By Paula Beaton Liv and Paula here, covering everything that we saw at the BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony.
BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony is here! Blizzard’s president, Johanna Faries, kicked things off with an impassioned speech.
She introduced the event commenting on how this will be “a moment I will hold in my heart forever” and that tonight will create “legendary memories”.
Acknowledging the absence of BlizzCon for the last few years, she highlighted that this year, Blizzard has been working hard to make this show one to “inspire as much as it can inform”.
The first announcement of the night was a reveal trailer for a new hero in Heroes of the Storm.
Xal’atath is coming soon and players will be able to get their hands on her this Monday, with a full release coming at the end of this month.
Next up comes the first major announcement of the night, we have had confirmation that Diablo would be receiving its own Netflix produced animated series.
The show is currently in development.
However, Faries made a point of saying that this is just the beginning, pointing to the Overwatch and Warcraft communities in particularthat ‘great discussions are being had”.
So does this confirm that these IPS will getting their own transmedia treatment?
Next up at the BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony was the highlight of the night for many: the announcement of Blizzard’s long-rumored singleperson StarCraft shooter!
Dan Hays took to the stage to introduce the world to the team behind “one of the world’s most beloved games.” He continued, “A team build with one purpose, a team built with one goal, to return to a universe forged in interstellar war.”
Cue the audience’s excitement.
“An open-world shooter where everything is earned… They’re here to ‘reignite’ this universe. We are here to make StarCraft! And let’s be honest, it’s about time!”
We then saw an epic trailer for the upcoming game, titled “StarCraft Dominion.” It’s basically a montage of training troops, a drop ship dropping them on an alien planet, and a meat grinder where more troops come through, their bloodied badges being dropped into a pile.
We didn’t actually learn much more about the game other than that all-important release date, and it’s a while for fans to wait still as it won’t land until 2030!
Overwatch is receiving its 9th playable hero out of the 10 that have been scheduled for the game.
Their name is Doctrine, a techno support vampire whose look has been revealed in a beautifully animated cinematic trailer.
They will equip a sceptre that heals allies and damages enemies. He can rush through battle, shrouded in darkness, while his drones kill enemies and speed up teammate’ attacks.
He also possesses ‘Infuse’ which transforms his next attack. They teased that if he can dash, he should be able to take flight too.
Fans will be able to learn more about Doctrine in the upcoming in-depth panel, play-test him at BlizzCon, whilst the rest of the fan base will be able to play him when he is released next month.
Doctrine’s Hero Trial will start for players as soon as the opening ceremony concludes.
Other titbits of announcements for Overwatch include:
- A new map coming in Season 5 next month.
- The return of Dokiwatch.
- Roadhog will get some rework (will be able to help teammates | instant death combo should be less frustrating to play against).
- Sombra will now become a support.
We were totally surprised to see an announcement for Diablo V at BlizzCon 2026 opening ceremony, complete with a teaser.
Diablo’s Joe Shely excitedly told us: “The heroes are gone, Sanctuary has fallen, and Diablo has won.”
For the first time, you won’t be fighting to stop Diablo from taking Sanctuary, because he will have already taken it. We will be fighting in a fallen world.”
Players are already speculating whether this means we won’t get another Diablo IV expansion, so we’ll need to wait and see.
Diablo V launches in 2029!
Nathan Lyons-Smith is next up on stage at BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony announcing what’s coming up for strategy card game, Hearthstone.
A new expansion is coming to the game, titled Reign of the Black Empire.
‘For the first time in Hearthstone we are going 20s of thousands of years into Azaroth’s past, exploring the battle between the new Gods and the Titans. A time where the new gods were at the peak of their power’.
The game will also get a new feature, ‘Assemble’, which merges two hearthstone cards together to make a new powerful card. The new way to combine cards will launch on October 20th.
A new minion type called Aberrations will also be introduced which will ‘shake up lobbies in exciting ways’. BlizzCon attendees will get to test them on the show floor.
Changes will also be coming to Tavern Brawl, making it bigger than ever before.
Players will get to team up in a 2v2 Tavern Brawl, which is an exciting way to play and strategise with friends!
Finally, we have a monk class called Pandaren that is coming to Hearthstone in March 2027.
The key word with this fuzzy creature is ‘flexibility’, but not much else has been revealed for this new class as of yet.
Of course there were plenty of other announcements relating to WoW at BlizzCon. We heard about the next WoW patch, Midnight Eclipse, and Classic Plus mode was announced as World of Warcraft: Forever, with the beta opening this Thursday and the launch on November 4th.
If you want to watch the event, you can stream it over on YouTube.
Olivia Davies