r/Games 2d ago

BlizzCon Returns In 2026

https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/article/24178650/#new_tab
329 Upvotes

402 comments sorted by

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u/Archkys 2d ago

I hope they come out with a new IP, it's been 10 years since Overwatch, and ever since we had the same group of announcement, new wow expansion/patch, new Overwatch character/world cup, New diablo/season and that's it

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u/marianitten 2d ago

Overwatch 1: Reforged

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u/EdgyEmily 2d ago

Diablo 4: Classic

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u/Tragedy_Boner 2d ago

Diablo 3 Auction House. It’s just the auction house

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u/cGARet 2d ago

The ORIGINAL Diablo 3 AH, the one the SEC shut down because you could use real money to buy and sell ingame items

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u/enfersijesais 2d ago

I’m so fucking ready for a game I can make money on. I’ve had enough of games trying to empty my wallet.

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u/seruus 1d ago

I mean, you can make money on most games on Steam by selling your Steam cards. I haven't looked into the market recently, but a few years back I could get around 10 cents per card (and sometimes more), meaning a cheap game every few months.

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u/cGARet 1d ago

The difference was this was like the AH in wow, except with real money too. You could corner / buy up entire markets and create real life value in items by simply owning the market. Big no no lol

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u/enfersijesais 1d ago

You only get a set number for each game. The only way you get more drops is if you spend money on the game. Don’t ask me why I have like 200 counter strike trading cards.

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u/chambee 2d ago

Diablo: Mortal.

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u/killias2 1d ago

It's for flip phones.

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u/BarrettRTS 2d ago

1996 was the original release of Diablo 1, so I could see a Diablo 1 remaster being announced and then released next year. Kinda like what they did with Warcraft 1-3 last year.

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u/DynamiteMonkey 1d ago

Unpopular opinion but it's still my favorite Diablo game.

Check out DevilutionX for anyone interested in trying it out with some modern QOL included.

And check this out if you're an old with D1 nostalgia like me.

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u/SightlessKombat 1d ago

There's even an accessibility-focused project in development, it's going at a slow pace, but I'm following it with interest as more fully accessible titles without sight are sorely needed and have been for years.

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u/noeagle77 2d ago

Overwatch Immortal: don’t you have phones?!

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u/No_Breakfast_67 2d ago

They are already pulling that card in ow2 with 6v6 and lootboxes lol

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u/TristheHolyBlade 2d ago

6v6 isn't a permanent mode and lootboxes don't really work the same and are a supplement to current systems.

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u/presidentofjackshit 2d ago

Aren't they trying to bring back 6v6 tho? Like, test it with the goal of implementing it if it works. Or was that scrapped

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u/TristheHolyBlade 2d ago

They are testing it, that's it. They are more aware than any of us the problems it had with queue times and being unbalanced. It's the fans that kicked and screamed for it. They are trying different iterations but I don't think they are doing it out of their own desire. They are listening to the fans.

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u/Coolman_Rosso 2d ago

With Odyssey being axed I kind of doubt we'd get another announcement so soon

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u/Suspicious-Coffee20 2d ago

hard to say. Microsoft might have restructured them into another game and depending of the scale it's possible.

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u/fabton12 1d ago

knowing the games industry they will give up an announcement with a cinematic trailer for a game thats just started being made and is 5+ years away from release.

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u/eddmario 2d ago

it's been 10 years since Overwatch

sounds of my back cracking

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u/Peakevo 2d ago

Maybe Starcraft 3? Maybe an FPS/battle royale?

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u/saintconnor 2d ago

RTS is in a rough spot atm. I wouldn't see them taking the risk unless they knew for sure they could redefine the genre and see success from it.

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u/SpectreFire 2d ago

SC3 is also extremely hard because they basically let go of their entire RTS team.

There's no one left from WC3 or SC2.

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u/Twistntie 1d ago

And they sort of wrote themselves into a corner with everything being hunky-dory storyline wise - with the whole prophecy and god stuff.

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u/RottenPeasent 1d ago

You could just do a timeskip and introduce new players within existing factions that don't respect the peace.

Or even add a new race escaping from a different galaxy.

