Diablo III (Finally) Gets A Release Date

It’s been a long, long time coming, but Blizzard finally announced today that Diablo III will be unleashed on retailers and in digital form globally on May 15, 2012.

“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.”

Along with the Diablo III release date announcement, Blizzard also reminded fans that they can still get Diablo III free of charge if they’re willing to cough up the cash for a World of Warcraft ‘Annual Pass’. Aside from getting a complimentary copy of Blizzard’s hotly anticipated hack-‘n’-slash, you’ll also get an exclusive World of Warcraft mount and access to the Mists of Pandaria beta.

That deal will expire on May 1, however, so if you’re looking for a chance to re-up your World of Warcraft subscription and get Diablo III at the same time, you have about a month to do so.

Lastly, Blizzard announced that digital pre-orders over on the Blizzard store have now gone live. Gamers who pre-order their copy digitally will be able to pre-load and have access the moment that Diablo III becomes available.

Are you looking forward to finally getting to play Diablo III?