Diablo 3 Coming After All?
by Dylan Duarte on June 24, 2008 at 5:12 am
Ever since a mysterious splash image showed up at Blizzard.com, rumors have run rampant over the possibility of another Diablo game. While some seem to think it’s nothing more than World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, the crew over at Diablofans.com have put together a damn good case for Diablo 3. Hit the jump.
Below is the first image that popped up on Blizzard.com:
After that, Kotaku posted this image on their blog:
There was a striking similarity, no doubt. However, on Monday night/Tuesday morning, the image changed to what you see at the top of the article. The ice began to crack. This is where things get crazy.
The folks over at Diablofans.com have put together a pretty solid case for why they think the ice will eventually shatter to reveal an announcement of the third game in the Diablo franchise.
For starters, one of the runes shown in the picture looks incredibly similar to the Hel Rune from Diablo 2, both of which are pictured below.
Also, after looking at the CSS file for the splash page, it’s revealed that yesterday’s page contained a .tundra and today’s contains a .cavern. In this order, they point towards one of the Diablo Acts’ locations.
Another piece of the puzzle is in some picture file names. If you dig through the CSS files, you’ll find an image from yesterday titled 04.jpg and one from today titled 15.jpg. The 4th and 15th letters of the alphabet are D and O, respectively. The theory is that all of the file names will give you the letters for DIABLO.
It’s a pretty solid theory and I think it’s enough for Diablo fans to start getting excited.
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on June 24, 2008 9:58 am
Isn’t Wrath of the Lich King supposed to add runes to World of Warcraft also? Maybe I’m making things up again.
Interesting though, I just wonder what Diablo III will be given what they’ve done with WoW.
on June 24, 2008 3:09 pm
Yes, WotLK will introduce runes with the Death Knight class. I can see Blizzard using the same rune symbols cross game, but they certainly make me think about Diablo and not WoW. Besides, the runes in WoW will be blood, frost, and unholy, not Hel. Then again, the whole ice thing in the first place kinda points towards the frozen north that will feature in WotLK, but I guess it could also just represent Blizzard (for obvious reasons). I’ll give these Diablo fans the kudos for maybe guessing correctly, but I think there’s a good chance it might just reveal WotLK’s release date.
on June 24, 2008 3:24 pm
Curious, I didn’t know what specific runes were coming to WoW.
Will be exciting to see what the news is.
on June 24, 2008 5:59 pm
I think the ice/WotLK connection is just a red herring, given how blatant and obvious it is.
on June 24, 2008 9:51 pm
The point, I think, is that it’s going to announce SOMETHING. Given Blizzard’s track record, I don’t think it really matters what it is — it’s most likely going to be good. Who knows, maybe it will be a new IP, or maybe it’s just throwing us off even more from thinking it’s StarCraft or The Lost Vikings.
Going again back to thinking it’s Diablo, maybe all the ice represents Blizzard North since that is the studio that developed Diablo, Diablo II, and Lord of Destruction. Eh? Eh?
on June 25, 2008 12:58 am
I know alot of people hate all these frequent Diablo 3 rumors and speculations…
I, for one, fucking love them. I am a huge fan of the Diablo franchise. Reading everyone have there guess and rumor and theories is an exciting build up to what I hope to be my dream sequel. And I have all along figured there would be another Diablo game just for the simple of fact of how big a title it is for Blizzard. To think that there will never be another game in the franchise in itself is idiotic. All of the other PC franchises already have titles announced; both Starcraft 2 and the WoW sequel. I have heard many things that make me believe a project is in fact in the works. I have read quotes from an orchestra director that they have been working on a soundtrack for Diablo 3; the same orchestra that did work for the preceding Diablo titles. Along with that, the diablo3.com domain has been bought by Blizzard nearly two months ago. Simple copyright issues could be the answer; but then why is the diablo2.com domain still independent?
Blizzard is feeding off of these rumors to effortlessly promote the game; hence the photo everyone has seen when you go to the Blizzard website. The picture is slowly cracking as you saw, day by day; which happens to lead up to a Blizzard announcement in Paris.
on September 12, 2008 11:19 am
Yea that rocks.. diablo 3 here i come