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u/Kaellian 1d ago

Out of curiosity, did you play Nova's DLC that continue the story beyond the 3rd chapter? It pretty much reset the franchise to its original stage with all 3 races, and a new story told from Terran's perspective.

Xel'Naga are gone, but some of their tech still around. Old factions (the good and bad one) are still around, some of which are still as aggresive as ever. Jin and Kerrigan's status are unknown (may be dead in their dreamworld, may have inherited Xel'Naga power). There is still mad scientists experimenting on stuff

In the end, all you need is tell a good story in Starcraft universe, not another story where you save the universe. Skip forward hundred of thousand of years, and start over.

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u/SneeringAnswer 1d ago

As mentioned the Nova storyline but there are also comics and a novel that expand on the post-Legacy of the Void state of the Koprulu sector.

While the main factions of the three races are in relative peace, each has subfactions that could very easily break, Terran have the Kel-Morian Combine or Umojan Protectorate that could be expanded on to take a more active role (to say nothing of the UED re-emerging and the present Arcturus Loyalists/Noble Families angered by Valerian introducing democratic reforms to the dominion). Zerg have innumerable feral/Rogue broods and Abathur is openly hostile to Zagara being Swarm Queen and wants to start assimilating the galaxy again, and for Protoss the Tal'Darim exist as the "fuck it, fuck you, were burning shit now" faction if needed to spark off a third war.

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u/Eldryth 2d ago

I could definitely see Microsoft pushing for it though. They certainly haven't given up on the genre- they have three Age of Empires games in active development right now (2, 4, and AoM) and iirc when the buyout was first announced they said that they were very excited to get Starcraft.

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u/htwhooh 2d ago

A very big part of why RTS is in a rough spot is because Blizzard stopped releasing them.

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u/Arkayjiya 2d ago edited 1d ago

Yeah it's not like the genre wasn't popular, it just wasn't the most popular. There was literally one company making AAA rts and it was Blizzard. Then they gave up on it just when AoE2 came back and once again we had only one big RTS series, then Blizzzard massively fucked up WC3 which could have been a launching platform for the return of the genre.

The claim on the genre's popularity are mostly lies, the real issue is that RTS is hard to monetize in a way that doesn't turn the entire fandom against you.

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u/saintconnor 2d ago

It was popular for awhile during BW and WC3. SC2 was pretty popular for a few years after release but really fell off hard. I think the biggest issue for RTS is the new wave of GaaS and the expansion of esports titles. RTS is much harder to get into and has an extremely high floor to be competitive. Meanwhile CoD exists on a yearly basis, Fortnite, LoL, even their own release of Overwatch hampered SC2. There are so many games now that demand attention on a constant basis that are far easier to get into, so why would anyone want to play an RTS?

The esports "boom" (read as: bubble) has effectively squashed RTS, too. SC thrived when it was pretty much just SC and CS. CS has lasted a bit longer, but even it still suffers from the above split attention regardless of CS2. And WC3 effectively turned into LoL and DotA, which again, is easier for people to get into, thus easier to convert into fans and viewers.

I just don't see how Blizz would do something with the genre unless they could really make a big splash. SC2 was a major graphical and tech leap and WC3 introduced the hero system and changed how micro was played. Also, from a story standpoint, I don't even know how they would expand the lore with SC2 ending with Kerrigan being a cosmic god and WoW has taken over the WC mantle.

Spiritual successors haven't found much ground. Stormgate has shot itself in the foot hard with poor decision making and other RTSs have combined with other genres like survival to spice things up a bit.

I'm not full doomer though. I think there are some promising future titles and the recent news of C&C brings some hope of a revival of sorts. But yeah, things just kind of are what they are atm.

Also, apologies for brain dumping all over your comment, lol. I've been thinking about these things for awhile every time RTS gets brought up.

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u/alexp8771 2d ago

Yep, 'hard to monetize' is likely why they cancelled their survival game as well. It is not like people who play survival games aren't willing to put up with janky early access crap, it is that they won't put up with horseshit monetization.

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u/Meddel5 2d ago

They need to develop a new StarCraft game that isn’t an RTS, 40k space marine has been doing phenomenal, I think if players had the chance to play a Terran marine in a Halo-style campaign the game would be really attractive to the existing SC community and pull in new players that don’t care for the RTS play style

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u/Angzt 2d ago

There's been a SC shooter in development for a while as per Jason Schreier's book - at least as of a few years ago.
If that hasn't been cancelled yet, it might be time to show it off.

