Blizzard opened BlizzCon 2026 with one of its biggest announcement dumps in years, confirming Diablo V for Spring 2029, bringing StarCraft back as an open-world shooter in 2030, and revealing Overwatch's new vampire-inspired healer, Doctrine. Oh, and that's before we even get to Warcraft, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and a Netflix deal. There's a lot here.
Wait, StarCraft Is Coming Back as a Shooter?
Yep. Blizzard confirmed that StarCraft returns in 2030 as an original open-world shooter, a big genre swerve for the beloved real-time strategy series. It's still a way off, but after years of quiet on the StarCraft front, we'll happily take it - it's about time.
What's the deal with Diablo V?
Diablo V is coming in Spring 2029, and it starts in a place the series has never taken us before: after the loss. Sanctuary has fallen, Diablo has won, and the game asks what we become when the world we knew is gone. That's a genuinely bold setup, and we're extremely curious to see where it goes.
Closer to now, Blizzard is marking 30 years of Diablo with a stacked Diablo IV update. Here's what's landing:
Diablo IV's Season of Hell's Legacy launches September 15, bringing back the Prime Evils, the Lord of Terror included
Deckard Cain returns, alongside Nightmare Rifts
Anniversary rewards and gear pulled from every era of the series
The Amazon joins as the next Diablo IV class in the first half of 2027, javelin in hand
Moophisto has returned to terrorize the unsuspecting
Who is Doctrine, Overwatch's new hero?
Overwatch turned 10 and immediately looked ahead. Season 5's new Support Hero is Doctrine, a life-draining, vampire-inspired healer who sends out bat-like drones. You can play him at BlizzCon right now, and from home for a limited time.
There's plenty more coming with Season 5:
Major reworks for Sombra and Roadhog
A new map, Watchpoint: Grimsvotn
The conclusion of The Reign of Talon, the first year-long story arc in Overwatch history
The next Overwatch Spotlight follows in February 2027 with the team's plans for the year
What's happening with Warcraft?
Blizzard is playing with time here - going backward and forward at once. We're at the midpoint of The Worldsoul Saga, and World of Warcraft's next major update, Eclipse (12.2), has Xal'atath closing in on Azeroth's Worldsoul. We also got a look at The Last Titan, the final chapter of the Saga, which brings more than two decades of Warcraft storytelling to a close - with more to come early next year.
The big surprise: for the first time in over 23 years, there's a new Warcraft III: Reforged story. The Forsaken Kingdom campaign takes you back to the fall of Lordaeron and its turn into the Undercity, and it ships with the 3.0 update, which brings a substantial graphics overhaul and a revamped World Editor. It's playable today, and since Warcraft III: Reforged is available with Xbox Game Pass, you only need to pick up the DLC to jump into the new campaign.
Then there's World of Warcraft: Forever, a third way to play alongside Modern and Classic, set in the Vanilla era. It includes:
Three new zones
Over 1,000 new quests
Nine new dungeons
Two new raids
The new Skyborne race
It launches November 4, 2026, with Beta starting September 17.
Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and a Netflix series
Hearthstone is getting an overhauled Journal that pulls every quest, achievement, and event into one place, tied together by the story of each expansion. The next expansion, Reign of the Black Empire, hits the Tavern October 20, taking Hearthstone to the earliest age of Azeroth, long before the Old Gods were imprisoned. Its new keyword, Assemble, merges two cards into a stronger one. Before that, on September 22, Battlegrounds adds a new minion type called Aberrations. Looking ahead, the Monk arrives in March 2027 as the game's first new playable class in six years.
Over in Heroes of the Storm, Xal'atath joins the Nexus on September 28, playable on the PTR starting September 14 - a treat for the players who never stopped.
Finally, an animated series set in the world of Diablo is in development with Netflix. Blizzard says there's more to share later.
Three Dates to Remember
If you only take three dates away from BlizzCon 2026, make them these:
Diablo IV's Season of Hell's Legacy launches September 15
World of Warcraft: Forever Beta opens September 17
World of Warcraft: Forever launches November 4
The BlizzCon livestream runs all weekend with deep dives, panels, and a halftime show. Which reveal has you most hyped - the post-apocalyptic Diablo V, the open-world StarCraft shooter, or Doctrine sinking his teeth into Overwatch? Let us know in the comments.
Leave a Comment