BlizzCon returns with a StarCraft open-world shooter for 2030 and Diablo V for 2029

Blizzard used its first BlizzCon in nearly three years to announce two new flagship games that are years away. At the opening ceremony at the Anaheim Convention Center on Saturday, September 12, 2026, the company revealed a new StarCraft game, an open-world shooter targeting 2030, and Diablo V, slated for spring 2029, per Blizzard's own recap of the show and an Xbox Wire post published the same day. The ceremony also brought a new World of Warcraft variant called WoW: Forever, launching November 4, a new Warcraft III: Reforged campaign that went live the same day, and updates for Overwatch, Hearthstone, and Heroes of the Storm.

The headline takeaway isn't any single trailer. It's the calendar. Blizzard's two biggest reveals are roughly two and a half and three and a half years out, and neither came with platforms or prices. BlizzCon 2026 was less a launch event than a public statement of where Blizzard is placing its long-term bets.

StarCraft becomes a shooter

The biggest surprise was StarCraft's change of genre. Dan Hay, the former Far Cry executive producer, came on stage to introduce the project, which is simply titled StarCraft. According to Game Informer, Hay described a new team at Blizzard built to "re-ignite" the universe. As transcribed by TweakTown, he pitched it as "something new, an open-world shooter where every step is earned, not from above, but down in the mud, in the fire," one that honors the series' past "but with an opportunity to push beyond it."

What Blizzard showed was a cinematic, not gameplay. Per Game Informer, the trailer follows a Marine named Holt training for the Dominion, who gets overrun by a Zergling rush when he touches down on a planet, with what sounds like Mengsk shouting over the loudspeakers. Blizzard's recap lists the release window as spring 2030. Game Informer also flagged a practical wrinkle: with a plain "StarCraft" title, the shooter could easily be confused with the original real-time strategy game.

It will be the first new StarCraft release since StarCraft: Remastered in 2017, Insider Gaming noted. The franchise has been quiet as a product line, not as a game people play: Kotaku, citing the Korean newspaper Chosun, reported earlier this month that StarCraft still ranks among the ten most-played games in South Korean internet cafes.

Dan Hay's long road to this reveal

Hay's appearance on stage comes almost four years after he joined the company. Game Developer reported in December 2022 that Hay, who left Ubisoft after the release of Far Cry 6 in 2021, had joined Blizzard as general manager of an unannounced survival game for PC and console, set in a brand-new universe that Blizzard had first teased in January 2022. That game never shipped. In January 2024, Microsoft laid off 1,900 people across its gaming division, and the survival project was cancelled, with some of its developers moved to other early-stage projects, according to reporting at the time from Windows Central, TechRadar, and Dexerto. Blizzard president Mike Ybarra and co-founder Allen Adham also left the company then.

Blizzard hasn't publicly said how much of that survival team or its work carried over into StarCraft, so that shouldn't be assumed. What is clear is that Blizzard has handed one of its most dormant franchises to a producer whose résumé was built on large open-world games.

The Nexon question

The reveal also complicates a report from earlier this month. On September 2, Kotaku, citing Chosun via Wccftech, reported that Nexon, the publisher behind Arc Raiders, was working to secure a license to develop a new StarCraft game, with a senior industry source saying the contract was "close to being finalized." Neither company commented. Separate reporting summarized by Icy Veins has placed a StarCraft project inside Nexon's shooter division, with StarCraft modder Choi Jun-ho attached as a lead.

The game shown in Anaheim was presented as Blizzard's own project, built by Hay's team. Nothing in Blizzard's opening ceremony recap addressed Nexon, so whether a separately licensed StarCraft game exists, and what kind of game it would be, remains unconfirmed.

Diablo V starts after the apocalypse

Diablo V is the more conventional sequel, but its premise flips the series' usual setup. Per Blizzard's recap, "Sanctuary has fallen and Diablo has won, setting the stage for a brutal new chapter." Game Informer describes it as depicting "an already-fallen Sanctuary where the Lord of Terror, Diablo, has won," and its recap quotes the pitch that "there are no towns or safe havens left." A teaser trailer debuted during the ceremony, and Blizzard scheduled a dedicated panel, "Diablo V: Forging the Next Era," for later in the show.

Diablo IV isn't being left behind in the meantime. Blizzard said its Season of Hell's Legacy starts September 15, the same day Diablo IV arrives on Nintendo Switch 2, and a new Amazon class pack is coming in the first half of 2027. Blizzard also confirmed that an animated Diablo series is in development with Netflix.

WoW: Forever is the nearest big launch

The biggest thing players can actually get their hands on this year is World of Warcraft: Forever, which Blizzard positions as a new way to play alongside modern WoW and Classic. Per Blizzard, it launches November 4, 2026, with a beta opening September 17, and it adds three new zones, more than 1,000 quests, nine dungeons, two raids, and a new playable race, the Skyborne. Game Informer reports a level cap of 60 and says Forever builds on the original game rather than on modern expansions, with new areas including Mount Hyjal and the Riverglades. Fan site Warcraft Tavern called it "the long-awaited Classic+." Blizzard's recap didn't spell out whether Forever requires anything beyond a standard subscription.

For modern WoW, Blizzard confirmed The Last Titan as the final chapter of the Worldsoul Saga, with more information coming in early 2027. Warcraft III: Reforged also got a new story campaign, The Forsaken Kingdom, available immediately and shipping alongside a 3.0 update that Blizzard says includes a major graphics overhaul and a revamped World Editor.

Overwatch, Hearthstone, and the rest

The live-service games got nearer-term content. Overwatch Season 5 adds Doctrine, a vampire-inspired Support hero with bat-like drones, alongside reworks for Sombra and Roadhog and a new map, Watchpoint: Grimsvötn. Blizzard said an Overwatch Spotlight covering the year ahead is planned for February 2027. Hearthstone's next expansion, Reign of the Black Empire, arrives October 20 with a new Assemble keyword, and the Monk lands in March 2027 as the game's first new playable class in six years. Heroes of the Storm adds Xal'atath on September 28, after a PTR starting September 14.

Why it matters

BlizzCon hadn't been held since November 2023. Blizzard cancelled the 2024 show "after careful consideration," then skipped 2025, which would have been the event's 20th anniversary, without giving a reason, per Screen Rant and PC Gamer. When Blizzard announced the 2026 return, it promised to "meaningfully elevate this iconic celebration."

On volume, Blizzard delivered. On timing, the picture is less satisfying for players. The newest things to play right away are the Warcraft III campaign and a new Overwatch hero, followed by WoW: Forever in November. The two genuinely new games won't arrive until 2029 and 2030. Long development cycles for big-budget games are normal, but announcing a project this far ahead leaves plenty of room for plans to change. The survival game Hay was originally hired to lead is a reminder of that.