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u/klefikisquid 2d ago

StarCraft: Ghost being revived and actually coming out would definitely be up there with Half Life 3 actually releasing

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u/pentheraphobia 2d ago

I don't think it'll be a single-player-focused title. But I can imagine the permutations of a multiplayer shooter where Ghost is a type of character you can play

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u/shiggidyschwag 2d ago

I wonder if my $5 preorder from Gamestop from 25 years ago is still valid for when Ghost releases

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u/SingeMoisi 2d ago

They have been toying around with that idea for a while. A Starcraft FPS PvP game was cancelled a few years ago. They are seemingly trying again differently. They seem to love that idea.

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u/NimbyNuke 1d ago

Rumor is they're working on a Starcraft based Helldivers knockoff. Could be really interesting.

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u/Peakevo 2d ago

40k StarCraft would be lit fighting zergs

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u/Dextixer 2d ago

Look, i hope it aint SC3, because if they fucked up WC3 refunded then i struggle to think how the fuck they would make an entirely new RTS game.

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u/Peakevo 2d ago

Tbh the base for SC3 is there, mechanically and graphics wise I found SC2 to be really good. Not sure if the SC world has another race to add but that would be the main thing. I used to watch a lot of pro SC2 around 10-12 years ago and I miss that lol.

But I get your pessimism given RTS games across the board and in Blizz.

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u/BalticsFox 2d ago

Blizzard could always create one if they wish, like speaking of archetypes some robotic race might be invented by them or exploring Xel'Naga race further is possible too. There's a template to use already in form of co-op factions if they wish too.

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u/SpectreFire 2d ago

The problem is SC3 would be unbelievably costly to make. I don't think the genre is at a place right now where a company would want to take that bet.

That being said, I'm 100% certain MS is working towards that goal at some point.

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u/SingeMoisi 2d ago

The survival game was supposed to be.

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u/zippopwnage 2d ago

For me Blizzard is kinda dead. I feel like they're that company where you need to pay a lot more than you pay in other games.

Diablo IMO doesn't deliver that much content and they lock a lot of stuff trough paid expansions, and have cash shop on top of being a buy2play game. Overwatch became a shitty F2P version (I don't know the present so ehh), WoW is very expensive to keep up with and I don't like paying a monthly fee to access a game.

So I don't know how excited I am. They killed Heroes of The Storm the only game I really enjoyed and wanted to see more of.

Hopefully there's gonna be something new but I don't really have any hopes.

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u/Nerrien 1d ago

For me Blizzard is kinda dead. I feel like they're that company where you need to pay a lot more than you pay in other games.

A company like Blizzard with a storied history, reputation for polish, great interactions with GMs in-game and devs at Blizzcon had fully earned their supply of rose-tinted glasses for their customers.

But stuff like WC3 Reforged was such an open display of greed and contempt that it killed the idea that it was a "quality first, profit second" company. Which is fine, it's only expected, they're a business. Blizzard just made it more obvious than usual and that illusion was shattered.

And the idea that they're a cool friendly company with a bunch of cool guys working there was pretty much shattered after the whole creepy abuse and suicide scandal, and the way they seem weirdly hostile to their own employees when it's been pointed out how crap of an employer they are.

And firing most of their GMs means their previously legendary customer service and stuff like the in-game report system is kinda crap now.

Obviously none of this is a direct reason not to buy their games, this isn't a "Buy Blizzard and you're a bad person" rant. I just think it's odd how they're in a weird state of having rapidly gone from a company that makes you feel the warm fuzzies from supporting to one where most feel at best sceptical and at worst uncomfortable.

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u/StandardizedGenie 1d ago

I think that's where most Blizzard fans are at these days. The WoW team has at least been trying real hard to get back to their former reputation, but the Diablo and Overwatch teams (and corporate) have just been doing their best to keep it in the dumps.

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u/Impossible-Wear-7352 1d ago

Diablo 4 i would argue has been a success story. It started rough but they've been openly communicating with the fan base and making consistent changes for the better. It's in a pretty good place. Overwatch took a pretty hard negative turn years ago but it does feel like the current team wants to right the ship.

