Torchlight 2 a harbinger for Diablo 3?

A thought hit me this morning. Remember how Torchlight 2 postponed their December 2011 release until sometime in "early 2012"? A similar thing happened with Diablo 3, although Blizzard never said they would release the game in 2011. They merely said they were working toward it but wouldn't guarantee it.

Well, the guys at Torchlight are treading on very thin ice. There's a lot of overlap between the two games, notwithstanding their differences, because Torchlight is basically a clone of Diablo. It would certainly be beneficial if Torchlight 2 were released well in advance of Diablo 3. If it gets released in the same month as D3, sales might suffer.

My theory (make that a hypothesis since it's not tested) is that gaming industry insiders are privy to a lot more information than us lowly peons. I'm sure that the people behind Torchlight have a much better understanding of Diablo 3's release date. Hell, they might know exactly when it's going to be released. Not only are they insiders, but many from the team have actually worked for Blizzard and they most certainly have contacts inside the company.

So what if in December, the Torchlight guys took a look at the game, saw it was still buggy/unfinished/whatever and decided against releasing a half-assed game, aided by the fact that they were safe from Diablo 3 for a while. My opinion is that they need to put out Torchlight 2 at least a month before Diablo 3 is released, or else a lot of people will skip on this game, me included. After all, who's gonna have time for another game once the awesomeness which is D3 hits, much less another Diablo clone?

In conclusion, I submit to you my hypothesis: Torchlight 2's release will herald Diablo 3. If Blizzard likes to announce games 2 months in advance, Torchlight's announcement should come pretty soon, if not in January, then certainly in February. If it doesn't come even then, we should be very worried. It probably means they know they are safe for a few more months but it also means our wait is prolonged.