When Blizzard Entertainment CEO Mike Morhaime and Activision Blizzard were ear-to-ear smiley during their financial results conference call last August, and hopeful for a Q4 2011 Diablo III release date, they weren’t bluffing. It seems a large part of the Diablo III content was ironed out and submitted to some video game rating boards a few months ago.

The British Board of Film Classification slipped a game rating 15 for the Diablo III Collector’s Edition DVD due to moderate violence, and …. (Vynil LP scratch sound F/X) … wait, Collector’s Edition DVD? It hasn’t even been officially announced yet.

This is a rating for the Cinematics DVD and Behind-the-Scenes DVD contained within the Diablo III Collector’s Edition. The shocker is the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) slated a release date of December 7, 2011. Was this an approximate internal release date of the game before Blizzard decided to ship 2012?

    Release date: 07/12/2011
    Consumer Advice: Contains moderate violence

    ECI – Extended Classification Information for this work will be available on or after November 27, 2011.

    This work was passed with no cuts made.

    Work Information

    Main Language: English
    Distributor: Blizzard Entertainment SAS
    Classified: 07/10/2011
    Submitted runtime: 169m 27s
    BBFC Reference: BDM283384

    Remarks

    Including identifying information provided by the distributor;- COLLECTOR’S EDITION,

    Work Components

    This work is made up of a number of separate components. Note that since February 2001 the BBFC has measured each component separately, but older works may not have the exact details, only a list of titles.

    Runtime: 02:49:27:00
    Component title: DIABLO III VIDEOGAME COLLECTOR’S DVD

    Related works

    A film, video or video game, together with associated trailers may exist in several versions and all versions known to the BBFC are listed below.

Source: BBFC

The German Self-Monitoring of Entertainment Software (USK / Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle) also rated the Diablo III Collector’s Edition a couple of weeks ago.

    Diablo III Collector´s Edition

    System: PC
    Genre: Rollenspiel / actionorientiert
    Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment SAS
    Altersfreigabe: Freigegeben ab 16 Jahren gemäß § 14 JuSchG
    Prüfdatum: 23.09.2011
    USK Nr.: 31870/11
    Sprache: deutsch/englisch

Source: USK