Blizzard is still hard at work on the latest patch for Diablo II, which will bring the dungeon-crawling loot-fest up to version 1.13. Unfortunately, one of the features originally planned for the update has been dropped due to concerns that it could overload servers, and possibly even crash the game completely. A spokesman going by the name of 'Bashiok' explained Blizzard's dilemma:

"We've recently completed a revised version of the Diablo II 1.13 patch that removes the increased stash size. A larger stash will unfortunately no longer be a feature included in patch 1.13 due to the previously mentioned concerns. As higher priority work continues on Warcraft III we're hoping to complete our quality assurance tests for the 1.13 patch in the next few weeks. But as always, the types of issues that may appear and take higher priority are rarely foreseeable. We continue to plan a release based on our best intentions."

With Diablo III not due this side of 2011, the patch can't come soon enough.

More details at the Battle.net forums.