Diablo V: Forging the Next Era at BlizzCon 2026 [LIVE BLOG]

Hello! We're waiting for the panel to begin.

We can expect to hear about gameplay and itemization for Diablo V in today's panel!

First, we are seeing the teaser again.

This is a world where Diablo has won; Sanctuary has been destroyed.

They wanted to think about what the next era looked like. Their goal is to make a game that players want to play. That playerbase has lots of different ways they like to play and Blizzard wants to make a Diablo game for all kinds of players.

They started looking at how players clustered together in their player groups. They want different parts of the game to be for different kinds of players. Looking at Diablo IV and seeing what worked and didn't work was a good baseline.

They decided to do a sequel instead of an expansion because they wanted to change the fundamentals of what the game of Diablo is. It's more difficult to make those major changes to an existing game. They also really wanted to bring back Diablo back.

They really wanted Diablo to be right there causing problems from the beginning. We've spent the past 30 years fighting back Diablo and demons in Sanctuary, it was time for him to win.

A different group of heroes came before us and failed to save Sanctuary. Oops.

They want to show us that Sanctuary used to be a better place after defeating Mephisto and that it is worth saving again after Diablo came and destroyed it.

Diablo has normally been a character that looms over the story and this time, he's a very central part of the story. For the first time they are exploring what Sanctuary is like when he takes over. Morally grey was a natural spot for them to think about with Diablo, but no, he is not misunderstood, he is a dark character and will continue to be.

Each character has a unique bond with Diablo and we'll find out throughout the game what that is. We each have a unique insight but also a vulnerability with Diablo.

We aren't the nephalem or the wanderer. We are instead the Heir of Westmarch.

The story they are trying to tell in Diablo V is every time you enter into the game, you shouldn't know what to expect. It has been 7 years since Diablo has conquered sanctuary and they are actively reshaping the land of Westmarch.

They are bringing back the procedural generation to the Diablo series in Diablo V.

All the towns are gone in Sanctuary, nowhere should feel safe.

The art team is having a lot of fun doubling down on darkness in Diablo V. They get to tell rich stories about the past by including older elements within the world.

You journey with a caravan during the game.

There are not a lot of survivors in the world after Diablo took it over. You will get to find characters to join your caravan, such as a blacksmith, rather than encountering them in towns like you would in previous games.

We get to befriend a treasure goblin named Zarg (name may not be final). We will get to learn more about him and his demonic sense. Can we trust him? We get to learn is backstory, how he has been surviving so far, and why he wants to destroy Diablo.

We get to befriend a treasure goblin named Zarg (name may not be final). We will get to learn more about him and his demonic sense. Can we trust him? We get to learn is backstory, how he has been surviving so far, and why he wants to destroy Diablo.

Don't expect to find quest givers around the world. Your caravan is where you are going to find all your side content. You chose to bring people into your caravan and the members of it have their own side quests making them feel a bit more personal since you're building relationships with them.

Class identity in Diablo is essential. Blizzard is announcing that the Demon Hunter will be joining the game alongside the Monk as two returning classes. The Plague Knight is the first new class that will be joining Diablo V. Heavily armored, you spread and consume disease.

Diablo V is going to launch with more classes than ever before.

Each class has multiple builds to explore and you can expect great mastery to learn from them all.

It is important to the team that they talk about itemization and show off some of the UI today. We see damage types, item tiers, item requirements. There are also multi-slot items in the inventory screen.

They have good solutions for item management for controller players. To be announced.

Item sets are coming back as well. They have incredible ideas to broaden the number of builds available.

Stat requirements on items are an experiment right now, they may not be final.

On the journey to shipping Diablo V they will be giving us regular updates talking about how it is going and what is working for them.

Overall a very short panel. A lot of the mentions were about things from the opening ceremony. Diablo V is clearly being kept very quiet right now with more updates to come during the development process through videos and blogs to communicate with players.

They do close out by saying they want to build the best Diablo game and that's only going to happen by listening to the feedback of players.

Hopefully they truly mean that. With Diablo IV we saw a lot of feedback during the beta that was never addressed until post-launch.