Blizzard Splash Screen Update for June 27

by Justin McElroy on Jun 27th 2008 8:30AM

Do you like that headline creativity? The subtitle could be "God, whatever this thing is we wish it would pop its frakking head out of the ice already so we can all move on with our lives." Regardless, today we must soldier on, and bravely speculate about the hidden mysteries of Blizzard's splash page.

So, what's new today? Well, those eye slits from yesterday are most certainly eyes now, and there's a ridge of some sort between them. Our friends at WoW Insider seemed to be inclined to think it's Warcraft's Arthas, and honestly, they make a pretty compelling case. So, it looks like an answer may be close at hand, so it may be your last chance to speculate: Who's beneath the ice?

[Update: After the jump we have a picture that focuses on one of the runes, one that happens to bear a striking resemblance to the Protoss logo you can see here. Thanks Charlesgrand!]

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Tags: blizzard

Reader Comments (136)

I would enjoy a Warcraft IV.

I'm still banking on Diablo III. I don't know if it's been mentioned yet, but Sunday marks D2's eighth birthday. More than a happy coincidence, methinks.

If it was Diablo, why the hell would it be beneath ice? Wouldn't fire be more fitting?

Well, in Paradise Lost Satan is frozen in ice in the deepest circle of hell. I guess Belial or Azmodan could be chillin under the ice.

Before World of Warcraft was announced the splash was an outer space setting.. and D2 Expansion was set mostly in an icey terrain.. Blizzard likes to throw people off... of course they could be banking on the fact people know they like to throw em off and just be flat out showing us it has to do with Arthas but oh well only 1-2 days away from the TRUTH haha

By the way... the penguin is a picture drawn by the same guy who did their Diablo 2 art..

Warcraft IV: Orcs in Space.

@Jason
That would be too obvious.
What's opposite of Fire?
Ice.
Maybe in Diablo III, Diablo is still alive but frozen in ice, or maybe it represents a 'dormant' Diablo III release that when announced, 'turns into' fire.

speculation and anticipation! AGH!

Also just a note here, adding on to my previous post.
There are 5 symbols around the ice hole and 5 symbols representing the 5 'seals' used to unlock Diablo and 5 seals make the evil star thing :3

DIABLO III HERE WE COME

@Jason

Yeah, pretty much anywhere except on tv depicts hell as both fire and ice. Check out some Dante and/or Milton

Diablo III has just been announced.
look at blizzard.com

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I knew it couldn't be Diablo, a mate of mines uncle works at Blizzard, he himself said the chances of a Diablo 3 coming out are slim, they can't think of a way to possibly continue the game without making it mudane eg: Diablo mysteriously returns from the dead ¬_¬

And thanks to WOW, there can never be a Diablo MMORPG without being a direct clone of WOW. WOW is basically Diablo and the original Warcrafts rolled into one.

They're going to announce a release date for the WoW expansion, release date for SC3, development of Diablo 3, and and XBLA version on Lost Vikings.

You heard it here first, people.

Well my sister's friend's brother's father's uncle's mother's great grandfather's religious figure, who has close ties with Blizzard says that there will be a Diablo 3. So I'm quite frankly torn...

@Tykin

A release date for Starcraft 3 would be GIGANTIC news.

For you, maybe..

And 99.9% of Korea

There it is. The last nail in the coffin: Wrath of the Lich King. You can shut down your alarms now.. we can all officially lose interest:

http://www.playfuls.com/images/upload/news/wrath-of-the-lich-king.jpg

Its not the same helmet...

That's some pretty ugly photoshop.

Not the same helmet? What are you talking about. Go to the blizzard site and check out the Hi Res image. You can even see the cropping of the WotLK pic behind the ice.

http://www.geocities.com/coca_koehler/wotlkcomp.jpg

The lich kings helmet is made of flat "steel" this helmet has a more textured "organic" appearence. Also this helmet has an obvious "gap" in the ridge about the nose. The lich kings gap is no where near as pronounced. Also the lighting gives the impression of a flat shape while the lich king's helm has a beveled "diamond" shape to it...

*facepalm* okay.. whatever...

Let the Blizzard employees laugh at you for a while. Im sure they're getting a kick out of people like you.

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/977/notarthasua7.png

:\

THANK YOU Feoremar. I'm at work so can't be doing something like that right now...

Go to blizzard(dot)com. See the picture?
Go to WorldofWarcraft(dot)com. See the picture?

Now...
Go to Starcraft2(dot)com. See the picture?
Go to diablio2(dot)com. See the picture?

It is obviously WoW:WoTLK BS.

UltimateQ I did do that... Multiple times. The shaped and material of the "helmet" are too different to even be considered similar.. Aside from both being ridged... but the ridges are different... It isn't the Lich King I'm not ruling out that it isn't WOW related but it isn't the Lich King.

Each new splash had a new opened seal(rune wat ever you want to call it). With each new opened seal, the middle of the ice melts more and more revealing whats behind it. Look at the website now. All the seals are glowing and you can see eyes now. All 5 seals have been opened and every Diablo fan knows what happens after that.

the 5 seals unleash Diablo. Go to http://www.diablo.com and look closely

Hey koehler, what's that crow taste like? Does it feel good being arrogant, stupid, AND wrong? I guess the Blizz employees are gonna be laughing at you, huh?

Well, if it IS WoTLK, Blizz did a good job of getting buzz going around the website for nothing.

I personally hoped it was Diablo 3, Warcraft 4, or WoS with no monthly-fee lol

If this is anything but Diablo 3 then Blizzard can go to Hell. I could give two shits less about WOW, Warcraft, or Starcraft. Blizzard needs to get off their asses and release another Diablo already...

...Sorry man, but me and millions of Koreans want them to just get to work on SC2...and release it as soon as possible...

SC2 doesn't need any more hype than it already has. If this is for something that's not a surprise, i.e. WotLK or SC2 release date, people are going to pissed.

My bet is some kind of steam-like system for blizzard games.

well, Im an StarCraft fanboy, so Im hoping for Ghost or another spin-off....

Ben = 100% right.

All Hail the Unibrow!

Congrats Blizzard, you just lost respect from me.

Yea fuck you Blizzard. If you're going to have crazy mysterious shit at least back it up with something which we didn't know was coming.

if Im not wrong, they did the same with SC2, in which they released a teaser that hinted at all of their games and then announced that it was SC2

It might be a protoss.... but its probably some stupid wow expansion

Joystiq, don't play into Blizzard's hype machine. You know Blizzard is releasing these images in order to build viral internet publicity, don't help them.

Why not? Anything they release is (probably) going to be good anyways.

Boycott marketing! In any form!

I don't think it is WoTLK. It is similar but the proportions such as the bridge between the eyes is different.

If you compare the ridge in between the eyes, the one in the ice comes to a point at the bottom and the one on the Lich King's helm is flat.

My guess is that it is an Archon.

yup, I also have my bets on it being an StarCraft character

please be diablo 3

i'm hoping it is. With WotLK almost finished and Starcraft II coming this fall (supposedly) they might be announcing their next project.

The splash is most likely the Lich King in the center, but why are there runes from all their other games on the outside of it? And what's up with the penguin from hell?

We won't really know the truth until WWI starts on Saturday.

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Blizzard Splash Screen Update for June 27

Reader Comments (136)

Posted: Jun 27th 2008 8:35AM AwesomeTown said

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