Those who are following Blizzard's most anticipated game will know that they recently released a slew of new info on their auction house feature, as well as the game's storyline. Even with that, many fans still believed that the game wouldn't come out until next year. However, Gamespot is reporting otherwise while attending Activision's post-earning conference. According to them:

“Speaking in an Activision post-earnings conference call today, Blizzard's Mike Morhaime said the company is working hard to get the game on store shelves by the end of this year. However, he also noted that it was still too early to commit to that release window, and Activision's own guidance for the year specifically noted that it did not include any Blizzard releases.”

Blizzard has usually been very tight-lipped about their game's release dates, so this strikes me as very odd. My best guess is that they are trying to take Bioware's audience away from Star Wars: The Old Republic, and since it's obvious their own powerhouse MMO, World of Warcraft, will not have any expansion packs coming out this year, this many be their chance to keep a lot of the same players that would have went over to Bioware's anticipated game. But that's still quite a stretch. Even though my money would be put on the game not being released this year, trust me when I say that holding Diablo 3 in my hands by the end of this year is a dream of mine...