Blizzard has been teasing the gaming public with a series of images that show a melting icefield, about to reveal... something. It's all leading up to the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational event, being held in Paris next weekend (28th and 29th of June). So far attempts to decipher the meaning of the image series have been mostly speculation, ranging from unveiling of a whole new Blizzard IP, announcement of Wrath of the Lich King release date to... well, Diablo 3.

Blizzard's teaser, first four days

But the circumstantial evidence is mounting, and it looks like an announcement concerning Diablo 3 is imminent. It's all about manually trying out possible, but currently unreleased URLs...

Just like the rumored Wrath of the Lich King name was all but confirmed by the unusual "403 Forbidden" web error given by http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/wrath/ prior to the last Blizzcon, crafty players have noticed a curious fact about the Battle.Net forums - more specifically, the error given by the expected URL of the Diablo 3 forums that one would expect to find after an announcement.

If you try the URL "http://www.battle.net/forums/board.aspx?ForumName=d3-general", you get an error indicating that the forums are down. Try any other non-existing forum name, and you get redirected to the Battle.Net front page. Or in other words, there is a forum named "d3-general" in the system, but it's set to be inaccessible at this time.

So, it definitely looks like Blizzard might unveil Diablo 3 next weekend. Can't wait...

Update: Blizzard has quickly tweaked their forums few hours after publication of this story - the link mentioned is now also redirecting to the Battle.Net main page. Nice save, but too late... bring on Diablo 3.

Comments

	Hexus_Tech 2008-06-26 #1 Looks like leadup to WotLK to me.
	admiralFlameberg 2008-06-26 #2 I hope its Diablo3, because I dont remember them doing something like this for a Wow exp pack.
	murderweapon 2008-06-26 #3 There would be no point doing this for WoW expansion, its no secreet we all know its coming we all know it will be more of the same boring garbage and they have already said they are on schedule for the November release date. Those SOB's better not be talking out WoW expansion or so help me God I will............................ Talk dirty about them on the internet.
	murderweapon 2008-06-26 #4 Damn it go to www.blizzard.com it has a pair of glowing eyes now. It is going to be uber gay arthus or uber gay Protoss burn in help blizzard.
	Zildjian 2008-06-26 #5 Quote: Originally Posted by murderweapon Damn it go to www.blizzard.com it has a pair of glowing eyes now. It is going to be uber gay arthus or uber gay Protoss burn in help blizzard. Tassadar reborn? looks like protoss eyes...
	Jarnis 2008-06-26 #6 Heh, looks like Blizzard quickly made a change to the Battle.net forums - sometime in the past 4-5 hours the link mentioned in the story has changed to redirect to Battle.net frontpage as well. Gotcha... :D Now I'm almost 100% certain it's Diablo 3.
	Unregistered 2008-06-27 #7 I thought it looked like Protoss eyes too but with Starcraft 2 already announced and the circle of ice that just doesn't make sense.
	chr0n1c 2008-06-27 #8 When the heck is the new starcraft coming out?
	Jarnis 2008-06-27 #9 Note the runes around the ice. Nice pentagram... Also the "test image" of the stream from Blizzard Worldwide Invitational has three characters - one from WoW, one from Starcraft and one from Diablo. Why would they be promoting a seven year old game like that... "makes you wonder". http://eu.blizzard.com/wwi08/streams.xml
	Hexus_Tech 2008-06-27 #10 Maybe this is the NEW MMO they were supposed to be working on...
	zortoflaven 2008-06-27 #11 I read that years ago Blizzard said they would announce Diablo 3 "when hell froze over" so maybe this is a throw back to their comment.
	Jarnis 2008-06-27 #12 Quote: Originally Posted by Hexus_Tech Maybe this is the NEW MMO they were supposed to be working on... Actually my bet is that if it's Diablo 3, it will be a free-to-play "MMO" of sorts - something similar to Guild Wars, a hybrid with large online component (might be even online only). But we'll know tomorrow morning.