Diablo III release date announced! It's on May 15th!

Diablo II poster

Diablo III, the third installment of Blizzard's dark fantasy/horror-themed action role-playing game, will be released on May 15, 2012, the game developer announced Thursday.

"After many years of hard work by our development team and months of beta testing by hundreds of thousands of dedicated players around the world, we’re now in the homestretch," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We look forward to putting the final polish on Diablo III over the next two months and delivering the ultimate action-RPG experience to gamers worldwide starting on May 15."

The game will be available for purchase on the said date at retailers throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, South Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. Gamers from these countries as well as in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil will be able to buy Diablo III digitally via Blizzard’s Battle.net website.

Pre-sales have also been opened during Thursday's announcement. Would-be wizards, witch doctors, demon hunters, barbarians, and monks throughout the world should head to http://www.blizzard.com/games/d3/ now to reserve their digital copies.

Priced at USD59.99, Diablo III will be available for Windows XP/Windows Vista/Windows 7 and Macintosh. A special alabaster-white Collector’s Edition, sold exclusively in retail stores at a suggested retail price of USD99.99, will include the full game on DVD-ROM, a behind-the-scenes Blu-ray/DVD two-disc set, the Diablo III soundtrack CD, a 208-page Art of Diablo III book, and a 4 GB USB soulstone (including full versions of Diablo II and Diablo II: Lord of Destruction) and corresponding Diablo skull base, as well as exclusive in-game content for Diablo III, World of Warcraft, and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty.

In Diablo III, players take on the role of one of five heroic characters -- barbarian, witch doctor, wizard, monk, or demon hunter -- and engage in pulse-pounding combat with endless legions of evil. As they undertake an epic quest to rid Sanctuary from the corrupting forces of the Burning Hells, players will explore diverse and perilous settings, grow in experience and ability, acquire artifacts of incredible power, and meet key characters who’ll join them in battle or aid them in other ways.