So there are some tantalizing new rumours out there about Diablo III being announced at Blizzard’s WWI in Europe this weekend.

Since others have already tackled this much quicker then I, I would suggest you check out SC2Pod. Pretty good job of explaining the Splash Screens, as well as the hidden images. They’ve also considered the image may not be landscape, but rather portrait, which is something I hadn’t considered myself until I saw it.

So what does this mean? A brief history of past game announcements from Blizzard have almost always accompanied cryptic splash screens. It seems that this time it’s even more complex, with hidden images, and even a numeric code. The last time they did something like this was for World of Warcraft!

Because it is highly unlikely that this is related to Wrath of the Lich King, WoW’s expansion, we can assume this is related to whatever the final team at Blizzard is working on. You may be tempted to say, “Hey wait though… WotLK takes place on an Icey continent… and this splash is Icy”, and you’re right! But many have thought this could indicate a “Hell has frozen over, Diablo III!” sort of announcement. Another take is that the Ice will break revealing each universe until WWI and Diablo.

The other clue this is related to Diablo is that some of the designs you can see in the splash screen match up with the Hel Rune, and another possibly with the Shael Rune!

Starcraft.org, ORG Network’s Starcraft site, is also covering this! What could it be?