From Shacknews: Blizzard design VP Rob Pardo revealed that the company does intend to announce a new title at the event at this weekend's Blizzard Worldwide Invitiational in Paris, but declined to offer further details. "So you want me to announce the game before our announcement?" he told GamesIndustry. "No offense, but I think there's like 300 people here, and I'll be ripped apart by 8000 people [at the Invitational] if I pre-announce it—but it's going to be really exciting. I think everybody here will be really excited about the announcement." Moreover, Diablo fan website DiabloII.net reports that Blizzard's game announcement will be Diablo III, the long-awaited next title in Blizzard's hack-and-slash RPG series. The site claims to have confirmation of the forthcoming announcement from "inside sources," but does not specify whether the information came from within the company or an external source. Speculation flared this week over teaser images posted on the front page Blizzard's website, which many believed to contain possible connections to the anticipated hack-and-slash sequel. Other evidence pointing towards a Diablo III announcement includes the Diablo3.com domain, now empty after previously directing to a Diablo community website. The domain was acquired by Blizzard last month. Additionally, many speculate that the Worldwide Invitational's June 28 and 29 dates, which coincide with Diablo II's June 29, 2000 release date, lend further credence to rumors of a Diablo III announcement after the event. One way or the other, expect Blizzard to clear the air this weekend.
The ice has opened up pretty far now and it looks like there might be stars Maybe it is the icy prison that the walrus or what ever it is was trapped in and what is the new rune?
No one knows what the new rune is referred to, Zarash. Many people suspect the 3 Blizzard IP's, or the 3 Prime Evils of Diablo.
I see. Also, someone posted a "complete" picture on diabloii.net in one of the comments... it doesn't look faked either, but if it's a leak I have no idea how they got it. http://img70.imageshack.us/img70/1038/peng1frl5.jpg Some kind of weird purple penguin thing. I don't recognise it, but perhaps someone else might...
Oh my bad must have missed that. Anyway, I'm getting kinda excited. I re-installed D2 and started up a hammerdin.
Theres also one that has a diabo face with a horn from fan-art. However, looking at that penguin, some parts don't match up with the purple monster we've been givin. The fin for example.
I won WoW from playing in the first Ladder season when the synergy patch was released years ago for being one of the top 10 on USWEST to hit lvl99 xD - Rytrearca being the first on that realm.
I remember actually winning a copy of planetside for posting on some new gaming forum... which actually led me over to this community to begin with! And unfortunately for everyone jeb came with me so. i do apologize.
Indeed. New number is '08', which is also in the "Lost" sequence. The last one will be 42. New word is "Harbinger", which is a *complete* break from the place name thing - there was no Harbinger anything in Diablo 2. At least place names, but I don't recall any items either. So that means something else, although I'm not convinced the previous four words would have had no relation. Perhaps someone will come up with something - incidentally it is long enough for the "index" theory to still be reasonably valid, if overly complicated. Anyway, you were right KaNdeeKiD - the image was faked. This is now what we have: Looks like nothing we've ever seen before - those "tufts" weren't the ends of flippers, they were elbows. Ergo this isn't actually a penguin, even if it does look a lot like one. The hands look ... well, vaguely demonic really. Which may lend more credence to the Diablo 3 theory than the Lost Vikings one (that and the fact that the time for games of that genre may have long since passed, save on DS/PSP/mobile). New symbol means nothing to me. Looks like an eight-sided snowflake, but more than likely it's a clue to something, even though I can't say I know what yet. I'll think about it some, but chances are someone else will have an idea first.
Regarding the Harbinger part. In the Act3 cinematic for Diablo II. Mephisto says this "You are the harbinger of our return, Diablo". The symbol is an Viking Compass such as this one obviously meaning "the lost vikings". the 4th symbol is meant to be for rock n roll racing, something to do with planets? Then theres only one game left out of the picture. Someone pointed this out:http://www.blizzard.com/us/blizzclassic/screenshot.html?ssa=bt#1.14-16 meh. Regarding the penguin, there was actually two images for today. Heres the full LEGIT one. The Numbers and names: Tundra: 04 Harbinger: 08 Cavern: 15 Cold: 16 Icy: 23 EvilPenguin: 42
Though WoTlK has been announced. Theres been a rumour around that a pre-order access of WoTlK will give you 24+ hours access of the Death Knight(not content of Northrend) so theres not 500000000000000000000000000 death knights on Wotlk launch - The person who first posted this thread was deleted straight away by blizzard. Anyways, seeing as the Death Knight has a 'rune' system i've always thought about the possibility.
So, uh. Heh. The runes don't count to anything, they're just flicking through their previous universes, including some *really* old ones. There are things that point towards the Lost Vikings - including the "Lost" code sequence - but does that really mean anything? What I can say is Blizzard has done a fantastic job keeping things open-ended - the face behind the snow looks as much like a Protoss zealot as, say, Diablo - or even as some have mentioned the Lich King. Takes some effort to make art this pretty, cryptic, and still completely ambiguous. People are suggesting things like release dates for either Starcraft 2 or WotLK, Diablo 3 and even the Lost Vikings (although that wouldn't make so much sense from a market perspective...). Now this makes Blackthorne seem like a possibility too. Hah. I don't expect tomorrow's image will say anything for sure, either, save for the last "rune"/symbol. That'll have to wait for the WWI (which, I assume, opens after the image displays? Or do I have it the wrong way around...?)
If it's related to Diablo. Then I believe tomorrow's image may even be the gem/soulstone in Diablo's head.(to be the runic symbol or something) Or maybe blackthorne will pop up.