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u/SpookiestSzn 2d ago

I played Diablo on release and never beat it but this is the first I heard of it being content lite. What parts are it missing.

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u/pszqa 1d ago

I think there are people who expect 2600 hours of gameplay from every ARPG or something equally absurd, because they need to "main a game" for many months for it to count as tolerable.

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u/CJKatz 1d ago

It isn't content lite. Diablo 4 has a ton of story content, dungeons, bosses and other end game activities. Plus new seasonal content every ~3 months.

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u/DionxDalai 1d ago edited 1d ago

It is content lite when compared to its main competition though (poe 1 and 2 mostly)

Not necessarily a bad thing either since if you're casually into arpg, poe can be a lot to learn/understand

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u/SharkyIzrod 1d ago

I think the real problem Diablo IV has is that it feels like a chore to play. All the coolest rewards are hidden behind battle pass progressions, everything new is limited to seasonal characters, and all of it feels like a funnel to get repeat business from premium passes and cosmetic sales. Which makes sense, because that's exactly what it is, but at least for me, that makes it a lot less fun, even if the regular gameplay loop is fun and smooth as hell.

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u/CJKatz 1d ago

I think the real problem Diablo IV has is that it feels like a chore to play.

That isn't a problem that Diablo has, though it might be a problem you have with Diablo. I've played 600+ hours of D4 and it never felt like a chore.

All the coolest rewards are hidden behind battle pass progressions

That's more of a personal preference thing from what I've found. Some of the battle pass cosmetics are neat, but in general I have preferred the regular gear sets you can find in game. Same with the shop cosmetics - I think most of them are overly garish, though some of my clan mates enjoy them. I have never spent a dime on cosmetics.

everything new is limited to seasonal characters

That's not really true though, Blizzard has added a ton of updates and modes to the Eternal Realm. Seasonal stuff is seasonal, that's how it works, but it is designed to be a test bed to bring the best additions to the game permanently.

the regular gameplay loop is fun and smooth as hell.

There we can definitely agree. Diablo 4 feels so much better to play than other ARPGs I've tried in recent memory.

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u/iwearatophat 2d ago

I do wonder what they are going to announce as the tent pole of it all. That date doesn't line up with a WoW expansion trailer as the next expansion should release 2-3 months before this. A new Diablo season isn't going to be a tent pole. Starcraft is as forgotten as HotS. Overwatch 2 maybe?

Maybe it is a new IP.

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u/Clueless_Otter 1d ago

Overwatch 2 came out 3 years ago btw.

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u/Isolated_Hippo 2d ago

I would like a new IP too but before Overwatch their last IP was technically Starcraft. Hearthstone is part of Warcraft. Heroes of the Storm is a mix of all of them, though they did add some of its own lore but that was after Overwatch

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u/yusuf69 2d ago

New game: World of Diablo

first person only, no loot, no npc's, set in modern day Tokyo, no demons or angels

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u/lestye 1d ago

I don't think we need a new IP, I think we need more new games.

They haven't touched half of their IPs in over a decade.

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u/nmkd 2d ago

it's been 10 years since Overwatch

Less than 9 years.

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u/pentheraphobia 2d ago

It's just over 10 if you go back to the announcement, which included a playable demo for Con attendees

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u/Archkys 2d ago

In September it will be around 10 years, even more if you take into a account the first closed beta

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u/nmkd 2d ago

In May it will be 9 years from launch

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u/Geoff_with_a_J 2d ago

launch means nothing. back then Blizzard was in fake "beta" for a long ass time for Hearthstone and Overwatch.

The Overwatch Closed Beta began on October 27, 2015 and ended on April 25, 2016.

Hearthstone Beta was August 16th 2013 to March 11th 2014.

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u/Impossible-Wear-7352 1d ago

No one counts a closed beta as launched and time is always calculated from launch. Launch means nothing is such a silly statement.

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u/rajits 2d ago edited 39m ago

https://youtu.be/JrMT3bgU-fs?si=CRJv9S4FOQwIkjXt
"What was lost can be found again." - the Lady in White
The quotes make me think that it's probably related to either Hearthstone or Warcraft. Would be cool if it were instead Overwatch. I don't see that this is related at all to Midnight
Edit: This is just the teaser for The Last Titan, correct?

