“For 35 years, Blizzard has been shaped by the worlds we build and the players who bring them to life. You’ve fought through World of Warcraft, battled in Diablo, played your cards in Hearthstone, and held the line in Overwatch. We’ve come a long way together. And now, the next chapter begins.

“Over the next few weeks, each world will showcase what comes next. If these games mean something to you, we’d love to see you there. These aren’t updates in isolation. They’re part of where Blizzard is heading—together with the players who’ve been here all along.”

It kicks off on January 29th at 9 AM PT with World of Warcraft’s State of Azeroth, followed by an Overwatch Spotlight on February 4th at 10 AM PT. Hearthstone is next on February 9th at 9:30 AM PT, and the Diablo 30th Anniversary Spotlight wraps things up on February 11th at 2 PM PT.

Regarding this series of reveals, Blizzard Entertainment president Johanna Faries said, “Our extraordinarily talented teams have assembled a stellar line-up for our players across our universes. This major showcase event comes at a significant moment in time as we reflect on three and a half decades of Blizzard history and our big ambitions for the future. This is only the start of what we’ll share around our games this year, and we can’t wait to bring it to life.”

We already know about what’s coming to some of the above games, from the new Midnight expansion for World of Warcraft to Diablo 4’s Lord of Hatred. However, based on the trailer’s ending image, Blizzard could have something in store for StarCraft as well. A teaser for the shooter rumored back in 2024? Maybe not in the coming weeks, but a reveal at some point this year, even before BlizzCon, is certainly possible.

As for Overwatch, it wouldn’t be surprising to see its mobile version, reportedly developed by Nexon, receive an announcement. We may also hear about the “huge” something that director Aaron Keller teased for Overwatch 2 to start the year.

The most notable things about the schedule are the “What’s Next” segments; World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft Classic, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and Overwatch 2 have a “What’s Next” segment each, and we’ll likely get to see plans for future content for all of these titles.

For World of Warcraft, we will likely get a glimpse of the next expansion for the MMORPG, along with the plan for future content updates for its currently-ongoing Dragonflight expansion. WoW Classic, however, would be interesting to watch, since the next step for the game would be to kick off the Cataclysm expansion, which would take the game solidly out of the “Classic” part of World of Warcraft.

BlizzCon 2023 will also feature Deep Dives for World of Warcraft and Overwatch 2. Capping off day one is a segment titled Warcraft Rumblings, while the event as a whole will be capped off by a performance by K-Pop group LE SSERAFIM.

Full BilzzCon 2023 Schedule with times listed in PDT:

November 3

• 11AM – Opening Ceremony
• 1:30PM – World of Warcraft: What’s Next
• 2:30PM – Overwatch 2: Deep Dive
• 3:30PM – World of Warcraft Classic: What’s Next
• 4:30PM – Hearthstone: What’s Next
• 5:30PM – Warcraft Rumblings

November 4

• 12PM – World of Warcraft: Deep Dive
• 1:30PM – Overwatch 2: What’s Next
• 2:30PM – Diablo IV Campfire Chat
• 4:45PM – Community Night
• 6:15PM – LE SSERAFIM Appearance

Hearthstone: The Maw and Disorder is set to hit the game on September 27. The mini-set will feature 35 new cards: 4 Legendary cards, 1 Epic card, 14 Rare cards, and 16 Comomn cards. The new cards can be obtained either through Murder at Castle Nathria card packs, or by buying the whole mini-set all together.

Four cards fro the new mini-set have been revealed: Murder Accusation, Dew Process, and two cards titled Totemic Evidence. The mini-set is themed around the courtroom, and its general gameplay will revolve around Accusation spells, advanced Infuse cards, and synergies.

More details about The Maw and Disorder are set to be revealed in the days leading up to the mini-set’s release, starting today, and going on up to September 27.

Amid all the rumors and reports about games like Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2, Blizzard Entertainment has begun officially hyping up what’s next for Hearthstone. In a new teaser trailer, Madame Lazul spoke about plans, changes and a coming conflict. Check it out below.

Whatever the upcoming reveal may be, it seems to involve Azeroth’s fate and the player choosing a side. More will be revealed on November 1st, the same day as BlizzCon’s Opening Ceremony so we won’t have to wait long. Still, it’s intriguing to see what potential shake-ups the collectible card game could have.

