The Blizzard splash screen has been updated once again, and the possibility of it being a direct hint (which Blizzard isn't famous for) for Diablo 3 is growing faint.

Diablofans had this to say:

The new hidden image shown in the CSS file is now looking like a penguin. I merged the three images. The mystery image today was titled 23.jpg -- in the alphabet that corresponds to the letter "W". Now we were trailed off completely. The previous sequences were interpreted as a D, an I and an O from Diablo. A letter W wouldn't make sense with only three days left. Unless it meant World of Diablo Online, but two letters or three remain to be released probably. Could the numbers instead refer to Diablo runes? There is a mysterious rune combination in Diablo II patch 1.11 that has not been discovered.

Blizzard Vice President of Design, Rob Pardo, told Games Industry Biz this:

"So you want me to announce the game before our announcement?" he said. "No offense, but I think there's like 300 people here, and I'll be ripped apart by 8000 people there [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."

Little industry birds are running around chirping "It's not what everyone thinks it is", but to be honest, Blizzard could go anywhere with this and we'd all love it, because it's Blizzard! And even as we doubt the Diablo 3 announcement, VideoGaming24/7 has this:

Speaking under conditions of anonymity, a senior UK development source has claimed today that the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational game announcement Rob Pardo alluded to in Paris this morning is definitely Diablo III.

A second, highly-placed European source has also just told us that they are “sure” that Diablo III will be revealed on Saturday afternoon at the event.

If true, the internet will snap. Blizzard’s been teasing all week on the game and speculation, to say the least, is running hot.

Only 2 days to go until the WWI and the end of specualtion with the official announcement!!