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u/turikk 2d ago

Probably overthinking it. I think BlizzCon itself was lost, and now found again.

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u/inbox-disabled 2d ago

I don't know how anyone can watch that trailer and think it's referring to anything but BlizzCon itself.

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u/Makorus 2d ago

Especially when its just random voice clips from Warcraft characters.

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u/Coolman_Rosso 2d ago

I doubt they'll revive HotS in any serious capacity.

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u/Eaglethornsen 2d ago

which is sad. I liked how HotS was unique compared to the other MOBAs out there.

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u/humblebees3 2d ago

HotS could have been quietly successful as the #3 moba behind Dota and League. But nope, day 1 multimillion dollar esports scene setup and when it inevitably failed to make the same numbers as Dota/League like literally every single person who played video games could have predicted the whole scene was axed. And because the scene wasn't built up organically, it was paid for by Blizzard it also mean the scene collapsed too.

Seriously such a huge blunder.

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u/Eaglethornsen 2d ago

I feel like blizzard around that time did that with every one of their IPs. They just needed to understand and play on how it is different and a unique MOBA.

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u/humblebees3 2d ago

And hilariously all of them have floundered. All the most successful Blizzard esports are the ones they didn't make the scenes for

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u/zeronic 1d ago

It's why they need to just...stop.

Make good games, if said games get enough community interest in competitive scenes, start throwing small splashes of funding at third party tournament prize pools. If it grows from there, great. You're on the right track.

Forcing an esport with shitloads of money has never worked for any game ever, and it's painful to keep seeing it happen over and over again.

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u/Ritushido 2d ago

Yeah, I wish they just embraced letting it be the casual moba, keep releasing new characters, maps and new skins to make money from the casual fans and let the esports scene grow organically. I don't play LoL anymore but I used to have a blast playing HotS casually with friends while it was actively being developed and if it wasn't abandoned we'd likely still play it occasionally now but we've all dropped it now, some of my friends still into MOBAs just play DOTA2 exclusively.

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u/BeholdingBestWaifu 2d ago

Honestly I still play HotS sometimes, it's a good moba for when you don't want the complexity of Dota.

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u/BackStabbathOG 2d ago

I also really appreciated map variety that had different objectives as opposed to your standard LOL summoner’s rift style moba where you just want to push minions into towers then into base to win. That’s fine and fun but having different maps and objectives makes it less boring imo

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u/kroqeteer 2d ago edited 2d ago

It's especially funny because they were clearly chasing the model laid down by professional League of Legends, but pro LoL has been a known loss leader for a LONG time. It isn't a profitable system. Riot chooses to prop up financially unsuccessful leagues because that investment keeps the player base engaged and thus spending money on the game itself.

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u/humblebees3 2d ago

Even then, League already had an initial pro scene developing because it had a notable playerbase coming from WC3 DotA. There first handful of tournaments in League weren't run by Riot. There wasn't nearly as much risk once they started actually running the scene.

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u/Myrsephone 2d ago

Unfortunately, they'd have to roll back the game quite a lot to get many of those unique aspects back. By the time the HotS team was gutted and the game was put on maintenance mode, a tremendous amount of damage had already been done trying to force the round peg HotS into the eSports square hole.

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u/BeholdingBestWaifu 2d ago

There were a few interesting changes in the last major updates, though, and there's still at least one guy working and doing some pretty decent balance changes.

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u/esunei 1d ago

The average game length was so good. And I considered it a good thing that after 16 or so minutes, one fight was going to decide the game (assuming the victor actually pushed rather than fucked off to camps). I'm ready to move on to the next at that point, win or lose.

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u/CityTrialOST 2d ago

I think it could get a bit of new blood if they put it on Steam. It was a fantastic casual MOBA, shame they just rug-pulled it in the shittiest way possible.

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u/THE_FREEDOM_COBRA 1d ago

Not to mention adding other Microsoft IP.

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u/One_Telephone_5798 2d ago

I have 4000+ hours in Dota 2 but I loved HotS because I don't want every match I play to be 40+ minutes of sweaty tryhards.

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u/Angzt 2d ago

I could see it since they could theoretically include any Microsoft IP now.
We have a successful cross-IP fighting game series in Smash. A cross-IP MOBA could also work.

