Just when we had all finally stopped discussing vaporous rumors about possible release dates for Diablo III, Blizzard announces that beta-testing SHOULD begin during Q3 of this year.

Okay, so that's not even an official confirmation of the preliminary phases leading up to the game's release, but close enough.

As stated by Blizzard's Mike Morhaime during Activision's quarterly earnings call, "We began internal company-wide testing last week. The game looks great, and we're currently targeting a Q3 launch for external beta testing."

That means that someone out there is already playing Diablo III, that gamers outside of Blizzard 'could' be playing it in a few months, and that it is ever-so-slightly 'possible' that you might be playing it by the end of the year.

I wonder how how many times we'll have this same conversation in 2012.

Source: Joystiq