BlizzCon 2026: Diablo V, StarCraft shooter and WoW: Forever announced
Blizzard will make Diablo V, a new open-world StarCraft shooter and a third version of World of Warcraft after revealing all three at BlizzCon 2026 on Saturday, September 12.
The announcements led the opening ceremony at the Anaheim Convention Center. Blizzard president Johanna Faries addressed the audience in Hall D, where doors opened at 9:00 a.m. PDT for a 10:30 a.m. PDT start, according to Blizzard's event guide Blizzard. The convention runs September 12 and 13, with the ceremony and other major panels livestreamed on official channels.
Diablo V was the headline for role-playing fans. Blizzard gave no story details in the ceremony round-up, but dated the game for Spring 2029 Video Games Chronicle. The list was long. A second large project is a story-driven, open-world shooter set in StarCraft, the company's science-fiction strategy universe. It is scheduled for Spring 2030.
World of Warcraft: Forever was the most immediate news. Blizzard described it as a third World of Warcraft experience, sitting alongside Modern and Classic. It launches November 4, with a beta starting September 17. The release adds three new zones, more than 1,000 new quests, nine new dungeons, two new raids and a new playable Skyborne race.
For fans, this means three very different waits. One expansion is weeks away. Two entirely new games are years away.
Blizzard also looked beyond games. It is developing an animated series set in the world of Diablo with Netflix. No release date was given. The Diablo series is marking its 30th anniversary this year, while Overwatch is marking its 10th.
Older games had their turn too. Warcraft III Reforged, the rebuilt version of Blizzard's 2002 strategy game, received a new campaign called Forsaken Kingdom during the show. It is the first new storyline for the game in more than 23 years. A separate Warcraft III 3.0 update brings a graphics refresh and a revamped World Editor, the tools players use to build their own maps and modes.
The live games were not left out. Diablo IV: Season of Hell's Legacy, a timed update with fresh rewards and activities, begins September 15 with the return of the Prime Evils and Deckard Cain. Xal'atath joins Heroes of the Storm, Blizzard's team-based online battler, as its newest Hero. She arrives September 28 and enters the PTR, a public test version open before full release, on September 14. Overwatch gets a new Escort map, a mission type in which one team pushes a payload while the other tries to stop it, called Watchpoint: Grímsvötn and set in an Icelandic volcano prison.
Blizzard is selling BlizzCon tie-in items through September 28, 2026 on its Battle.net Shop. The shop sells the BlizzCon Ultimate Collection and individual Digital Bundles for each game. The Diablo IV BlizzCon Bundle is priced at US$29.99.
