Blizzard has announced that the release of its upcoming hack-and-slash role-playing game, Diablo III, will be delayed until next year, due to unfinished features.

After 11 years in production, the company finally announced a release date of 15 May a few weeks ago, but angered some fans when it revealed that player-versus-player (PvP) combat would not make it into the launch version.

Another Blizzard blunder involved a community manager telling players to lower their expectations of the game, a claim that was countered by the game's director, Jay Wilson. Today's announcement, however, shows that the game must remain in a very uncompleted state, and Blizzard is well-known for its reluctance to release projects that it is not happy with.

“No one likes to disappoint players,” said Wilson. “We take great pride in the millions of fans of our games throughout the world. However, we also want to deliver a quality product. We feel that by pushing back the release date into 2013 we can create a game that fans will truly enjoy, one that will be remembered for many years to come.”

Read more: http://vr-zone.com/articles/blizzard-delay...l#ixzz1qqZVDDS6

Some of the features that are expected to go back into the game include PvP, an as yet unnamed class thought to be a mix of the other classes, a command option to access the admin features of the game, and a World of Warcraft character import feature. The latter is believed to be an attempt to boost falling subscription numbers for the company's popular MMO title.

Blizzard did not hint at exactly when it expects to release Diablo III, whether it is early or late 2013. It could even surprise fans and announce a pre-Christmas 2012 release, but given the scope of some of the planned features, we would not be surprised if it was further delayed. Fans will just be hoping that the game does not become the next Duke Nukem Forever, the ill-fated title that spent 15 years in production thanks to numerous delays.

We did a survey of one Diablo fan and found that 100 percent were unhappy with Blizzard's decision. We can't say we blame them.

Read more: http://vr-zone.com/articles/blizzard-delay...l#ixzz1qqZZnUbH