Attendees play Diablo IV at the game's show-floor area at BlizzCon at the convention center in Anaheim, California, on Sept. 13.CHO YONG-JUN
ANAHEIM, California — Blizzard Entertainment is back, or at least it's coming back. The game developer returned to Anaheim after skipping two years of its annual convention, with a Diablo sequel and a new, long-awaited StarCraft title. Balance has been restored. All is right in the realms. Or is it?
The two newly announced games will arrive near the end of the decade — in 2029 and 2030, respectively — and the grand event wasn't quite enough to quench the fans' three-year thirst.
The company held its annual BlizzCon this year on Saturday and Sunday, coming back in full force after skipping conventions in 2024 and 2025. Blizzard, the U.S. developer behind the StarCraft, Warcraft, Overwatch and Diablo franchises, announced the new StarCraft and Diablo V, revived Heroes of the Storm with a new character after years without meaningful support and detailed a reworked version of classic World of Warcraft (WoW).
It was the widest spread of news the company announced in years, refreshing for fans who have been yearning for full-fledged new titles and not just mobile games or expansion packs.
The StarCraft announcement carried the most weight. The title, announced simply as StarCraft with no number or subtitle, moves away from the real-time strategy (RTS) genre the franchise defined nearly 30 years ago. Instead, it comes as an open-world shooter, perhaps closer in form to StarCraft: Ghost, a game that never saw the light of day after being canceled in the 2000s.
StarCraft II, released in 2010, saw its last single-player content release in 2016 and had its paid content production halted in 2020 — the new title's launch will mark a decade since.
Blizzard rarely attaches a launch window to its first reveal, but this time they slated a 2030 release for StarCraft and spring 2029 for Diablo, a sign of confidence in development, according to the company.
A StarCraft statue of Jim Raynor, a character from the series, over the StarCraft play area at BlizzCon at the convention center in Anaheim, California, on Sept. 13.CHO YONG-JUN
Fans on the floor took this positively.
“I’m just very happy to hear that there will be a new StarCraft game,” Michael, a longtime Blizzard fan who has been to over 10 BlizzCons, said. He now rarely plays casual StarCraft II, as he mainly focuses on playing the more supported World of Warcraft.
“It’s just that we have to wait four more years for the game,” he said.
Everything else at BlizzCon catered to the games the developers have been supporting for years. WoW, Overwatch and Diablo all had dedicated zones with decorations, life-size figurines and hundreds of playable stations. Diablo fans could get a real tattoo, Hearthstone players could go head-to-head with the game's developer and WoW fans could play the upcoming World of Warcraft: Forever early.
Overwatch even had girl group Le Sserafim return to the closing stage three years after its first performance at Blizzcon 2023. The group sang “Perfect Night” (2023), its first collaboration single with Overwatch and performed “Made My Night” for the first time live. The five members also came to the show floor to play a round of Overwatch with coaching from professional players on Saturday.
Girl group Le sserafim performs at BlizzCon's closing ceremony in Anaheim, California on Sept. 13.CHO YONG-JUN
However, StarCraft had nothing to show other than the news itself.
The publisher had only revealed a cinematic trailer for the upcoming title — no actual gameplay footage or demo sessions. Instead, one corner of the convention center had a dozen computers running StarCraft II for people to sit down and queue up against each other.
Another booth continued from where the cinematic trailer left off, in which the Dominion, an in-game faction, was seen recruiting soldiers desperately. The booth had BlizzCon attendees “sign up” to join the faction.
The requirement to join the Dominion was one pullup, or simply pledging allegiance to the faction. Those who signed the terms walked away with a Terran Dominion certificate of enlistment and a badge: a neat souvenir for fans who have been waiting so long for anything remotely StarCraft related — but again, not enough to appease years of patience.
The game also had a classic cup, where Lim “Boxer” Yo-hwan and Kang “Nal_rA” — two legendary StarCraft players from back in the day — met again for a special Sunday match of StarCraft: Remastered among other StarCraft gamers.
The small StarCraft booth where people could play a game of StarCraft at BlizzCon at the convention center in Anaheim, California, on Sept. 13.CHO YONG-JUN
Attendees queue to “enlist” at the Join the Dominion booth, a promotion for the newly announced StarCraft game, at BlizzCon at the convention center in Anaheim, California, on Sept. 13.CHO YONG-JUN
Jeni, who has also taken part in BlizzCon for over more than a decade, said there was not enough WoW content for the part of the game she plays. She was not unhappy, though.
“Don't get me wrong, this is one of the best BlizzCons we've had in many years,” Jeni said. “We'll see how it goes in the future.”
