In a possibly unrelated tweet, Bashiok has illuminated that he will be flying again over the weekend. He has not stated why or where, but it may be in relation to an announcement will supposedly drop next week, or at the very least, to attend CeBit in Germany.

Rumor has it that next week is big for the Diablo community. We have seen the recent introduction of Europe to the Diablo III Beta, the promise of a date “in the coming weeks,” regular media sites handing out keys willy-nilly, and the reduction of Blizzard’s workforce. While that promise may be as empty as the rest of their reassurances, it does indicate an imminent announcement.

@Bashiok – Oh good, Comic-Con registration opens while I’m on a plane. Terrific.

While this could indicate something special for next week, there is no guarantee. We’ve witnessed the hype machine roar to life… but keep in mind, the possible announcement is only a rumor. If anything else on this topic is revealed, I will be updating this article.

UPDATE: A few hours ago Jay Wilson also tweeted back to a person who asked to scale how close they were to announcing the release of Diablo 3 from 1 to 10.

On a scale of 1 to 10, (1=not even close, 10=imminent,) how close are we to that all important #D3 announcement? 🙂 Jay Wilson – 9

It’s a shame that we don’t have a real way to identify what a 9 actually means, but it may or may not indicate that a release date will drop next week. So… I guess there’s nothing really special to see here except that a release date should come in… say, March

Thanks for pointing this out Cpdoom and Arkentass.