So... Whens that Diablo 3 coming out?

I'm sure many of you have played your fair share of Diablo 2 in the past, and if not, you were probably playing Starcraft.  Blizzard has had its share of successes, and gameplay has always been key to their success. No where is that more apparent that World of Warcraft.  Say what you want about the game, but it stayed successful because it had the right balance of ease of use and gameplay, topped off with some relatively challenging raids.

This isn't about WoW's success though... or is it?  Because of it's huge following Blizzard has put WoW on the forefront of its business for years now.  When you look at how long it took to develop Starcraft 2 it makes you wonder what all that time was spent doing?  The game, which is great sure, is essentially mildly spruced up in graphics, but the gameplay remains the exact same.  Gameplay is king though and if you had a winning formula why muck it up?

This looks vaguely familiar...

Such is Blizzard's approach it seems with D3.  If you've been to their site at all you'll notice that not much seems to have changed.  This of course can be a good thing, but it makes you wonder what is it that is taking Blizzard so long with these games that have just essentially been given a face lift.  Many rumors point the idea that Blizzard may try to capitalize on the success of the consoles to proliferate one of their most beloved franchises to them.  Whatever is taking them so long it gets harder and harder to remain interested.  Blizzard has been known to "never release a product until it's finished" or "never release a product" I forget which.  Well that certainly is admirable it seems more like they are trying to game the public, with things such as 1/3 of the campaign in their first release of Starcraft 2.  I like a trilogy as much as the next guy, but it seems more like a grab for your money and business longevity than anything else.  Maybe I'm just an asshole, but I expected D3 to be well on its way to a release date quite some time ago.  Now I fear that instead of a release date we will get news that Diablo 3 is a trilogy with less characters at the start because they can save that for the next to releases to grab for our money, as though they don't sit on a mountain of cash already thanks to WoW.