Anytime you have 16 million people around the world doing something, you can bet they're going to want to gather at some point to get a look at each other. And you can bet someone is going to try to make money on the gathering. Hence, cons in general and Blizzard's World Wide Invitational in specific. This year it's in Paris, and you'll be hearing about it this weekend.

Blizzard usually makes a big announcement at these events ("We don't need no steenkin' E3"), and this year doesn't seem to be any exception. They've been trickling out info, almost solely in the form of artwork such as the helpful image above. This is immediately subjected to Zapruder levels of scrutiny by fans (note, for instance, the rune below and slightly to the left of the hole in the ice). Based on this, I'd say you can pretty much bank of a Diablo 3 announcement, but don't let that stop you from considering these top ten rumors about what Blizzard is going to announce. You'll find them after the jump.

10) They've acquired the licenses to Warhammer and J.R.R. Tolkien's books
Because, let's face it, they've been using them all along.

9) They're acquired South Korea
Yep, the entire country. It's now theirs.

8) Warcraft Adventures
Now that adventures games are thriving – and by "thriving", I mean lots of people in Europe are churning them out – Blizzard is getting back into the genre by digging up remastering their cancelled Warcraft Adventures game.

7) Something on a console system
Blizzard is almost single-handedly responsible for the fact the whenever someone says "PC gaming is dead!", everyone laughs at him. But they can't be saving PC gaming forever.

6) Wrath of the Lich King release date
Because you can only say "when it's done" for so long. (Someone wake up 3D Realms and tell them this, please.)

5) Starcraft II release date
Oops. That one was kind of outed this week when three separate retailers listed December 3rd on their sites. Once again, Blizzard flips Black Friday the bird.

4) Prince Arthas will be a playable character in Soul Calibur IV
Or maybe the next Mortal Kombat.

3) World of Starcraft
Hold on, I just want to savor this one for a moment…mmmmm…

2) Warcraft 4
This one would be great if only because I can't fathom why so many people are still playing Warcraft 3. Just take the fancy Starcraft II engine, swap in orcs, human, and undead, and voila!

1) A new IP
Ha ha ha. Ooh, that's good. Hee hee hee. Man, that's a funny one. Oh, stop, you're making my stomach hurt. Still, this would be an awesome announcement just for how the entire Internet would be crestfallen for weeks.