User blog comment:Fandyllic/Diablo III unlikely to ship for 2011 holiday season/@comment-216.81.94.70-20110728025803/@comment-168424-20110728230216

True, I forgot Cataclysm was released in early December. But, like you said, it was just an expansion, even with all the mechanics changes. I suspect if Diablo III gets released in December it is because the Activision side of the company is pushing for a holiday release. Activision never had the quality standards of Blizzard, but they do effectively control Activision-Blizzard, since the Activision CEO is now the Activision-Blizzard CEO and not Morhaime, the Blizzard CEO.