BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony: Starcraft Returns, Diablo V Announced, Warcraft news and more - XBOX Wire
Everything coming to Sanctuary is on the Diablo website. The full Warcraft rundown is on the Warcraft website. An animated series set in the world of Diablo is in development with Netflix.
I’ve been at Blizzard a long time, and I’ve got a bunch of BlizzCons under my belt. Do you know how hard all these announcements were to hold in as we prepared for BlizzCon 2026? I can’t even believe this is real, man, like…okay, sorry, I’m locked in. Whether you’re watching it all unfold live or just catching up later, here is everything from the BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony and where to go next for each one.
StarCraft Is Back, and It Is Not What You Expect
From the farthest reaches of the stars, a new mission calls. StarCraft returns in 2030 as an original open-world shooter.
There is really only one thing to say to that, and we said it from the stage and the halls in Anaheim, California: it’s about damn time.
Diablo Turns 30, and Sanctuary Falls
Diablo V is coming in Spring 2029, and it opens somewhere the series has never let us stand: after the loss. Sanctuary has fallen. Diablo has won. The question the game asks is what we become when the world we knew is gone.
Closer to now, Diablo IV‘s Season of Hell’s Legacy lands September 15 (that’s this Tuesday!) to mark 30 years of Diablo. It brings back the Prime Evils, the Lord of Terror included, along with Deckard Cain, Nightmare Rifts, anniversary rewards, and gear pulled from every era of the series.
A little further out, the Amazon joins as the next Diablo IV class in the first half of 2027, javelin in hand. And if you are at the show or playing from home, Moophisto has returned to terrorize the unsuspecting. He is as udderly malevolent as you remember. Heh.
XBOX players can save 75% off Diablo IV and up to 30% on Diablo II: Resurrected content now through September 22nd. Everything coming to Sanctuary is on the Diablo website.
Overwatch Turns 10 and Immediately Looks Forward
Ten years of Overwatch, and the team spent its anniversary talking about what comes next. 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.
He arrives alongside major reworks for Sombra and Roadhog, plus a new map, Watchpoint: Grimsvotn. Season 5 also closes out The Reign of Talon, the first year-long story arc in Overwatch history, and it does not end quietly. The next Overwatch Spotlight follows in February 2027 with the team’s plans for the year.
Two things worth clearing your weekend for: YOASOBI plays BlizzCon’s first-ever halftime show during the Overwatch World Cup, and LE SSERAFIM returns to the Main Stage as the closing act, with a new in-game collaboration live now. Then there is QuestWatch, a live Overwatch tabletop RPG one-shot written by Matt Mercer and the Overwatch Narrative team. For those playing on XBOX while you’re streaming at home: play one match to earn a Mythic Voucher and choose an eligible Mythic Hero Skin!
More detail on all of it lives on the Overwatch website.
Warcraft Goes Backward and Forward at the Same Time
We are at the midpoint of The Worldsoul Saga. World of Warcraft‘s next major update, Eclipse (12.2), has Xal’atath closing in on Azeroth’s Worldsoul, and where that goes is up to us. 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 and sets up whatever comes after. More on that early next year.
Then a genuine surprise: for the first time in over 23 years, there is 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 is playable today. We dropped it like a Beyonce album. Warcraft III: Reforged is available with XBOX Game Pass, so you only need to pick up the DLC to jump into the new campaign
And then we went home. World of Warcraft: Forever is a third way to play alongside Modern and Classic, set in the Vanilla era, with room to explore corners of Azeroth we never got to see the first time: three new zones, over 1,000 new quests, nine new dungeons, two new raids, and the new Skyborne race. It launches November 4, 2026, with Beta starting September 17.
The full Warcraft rundown is on the Warcraft website.
Hearthstone Opens a Journal and Meets the Old Gods
The overhauled Journal pulls every quest, achievement, and event into one place, tied together by the story of each expansion. It keeps a record of where you have been and grows as you keep playing.
Reign of the Black Empire hits the Tavern October 20 and takes 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, which is going to produce some combinations nobody planned for. Before that, on September 22, Battlegrounds adds a new minion type called Aberrations, grown out of Old God corruption and experimentation.
Looking further out, the Monk arrives in March 2027 as the game’s first new playable class in six years, fluid and adaptable in the way the class has always been.
Xal’atath joins Heroes of the Storm on September 28, playable on the PTR starting September 14. This one belongs to those of you who never stopped playing. There may even be another hero ahead? What year is this?
An animated series set in the world of Diablo is in development with Netflix. More on that later, and it is not the only thing taking shape.
The BlizzCon livestream runs all weekend with deep dives, panels, and a halftime show, and the full schedule is on the BlizzCon site so you can plan what you want to watch.
If you only take three dates with you: Diablo IV‘s Season of Hell’s Legacy launches on September 15, World of Warcraft: Forever Beta opens September 17, and Forever itself launches November 4. Dude, we’re so back.