After all, Hearthstone first released in 2014 and despite its initial strong popularity, there’s a feeling of stagnation. With Riot Games unveiling its own upcoming card game in Legends of Runeterra, will Blizzard Entertainment look into making changes? We’ll find out in a few days so stay tuned. BlizzCon 2019 takes place from November 1st to 3rd with the Opening Ceremony set for 11 AM PDT on Friday.

We’re nearing that time of the year again when Blizzard Entertainment holds BlizzCon, its annual convention devoted to its current IPs. That means the virtual tickets are also on sale, offering an All-Access look at different panels and interviews outside of the opening ceremony and esports tournaments. You also get some nifty cosmetics and in-game items.

The star of the cosmetic line-up is Overwatch which includes Legendary skins for Symmetra and Genji from Warcraft. The former gets Tyrande Whisperwind while the latter receive Illidan Genji because reasons. The virtual ticket costs $49.99 – here are some of the other items you can get for their respective games.

• World of Warcraft: Ride the tides of war with a pair of Murloc-ified faction leaders: Finduin (for Alliance heroes) and Gillvanas (for the Horde). Plus, bundle up for your next trip to the icy mountains with the whimsical Wendigo Woolies transmog outfit. Available in-game starting today!
• Hearthstone: Celebrate the excitement of BlizzCon the next time you sit down for a duel with the BlizzCon 2019 Card Back. Then prepare to claim a mysterious Golden Legendary card, to be revealed at BlizzCon. In-game after BlizzCon!
• Heroes of the Storm: Make your mark in the Nexus with a commemorative BlizzCon spray and portrait, and ride into battle on the Celestial Deepcrawler mount. It may not look dangerous, but those claws can give you a nasty pinch… or wipe out all life on your planet. Available in-game starting today!
• StarCraft II: Equip a trio of Brood War–era unit skins and portraits the next time you go into battle. Scout for a zerg ambush aboard the Classic Battlecruiser, hunt your prey with the sinewy Classic Ultralisk, and honor Tassadar’s sacrifice with the Classic Carrier. Available in-game starting today!

Diablo 3 will also receive some commemorative wings with more details on the same to be revealed later. BlizzCon 2019 is set to take place on November 1st to 2nd in Anaheim, California. Rumours have circulated in the past few months regarding reveals for Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2, the latter focusing more on PvE. Stay tuned in the meantime for more information.

Bloodborne

Veterans of From Software’s Dark Souls series were in for something different with Bloodborne. Though combat was mechanically similar, it was faster with the ability to side-step along with dodge-roll. Shields were pretty non-essential, Visceral attacks were awesome and sometimes, attacking foes to regenerate lost health was the best option. For those who’ve never played a From Software game, Bloodborne takes time to properly get a hold of (especially the bosses) but it delivers a rich story, fully-realized world and excellent combat.

With Gamescom almost here, Blizzard has revealed its plans for the festivities. This year, Blizzard promises to bring every major one of its franchises to the event- Diablo, StarCraft, Warcraft, Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, and Hearthstone. Blizzard will host a one hour long ceremony, and then each of its games, except for Hearthstone, will get a 30 minute to an hour long panel.

The interesting thing here is that Blizzard hasn’t actually detailed what these panels will have, unlike previous years- which indicates they may have new announcements to make. We already know they are looking at sharing details on “multiple Diablo projects” by the end of the year (though one of them is presumably Diablo 3 for Nintendo Switch, which was announced earlier today). This might be true of at least StarCraft as well, which hasn’t seen a new entry in nearly a decade.

That apart, there will also be a Mystery Guest panel, plus Bungie on stage to share some details on Destiny 2 (Battle.net also hosts Destiny 2, after all).You can see full details of Blizzard’s Gamescom schedule, as well as the artwork they shared for the event, below.

• Opening Ceremony: 10:30 to 11:30 (1 hour)
• Overwatch: 11:30 to 12:00 (30 minutes)
• World of Warcraft: 12:00 to 12:45 (45 minutes)
• StarCraft: 13:15 to 14:00 (45 minutes)
• Heroes of the Storm: 14:30 to 15:30 (1 hour)
• Diablo: 15:45 to 16:45 (1 hour)
• “Guest Event”: 17:00 to 17:30 (30 minutes)

In discussing the ease of the porting of Diablo 3 to Nintendo Switch, and the healthy relationship Blizzard now enjoyed with Nintendo, after more than a decade since the last time a Blizzard game was on a Nintendo system, the company had indicated that more Blizzard games could come to the Switch in the future.

