizzard is still considering a console version of Diablo III, but don't expect it to appear at the same time as the PC one, as the company isn't even convinced about the viability of porting the role-playing dungeon crawler onto platforms like the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.