You've probably already heard about this tweet by now. Blizzard_ANZ is apparently a completely legitimate official Blizzard tweet (from the Australia/NZ team.)

Now that I've had a chance to go over it some more in detail, here's what I think.

Starting from the first tweet:

Should have a nice update for everyone by the end of the week if all goes to plan...

They're referring to the Spike VGA.

So most people are on the right track as it is regarding Diablo3. More details to follow... :)

When he posted his first tweet, he was tweeted back: "Release date?", "Please be the release date", "Finally the D3 release date!", "Better be the release date", etc. And this second Tweet was a RESPONSE to those tweets. "D3 Release Date" was the vast majority (and I mean it's real definition, not the Zarhym definition of 'vast majority') of responses, plus that's what everyone has been speculating since the VGA announcement. (If by some small chance he was not responding to follow up tweets.)

Blizzard is basically CONFIRMING that the Diablo 3 release date will be announced this Saturday (in the US) at the VGA.

...On a semi related note ow.ly/7PIs0 is coming out on the 13th December. I now know what I want for Christmas :)

"On a related note, here's something ELSE being released and here is it's release date.."

None of the other trolling attempts I took very seriously. But this time, it's coming from an official Blizzard only-news-related source, rather than the "semi-official" Twitter pages of employees. It's just a little weird that it's coming from the AU/NZ team though. (Like it's something specific to their region.. better not be RMAH related.)

There's no other way of analyzing this; Blizzard has confirmed that the release date WILL be announced this Saturday (in the US). So, I'll actually be really pissed this time if it's not announced and it was one huge troll.

Some other readers also noted that information is more hastily being released now, in relation to this article. Maybe something happened that has allowed them to firm up a release date now? They were waiting on Korea, but Blizzard Korea just announced major delays in the RMAH approvals and government certification, which I predicted that if it would take too long (they can only push back so far), that they would eventually just say "screw it" and move forwards with implementation everywhere else. This timing seems impeccable. (They were waiting on feedback from the Korean government.)

Assuming the release date is announced this Saturday, what would be really awesome is if the release date is 02/23/2012 like what I originally mentioned. It's really the only prediction I have at the moment, since it times up well with an announcement this month, and also gives enough time in January for Digital Downloads to be made available. :)

Since there's been so much going on today, I'll be saving that other (larger) post for tomorrow. I'm still waiting for some more information about it anyways, but I wanted to get it out there because it's at a point where it can be published. But, if I receive any more details, I can continue developing the posts into others in the series.

tl;dr; It appears that Blizzard will be announcing the D3 release date this Saturday due to major setbacks within the Korean RMAH approval and implementation. February release date expected.

* UPDATE:

I was just thinking, that second tweet said "So most people are on the right track as it is regarding Diablo3."

This could mean, "people are on the right track about this Diablo announcement" (i.e. the release date.) Or he's being a complete smart-ass and just saying "people are right that this has something to do with Diablo 3".

What an asshole.. okay, I'm downgrading from "hopeful optimism" to "expecting disappointment" now. (Maybe they're going to wait a little longer to see if Korean approvals still come through. They still have until January, if they intend on releasing by March.)

* UPDATE:

Based on that "as it is regarding Diablo3" comment, and the "nice update for everyone by the end of the week", it's just not timed with the VGA and he's using trollspeak. So, I'm downgrading this completely to "just another troll attempt by Blizzard."

So..

That Blizzard Tweet is a Confirmation.. of more assholes trolling.

Do other companies, like Valve, do this to their customers.. or is it only Blizzard?

* UPDATE (12/8/11):

Yep, trolling assholes confirmed.

They're giving away 100 beta keys to Aus/NZ players (must follow them on Twitter to be eligible).

What bothers me the most about this is that they said "end of week" which isn't today, and when 99% of users tweeted back saying "Release Date?" he confirmed "So most people are on the right track" but then had to add "as it is regarding Diablo3." Teasing and trolling their customers for cheap laughs I guess.

I'm positive now the release date won't be announced on Saturday, plus everything going on with the Korean RMAH pretty much confirms it. We probably won't get a release date until January, or whenever they get a confirmation from the Korean GRB.