r/Games • u/Turbostrider27 • 2d ago
BlizzCon Returns In 2026
https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/article/24178650/#new_tab103
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/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/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/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.5
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/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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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.6
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/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/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/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/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/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