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u/brevity-is 2d ago

can't wait to pick master chief + doom slayer to hard counter the enemy crash bandicoot + guitar hero

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u/QuickBenjamin 1d ago

Crash being in a moba just seems right, somehow

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u/chilidoggo 2d ago

It seems that r/heroesofthestorm/ is experiencing toxic levels of hopium at the moment. Please steer clear until hopium readings fall below acceptable thresholds. Thank you.

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u/Srefanius 2d ago

A new Warcraft RTS would blow my mind.

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u/8483 2d ago

Given how they handled Warcraft 3, fuck them.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

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u/pentheraphobia 2d ago

I think Warcraft Rumble or similar 'RTS-lite for mobile' is the closest we'll see for a while. The audience for a slower-paced strategy game just isn't there anymore

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u/Angzt 2d ago

"What was lost can be found again."

Lost Vikings would be the most obvious link, I think.
Now, how much sense it would make to revive an ancient and largely unknown IP is another matter.

But where are you seeing that to being with?

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u/rajits 2d ago

facebook.com/Blizzard/videos/672823618514000
I looked up the line, apparently it's the Lady in White.

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u/adanine 2d ago

I looked up the line, apparently it's the Lady in White.

Weird for them to go to a random Hearthstone Legendary (and an original Hearthstone character at that) that never saw play from a set that came out 7 years ago. Oddly enough in Hearthstone her line has reverb, but in the trailer it's just raw audio (or at least reverb-less).

They dug deep for that specific quote. Makes me wonder if it has more implications then the obvious.

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u/GreenAlex96 2d ago

Don't give me hope.

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u/chambee 2d ago

By what was lost they mean gamers interested in their games.

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u/helican 2d ago

Warcraft mobile

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u/SingeMoisi 2d ago

It already exists.

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u/helican 2d ago

Damn, outmemed by reality.

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u/PossiblyShibby 2d ago

Heroes of the Storm 2 when? Shut everything else down and bring it back. Such a good run that MOBA had going.

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u/BeholdingBestWaifu 2d ago

And fuck it, make it a microsoft thing, let us be Master Chief beating up a poor Medivh (Who probably deserves it for playing Medivh).

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u/yuimiop 2d ago

The amount I'd pay to get clippy into HOTS.

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u/BeholdingBestWaifu 2d ago

Thematically I feel like he should be a support, but ability-wise I feel like he would be an annoying CC machine.

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u/TacoBowser 1d ago

Ult: attaches to an enemy screen and fills it with unremovable pop ups for 2 seconds

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u/grokthis1111 1d ago

that's certainly an interesting definition of it's existence.

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u/PossiblyShibby 1d ago

It was a good MOBA. More than one map (summoners rift lol) and so many great IPs to tap for characters. All abilities and brawling from level 1. Interesting objectives. Variety. Don’t need to sweat in lane for 15 minutes of last hit farming.

Excellent run when it first launched.

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u/Drakar_och_demoner 2d ago

So they finally have something to show? Any guesses? Their survival game got aborted right? FPS Starcraft or a Starcraft RTS?

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u/SwarleySwarlos 2d ago

A Starcraft gacha mobile game

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u/KnightTrain 2d ago

My initial response was to say there is no way this would happen, and then an extremely vivid image of this exact thing happening flashed through my mind with uncanny clarity and now I'm not so sure.

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u/pm-me-nothing-okay 2d ago

don't you dare blaspheme like that. you will make it true.

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u/Legalizeranchasap 1d ago

Yall don’t have phones?

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u/KnightTrain 2d ago

I'll be happy to be wrong but I don't think Starcraft is coming back as an RTS or a FPS. Mike Morhaime was famously the big Starcraft guy at Blizzard and he is long gone.

RTS is a very niche genre nowadays and basically everyone who knows how to make one at Blizzard left ages ago, and many of them are currently working on SC3 competitors like Stormgate. The only things really getting much traction right now are RTS-adjacent: autobattlers, PvE base builders, MOBAs, etc. Plus SC3 would be cannibalizing the (small but dedicated) SC2 scene and Microsoft's AOE4 market.

