Best Buy apparently believes Diablo 3 isn’t far off from launch in North America, as a Winnipeg, Canada-based Twitter user spotted a display for the game in a Rochester, Minnesota store showing a February 1 launch for the game alongside a countdown timer. Bizarrely, the tweet has since been pulled, but we snagged his image (addressed to former Joystiq previews editor Arthur Gies — thanks Arthur!) and tracked down the Best Buy to confirm its existence.
A store employee politely assured Joystiq of the endcap’s existence and noted the February 1 launch date, which will coincide with a midnight opening (at least at her location). We’ve reached out to Blizzard Entertainment for comment, but, well, this looks pretty legit. Oh, and it also doesn’t hurt that Best Buy’s web store is showing a February 1 launch date for the game.
The last official word we heard from Blizzard (“early 2012”) was in September 2011, after the game was delayed beyond its original 2011 launch window. When we checked back up with the company during BlizzCon back in October, we were told nothing more solid was ready to be announced in terms of a launch date.
[joystiq]
