Spooncraft

So I’d like to weigh in on this. Here is an updated image of the Blizzard splash screen. The last time Blizzard did this was when an image (splash screen) was changing bit by bit before the World Wide Invitational last year in 2007, eventually it finished it’s little metamorphisis and revealed Starcraft 2!

But what could be going on now?

The sight of an ice-field obviously screams Wrath of the Lich King however with the game already released it could be a red herring to throw us off the trail. Here are a few bullet points.

• The idea of Diablo 3 coming out is pretty much one of those situations where Hell would have to freeze over before it happens. When the ice breaks you might see the Lord of Terror waiting. Maybe even Tyrael. Also it can be the Worldstone that is shattered at the end of the Story in Diablo 2’s expansion.
• The splash screens show what appear to be runes. The WWI is scheduled for June 28th - the eight year anniversary of Diablo II. There is also a press conference scheduled for after the announcement at the event. All strong indicators of the announcement of a new game, with strong suggestions that it will be Diablo III. Here is the image of the new splash screen with both runes highlighted. Each day so far has opened up a new rune.

• Going to http://www.Diablo.com redirects you to Blizzard.com and this splash screen.
• There is some major theorycrafting over at Diablofans and they make some damn good points about how the Sin War trilogy of novels based on Diablo’s universe could pave the way for enough lore to make a new game.
• The WWI Europe website revealed the WWI Shop showing the following image. That shows Arthas for WotLK, Kerrigan for Starcraft 2, and Diablo. All in new artwork that was originally created. Diablo’s a pretty big image obviously highlighted, for a game that’s older than Starcraft and has had zero work done for a very long time.

At the same time it could have nothing to do with Diablo and might be the cinematic trailer for Wrath of the Lich King, an official release date (which means that they are MUCH further down the development line than we know and all the Alpha information is false or outdated), or it could be an official Beta release date.

But you have to ask yourself, why all this hype and press confrence, announcements and all this just for a title that we already know about. You don’t pull these kinds of PR resources just to announce a release date or cinematic (especially when that date can change due to unforeseen problems in the future)