This is something a lot of people have been holding out for for a while- how great would something like Overwatch or especially Hearthstone be on Nintendo’s portable console? And it seems like the former, at least, would be in the realm of possibility. Speaking to GameSpot, senior producer of Diablo 3 on Switch Pete Stilwell said that Overwatch on Switch was feasible- albeit not something that it was his place to commit to.

“Anything is within the realm of possibility,” he said. “Our team was given the task to work on this. If [Overwatch developer] Team 4 picks up that endeavour, that’s on them. As of right now Diablo is our only focus on Switch. …Yes, it is feasible.”

He also chipped in on StarCraft 2 ever showing up on the Switch. Now, this may seem like a random tangent, but after all, the last major Blizzard game for a Nintendo console was StarCraft on Nintendo 64; the Switch itself, with its touch screen and gyroscope, presents a friendlier platform for an RTS than the other consoles do. That said, Stilwell shot that idea down.

“The N64 version of StarCraft was cool but you had to change the game quite a bit to make it work properly on console,” he said. “StarCraft 2 is next level requirements from how much dexterity you need with a mouse and keyboard, so I think that would have been a very difficult port. It would have [to] change the core gameplay.”

Which is fair- StarCraft is indeed one of those games that I don’t see working on any console of any kind- maybe the Wii U, had it taken off. But it didn’t, so here we are.

Curiously enough, Hearthstone wasn’t brought up, where it seems to be the easiest port of them all. That said, one step at a time- for now, we’re getting Diablo 3 on Switch. Once that is out, maybe we can look beyond to see what Blizzard may have to offer.

After the release of Hearthstone’s latest expansion The Witchwood, game director Ben Brode – who’s been the development team’s face for years – has announced he will be leaving Blizzard. Brode will be leaving the company after 15 years to start his own new venture.

In a message on the official forums, Brode stated that, “After 15 years at Blizzard and almost 10 years working on Hearthstone, I have made the incredibly difficult decision to embark on a new journey. Man, that was a hard sentence to type.”

Having joined the company as a tester at the age of 20, Brode would go on to serve as caster for esports events and announcing at BlizzCon. In 2008, Brode would join Team 5 that would become known as the team behind Hearthstone.

“I am very proud of Hearthstone. I think we made an impact on the industry. People tell me that Hearthstone brought their family closer together, or that they became close friends with people they met at a Fireside Gathering. Others tell me they were inspired by Hearthstone to become game developers themselves. It’s incredible to be a part of something that touches so many people.”

Brode then went on to talk about the “Soul of the Team” and how there was no team quite like it. “There is no team like the Hearthstone team. People have come and gone over the 10 years Hearthstone has been in development, but there’s something special about the Soul of the Team. We knew our most important product wasn’t the game, but the team itself. A great team can do great things, and I think the Hearthstone team is the greatest. It isn’t just a job. It’s a shared passion.”

Though embarking on this new venture is risky, Brode said he’s feeling excited. “I’m looking forward to designing, programming, and actually creating things again,” he wrote. Sadly, he won’t have the on-campus Starbucks to attend, which is indeed a major bummer.

Brode thanked Blizzard for both taking a chance on him and “taking a chance on Hearthstone. I can’t wait to see what you do next. And to the passionate community of players — I will miss you, and the laughs we shared together. Thank you for making being a part of Hearthstone so much fun for me. I’ve loved every minute.”

What are your thoughts on Hearthstone’s game director leaving after being there since the beginning? Let us know in the comments.

If you haven’t heard, The Witchwood is the hottest place to be for Hearthstone players. The expansion recently launched for the free to play CCG and offers a lot of new features. To discuss the development behind the expansion in more detail, the development team at Blizzard have released a new behind-the-scenes video. Check out below.

Game director Ben Brode talks about the Worgen and their transformations, how implementing them ultimately began development on The Witchwood and more. The overall emphasis of the set on horror stories was intentional according to senior game designer Dave Kosak. Cards like Hagatha the Witch and Shudderwock, the latter being the “most complicated card” the team has ever made according to Brode are standout examples.

Hearthstone: The Witchwood is currently available for PC and mobile devices. It brings over 130 new cards, a new solo Dungeon Run-esque mode called Monster Hunt, a new Druid alternate hero Lunara and much more.