While the rest of the world sits by and wonders when we'll finally get our hands on Blizzard Entertainment's upcoming action RPG Diablo III, Best Buy is apparently confident that the game is launching soon. In this case, Best Buy deems 'soon' to equate to February 1st, 2012 - or a little over three weeks from today.
As you can see in the image above, posted by Joystiq (click to enlarge), a Best Buy store in Minnesota has purportedly put up this elaborate display touting the February 1st release date. Immediately the questions arise; is this a legitimate release date? And if so, how did Blizzard and Best Buy fail to work together to announce it properly? Skeptics will instantly notice the blatant misspelling of 'February' as 'Feburary'. Is there simply a sheepish looking marketing coordinator somewhere or is the whole thing an elaborate hoax?
Before we jump the gun, it's important to note that Best Buy's website also supports the February 1st release date, so that essentially rules out the concept of a homebrewed hoax or photoshopped image. The whole affair is suspicious, so take it with a grain of salt - or with maybe a tablespoon of salt. It seems unlikely that Blizzard would release the game on such short notice when the community is so avidly anticipating it but anything is possible. It's also important to note that Blizzard Entertainment's Community Manager, Bashiok, has kind if discounted the release date on Twitter. Having been asked if he 'had any word' on the release date, he replied, "The word is lol". Bashiok had more comments, which you can read over on DiabloFans.com.
In the meantime, stay tuned to http://www.diablofans.com/ - the #1 Diablo III resource on the web. We will update this post as well, as soon as we get more information.
Update: Bashiok has further denied that any sort of February 1st release date is a reality, saying, "Diablo III does not have a release date. Any store or person claiming otherwise is guessing."
Comments
Draw a line with your mind a long the bottom of the yellow box, now draw a line a long the top of the "Midnight Opening" text. Yep, there's a small mistake with that photoshop.
Cogz, it's perspective. It's an actual display in store that was taken via camera. My best buy also has one.
The perspective is the same reason straight lines can seem tilted in optical illusions.
edit - A real life example is how a road seems to get more narrow the further away you look.