I contacted PC Gamer the same day the rumor started circulating on our forum with a scan image of the latest PC Gamer, and got reply today, May 22, in the afternoon:

"Sorry to get your hopes up, but we can officially deny that Diablo is on our cover next month. We’re announcing something big and exciting and exclusive (actually, there are two big exciting exclusive announcements in this issue!), and we had to go a long way to get it, but it’s not from Blizzard." said Dan Stapleton (PC Gamer Magazine, Senior Associate Editor).

Original Story: Another fan-fueled Diablo Rumor Mill has propelled out in full swing after PC Gamer's July 2008 Edition wrapped up with the following text:

"NEXT MONTH
Have you ever had a secret that you're just dying to blurt out, but you can't for another month, and the stress of holding it in makes you want to do the pee-pee dance? That's what the PC Gamer staff is doing right now, because the August issue will be chock-full of exclusives, including a top-secret cover story so huge we had to go to [CENSORED] to get it. Just 30 days more ..."

Here are a few thoughts to ponder on this brainstorming puzzle PC Gamer unleashed:

- PC Gamer was probably among the Gaming press Magazines who visited Blizzard Entertainment early on May, a few weeks ago.

- If you remember, PC Gamer knew about the Starcraft II announcement last May 2007. Blizzard Entertainment made the announcement at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitationals (WWI) at Seoul, South Korea.

- PC Gamer can't talk about it for the next 30 days ... the 2008 Blizzard Worldwide Invitationals at Paris, France takes place on June 28-29.

- June 29 is the date Diablo II shipped on USA (2000) and the same date the expansion Lord of Destruction shipped on Europe a year later (2001).

- Notice how PC Gamer replaces a swearing with [CENSORED]?  Could this be a clue as to what the game they refer to?  Because CENSORED really sounds like HELL ... as in ... Diablo?

UPDATE (5-21): Shacknews got response from Blizzard Entertainment.

UPDATE (5-22 6am EST): I just approached one of my friendly journalist collegue contacts: Leord, from WorldofWar.net,  to ask if PCGamer journalists were seen at the Blizzard headquarters early May 2008.  The answer was: Twice. Cheers.

UPDATE (5-22 10am): Jeff Green is a well-recognized PC gaming editor-in-chief and journalist at 1UP.com -- Jeff Green's reaction to the PCGamer Mysterious Exclusive:

"As a former magazine editor, I'd say Diablo 3 makes sense. That's my guess. Blizzard has the big Paris event coming up with a big game announcement. We've already been assuming over here that PCG would have the cover for this---because, well, who else would at this point? So I was waiting to see a Coming Next Month from them written exactly like this. Gotta be D3." -- Source: Neogaf

Share your thoughts at the Diablofans.com Forums. (former Diablo3.com)

Thanks, dunhac82 and Super.Fresh