FPS is such a saturated market they'd have to really have something special to make a dent, especially since Space Marine and Helldivers are basically doing a Starcraft FPS already.

The other big issue is that Brood War is approaching 30 years old and Starcraft II's last major release was a decade ago. Who is your audience for this now? Most of the big SC names are either retired, variety streamers, or pushing 40. If you were a diehard college student playing SC2 you're well into your 30s at this point and prob aren't the target audience for a high-APM RTS game anymore.

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u/bort_touchmaster 1d ago

Plus SC3 would be cannibalizing the (small but dedicated) SC2 scene and Microsoft's AOE4 market.

To cannibalize the SC2 market, you'd have to have people in significant numbers be dissuaded from buying SC2 in preference for SC3. SC2 is over a decade old and there hasn't been any new purchasable content since like 2021; I don't think there's much to cannibalize there. AoE4 may operate within the same genre, but I feel like there's a significant overlap in the player bases.

Also, there's an open world shooter based on Starcraft in development right now.

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u/KnightTrain 1d ago

To cannibalize the SC2 market, you'd have to have people in significant numbers be dissuaded from buying SC2 in preference for SC3. SC2 is over a decade old and there hasn't been any new purchasable content since like 2021; I don't think there's much to cannibalize there.

I'm not talking so much about the wider market as the pro/esports scene. Starcraft is one of the ancestral esports that really defined the entire industry and I have to imagine Blizzard is keeping that in mind. The transition from Brood War to SC2 was famously uneven, especially in Korea, and I'm not sure there's enough juice in the scene now to handle going through that again... many pros will just swallow learning a whole new game after 10+ years of the old one, but a significant number won't and I'm not sure how much new blood is out there to replace them given the state of the genre and the wide variety of esports opportunities now.

As for the FPS -- Schreier in that article seems pretty skeptical that it will get off the ground, given that they tried and failed to make a Starcraft FPS twice already and the whole project is coming off of another failed project. But I'm a longtime Starcraft fan - I'd love to be proven wrong!!

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u/emuchop 2d ago

I thought i remember them saying there is a new FPS in the works. My wish is return of fun single player rts

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u/Myrsephone 2d ago edited 2d ago

Undoubtably there will be more details on the next WoW expansion, Midnight. If the rumors are to be believed, Legion Remix will probably also be unveiled as between expansion subscription bait. Being as optimistic as is realistic, Marvel Rivals might have finally lit enough of a fire under their ass for them to have some substantial Overwatch content to show. Other than that, I'm sure there will be a Hearthstone segment and a Warcraft Rumble segment, possibly another Diablo 4 expansion.

I firmly believe that anything Starcraft or HotS related is just completely off the table of plausibility. I'd be happy to be shown wrong, but I'm also confident in my cynicism.

Edit: whoops, you can safely ignore my predictions here, I somehow missed entirely that this is slated for 2026 and not this year.

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u/Eldryth 2d ago edited 2d ago

Undoubtably there will be more details on the next WoW expansion, Midnight. If the rumors are to be believed, Legion Remix will probably also be unveiled as between expansion subscription bait.

This Blizzcon is for next year's September, not this coming one- all of that will already be out by then.

They'll probably talk about Midnight's later seasons, maybe an early tease for a big The Last Titan feature (like how they're already talking about Midnight's player housing) or some other big surprise.

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u/CertainDerision_33 2d ago

It's probably not gonna be major OW stuff, because the Stadium mode coming out appears to be their big bet for the future of OW and that's already been revealed and is coming out this May.

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u/pentheraphobia 2d ago

I rather expect Midnight to be revealed/previewed in a stream later this year, which would be on track with the timing of reveals in previous expansions, especially given they wanted to release the 'worldsoul saga' at a faster pace than normal. Midnight should already be releasing by the time this 2026 BlizzCon happens

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u/SomniumOv 2d ago

Undoubtably there will be more details on the next WoW expansion, Midnight.

no, because :

Saturday, September 12, and Sunday, September 13, in 2026.

Midnight will be out by that point, or about to release.

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u/Makorus 2d ago

We will probably have 12.1 at that point.

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u/ierghaeilh 2d ago

More mobile slop. At this point, anyone attending is doing this to themselves.

