Diablo III release date coming in 'near future'

After Diablo III's most recent delay two weeks ago, many have been left wondering just what is going on with Blizzard Entertainment's anticipated action role-playing game? Only good things, assures game director Jay Wilson, who took to Blizzard's forums to say that a release date for the title can be expected in the "near future."

"The latest full build we've been testing here in the office is in great shape," Wilson wrote in his letter to the community. "We get a lot of sympathy from the other teams because of the long hours of crunch our design team is putting in, but the secret is that playing through the game as we do final tuning, bug fixes, and optimizations is a real joy."

"We think you're going to love Diablo III when it's released, and speaking of release plans, you can seriously expect a launch-date announcement from us in the near future," he continued. "See, I didn't say 'soon,' so I'm not taunting you. You'll know as soon as I know for sure the exact date."

Diablo III will be the first release in the infernal action role-playing game franchise since 2001's Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Though Blizzard has yet to offer an official release date for the game, it has bypassed a number of targeted release windows, including the end of 2011 and the first part of 2012.

The game is currently scheduled for release during Activision Blizzard's April-June 2012 quarter. For more information, check out GameSpot's previous coverage of Diablo III.