A valid point. It did get the internet's attention, however, as to "telling (us) first" there is a minor flaw with that logic. Retailers have to know about release dates in advance for scheduling/staffing purposes, as well as event planning and the like. I'm not saying there is any certainty to the claims of this find, merely pointing out to you that there would, in fact, be a need for others (retailers) to know about this information beforehand. Best Buy putting this up beforehand and essentially breaking a street-date lock is plausible. It's happened plenty of times in the past.
"No better burden can a man carry on the road than a store of common sense." - Hávamál, st. 10
http://www.dicksmith.co.nz/product/YG1075/pc-diablo-iii
30th of March.
I'm hoping its out on the 1st of Feb just as much as everyone else, but just take a look around - do any of the dates actually match up? Im 99% sure its a hoax, but still hoping its the 1st of Feb
Feb 1st actually makes a lot of sense.
Expect the announcement next week.
Err... no, they wouldn't "tell the community" first. They tell retailers first. Why would this one Best Buy go through the effort to "get attention from the online community"? What's far more likely is that this Best Buy screwed the pooch putting up their sign and was supposed to wait until the announcement next week.
Also, people crying photoshop or fake should at the very least read the articles about this. Joystiq went as far as calling the Best Buy in question and asked them if the sign was there and legit, and they confirmed it at the store.
I lol'd because Bashiok said something like "Retailers won't know anything before a press release" - I think you mean PRESS won't know anything before a "PRESS" release, there, ol' Bashiok. We've already seen the Anaheim Convention Center place up dates for BlizzCon far before a BlizzCon press release date announcement in the past. You know why? Because that's not RELEASING SHIT TO THE PRESS, it's releasing it to the venue so they don't fill the spot you already internally scheduled. Aka, ALREADY KNOW ABOUT before you tell the "PRESS". Of course, the convention center pulled it down fast, but yeah. Bashiok's full of shit when he tries to tell us that community are privy to the same information as retailers.
The real dynamic is, an internal date is announced that is spread to manufacturers which then spread street dates to corporate heads. The PRESS (which is more and more often now, US) FIND these corporate head internal releases, and share photos of botches in plans, like the Diablo 3 instruction manual pictures and this release poster. The REALITY of the situation is never going to be the "truth" the company (Blizzard Entertainment) wants you to hear.
I can almost 100% guarantee you the employees are threatened with void of contract, or termination, if they release insider documents, but guess what? People still do. And occasionally, heads themselves fuck up, like when White Hen or 7/11 put out WoW expansions days before their release date.
Last edited by LordRayken; 2012-01-08 at 06:30 AM.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaq62VCcnew
Nevar 4get Exarch Cyn.
The Horde and The Alliance haven't changed since Warcraft 2. Pandaren are the first true change to either faction for 12 years.
Anyone else notice on the leaked picture that "February" is misspelled as "Feburary"?
They would have been more likely to put up release date posters in December of 2011 then, if they were just guessing. Everyone -knew- Diablo 3 was December. No one even thought February 1st at all. No one. There's a reason we've seen instruction manuals being created and now this poster being displayed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaq62VCcnew
Nevar 4get Exarch Cyn.
The Horde and The Alliance haven't changed since Warcraft 2. Pandaren are the first true change to either faction for 12 years.
Yeah, I was just toying with the logic myself. If Best Buy really was going to put up a "guess" or a totally wrong release date countdown that spreads all over (even places in California are confirming the midnight launch now), they would have done it when every single entity believed December 2011 was it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaq62VCcnew
Nevar 4get Exarch Cyn.
The Horde and The Alliance haven't changed since Warcraft 2. Pandaren are the first true change to either faction for 12 years.
Its deff real, I dont see how best buy could put this in there store without blizzard sending it to them. idk just a weird thing going on. But thats deff real.
Well the date makes sense its the week the swtror free month expires isn't it? Diablo will just kill it if it launches then.
This might not be relevant to whether they made up that date or not, but they spelled February, febuary, on the sign.
He uses such weasel words...
The tweet he responded to me with was,
"@RaykenOrange They misspelled February. I'm not sure it was all that official to begin with."
What does he mean... He's "not sure it was all that official" ... Who types like this?
Does that mean, he's not sure if it was official or not? Or does that mean he's mocking the Best Buy, or what...?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gaq62VCcnew
Nevar 4get Exarch Cyn.
The Horde and The Alliance haven't changed since Warcraft 2. Pandaren are the first true change to either faction for 12 years.
They spelled February as Feburary. Do you still think it's real?
Also, whoever made the sign is bad at margins. That "midnight opening" is not even centered. Horrible attempt. Horrible Photoshop.