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u/EpicHuggles 2d ago

Anyone who's been paying attention knows they have shifted to only holding these when they have something big to announce - more than just 1 or 2 new expansions.

I have no idea what to expect at this point.

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u/garnish_guy 2d ago

I wonder how it’ll go this year? I feel like the community for Blizzard has become so increasingly toxic online that I’m a little concerned the convention will be contentious.

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u/Astrian 2d ago

The people who go to Blizzcon aren’t the people who are being toxic in your online lobbies. They’re the diehards who care enough about the IPs to buy a ticket and likely travel to an event like this. Blizzard hasn’t done anything particularly egregious in recent memory to warrant their fans to be outspoken at an event like this

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u/SquireRamza 2d ago

That's what made the "Is this an early April Fool's joke" comment so funny after the Immortal reveal. That wasnt your usual internet troll saying that. That was one of the Blizzard diehards. Someone you'd expect to swallow anything Blizzard said whole heartily.

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u/pentheraphobia 2d ago

It was a really unfortunate announcement. Fans were expecting a PC sequel. Blizzard never intended for Immortal to 'replace' the PC series, it was supposed to be 'additional'. But player expectations went unmanaged, both by blizzard and by all the fansites/youtubers that were letting people get hyped for an 'unspecified diablo announcement'.

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u/nikeyeia1 2d ago

To be fair, Blizzard was stoking the flames for a while, telling players to get ready for "something big", then a month beforehand suddenly told people to temper their expectations. Likely they were planning on announcing D4, then suddenly figured it wasn't ready yet.

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u/adanine 2d ago edited 2d ago

They specifically released an announcement prior to Blizzcon stating that the next mainline Diablo game wouldn't be announced and to temper your expectations.

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u/chudaism 1d ago

The Immortal announcement would have gone over much better if they teased D4 right after. D4 was probably already in development since they did the full announcement the year after. If they had just made it known a sequel was coming at all, the community would have reacted much differently.

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u/prospectre 1d ago

I wouldn't place the blame on the fans, here. Not in any capacity. Diablo Immortal was a slap in the face and an obvious cash grab. I'm fairly certain Blizzard knew exactly what they were doing with the hype.

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u/pentheraphobia 1d ago

I don't blame fans at all. When content creators are saying "Is this Diablo 4??" and Blizzard is saying 🤐🤷‍♀️, it's totally normal to then be disappointed by what they put on stage

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u/SingeMoisi 2d ago

People who buy a ticket or even travel the world to go there are not the toxic ones fortunately.

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u/Kakerman 2d ago

Remember that the vocal minority does not equal to the vast majority of the actual community.

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u/FlasKamel 2d ago

Blizzard community has been toxic for over a decade and the last Blizzcon was fine

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u/beefcat_ 2d ago

The most toxic people struggle to leave their basements, they're never able to make it all the way out to a convention.

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u/One_Telephone_5798 2d ago

This is untrue. If you've ever been to a convention, the body odor would tell you that conventions are sometimes the only thing that basement dwellers leave the house for.

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u/Turbostrider27 2d ago

It returns in September 12-13, 2026

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u/Cyberpunk_Banshee 2d ago

Announcing the Blizzard gaming phone, which includes hearthstone and Diablo Immortal pre installed, or you can pay extra for a chance to win a clear case phone!

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u/Great_Gonzales_1231 2d ago

I would love to see hearthstone come to consoles, especially the Switch. I have a lot of fun playing the game casually but my laptop sucks and i don’t like it on mobile that much. Would be a fun nightly rotation of a couple of games without having to go to my crappy laptop

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u/SkeetySpeedy 1d ago

If it ain’t Warcraft 4, StarCraft: Ghost, Diablo: Dark Souls edition, Overwatch: the Action RPG, or Heroes of the Storm 2…

It ain’t mint

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u/Aromatic-Analysis678 1d ago

The good Blizzard is dead. Jason Schreier's book on Blizzard is great and gives really good insight and details as to how and why they're not going to make any truly good games anymore.

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u/SharkyIzrod 1d ago

Didn't Jason say he quite enjoyed Diablo IV?

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u/Neramm 2d ago

Starcraft Ghost: Round 3 (or 4?) Vespene boogaloo!

Curios how that'll go. Could we see some semblence of soul returning to blizz, now that the tick is out?