I am sure they didn't start developing Diablo 3 last year either
Sure, and has anyone seen the videos/screens from D3? It looks pretty much the same, just a better looking D2. Yeah it's 3D, but nothing to write home about. As far as graphics of upcoming '09 releases, Sacred 2 has more of the same look, but I guarantee it won't have half the depth of ED.
Agreed about the bugs, thirion. More time spent developing the game could mean more wrinkles ironed out, but with more features being added, it means more things that could go wrong.
But! With development for the Xbox going simultaneously, I don't think it will be an issue. Developers for titles that are exclusively for PC might rely on patches to fix game problems, but console owners don't have that option, so I would think the game will necessarily need to be 99.9% glitch free before release.
