Classic Plus is real, it has a name, and it is arriving in under two months. World of Warcraft: Forever is a third branch of WoW alongside Modern and Classic, returning to the vanilla era and then building genuinely new content into it - new zones, over 1,000 new quests, nine dungeons, two raids, and a brand new playable race. It launches November 4, with beta opening September 17. Here is everything Blizzard revealed.

What Forever Actually Is

Blizzard is positioning Forever as a third, permanent World of Warcraft experience. Modern WoW is the expansion-driven current game. Classic recreates the original as it was. Forever sits in the vanilla era but does not treat it as a museum piece.

The pitch is carving new paths and exploring unseen corners of Azeroth during the Vanilla era. That is the distinction that matters: Classic's design goal is fidelity, and Forever's design goal is expansion. Blizzard has described it as a permanent home for Classic players rather than a seasonal experiment that resets.

Launch content includes:

• New zones alongside expanded original zones
• Over 1,000 new quests
• Nine new dungeons
• Two new raids
• The new Skyborne playable race
• New reputations, skills and talents
• A new journey to level 60

The New Zones

Blizzard detailed several regions arriving with Forever:

• Mount Hyjal - an endgame leveling zone, framed around the aftermath of the Battle of Mount Hyjal from the end of Warcraft III, with the mountain recovering and its forests healing from corruption
• Zephras Isle - a new level 1 to 12 starting zone
• Riverglades
• Shen'Dralas

Mount Hyjal is the interesting one lore-wise. It was famously an unfinished, inaccessible zone in original vanilla WoW, sitting on the map as a locked curiosity for years. Giving it a real implementation tied directly to Warcraft III's finale is exactly the kind of thing Classic Plus was supposed to mean.

A new PvP battleground, the Darkspear Islands, was also announced.

The Skyborne Race

The Skyborne are a new neutral playable elven race, and the neutral part is the notable bit. Players choose whether the Skyborne join the Horde or the Alliance, rather than having the faction assigned.

Class access differs by faction:

• Alliance Skyborne get Shaman, a class historically locked to the Horde in vanilla
• Horde Skyborne get Mage
• Both factions get Druid, with new forms

Handing Shaman to the Alliance and Mage to the Horde breaks one of vanilla WoW's most defining faction asymmetries. That asymmetry was a balance problem in the original game and a nostalgia point for a lot of players, so this is going to be contentious.

Blizzard also confirmed fresh race and class combinations more broadly, not just for the Skyborne.

Beta and Launch Timing

The beta opens September 17, less than a week after the announcement, which suggests the build is in reasonable shape. Launch follows on November 4, 2026.

That is an aggressive turnaround for a project of this scope, and it lines up with the same date as one of Blizzard's other November plans. Players who want to test the Skyborne and the new zones before committing have about seven weeks of beta access.

Forever is the most substantial answer Blizzard has given to a request the Classic community has been making since Classic launched in 2019. The scope is real - a thousand quests and nine dungeons is not a light touch - and putting Mount Hyjal in as a proper endgame zone is a strong opening statement. The Skyborne class access is where the arguments will be, and beta starting September 17 means those arguments start almost immediately.

Are you rolling Skyborne, and does Alliance Shaman ruin vanilla for you? Come sort it out in the NerdBlocks forum.

Overwatch is turning 10, and Blizzard used BlizzCon 2026 to reveal the biggest shake-up its roster has seen in a while. Doctrine, a vampire-inspired Support and ally of Doomfist, is Hero 54 and playable right now in a limited trial. More disruptive than the new hero, though, is what is happening to Sombra - she is moving out of Damage and into Support entirely. Here is everything Overwatch announced.

Doctrine, Hero 54

Doctrine is a Support hero built around manipulating lifeforce. His kit uses a scepter, infusions, and bat-like drones, and Blizzard describes him as Overwatch's ultimate vampire fantasy finally landing in the Support role.

Narratively he is an ally of Doomfist, and his introduction pushes the Reign of Talon story toward its conclusion.

He is playable now. Doctrine is available in a limited-time Hero Trial running through September 14, before his official roster debut in Season 5. If you want to try him before committing, that window is open immediately.

Season 5 and the End of Reign of Talon

Season 5 launches October 6, and it closes out the Reign of Talon storyline - the first year-long narrative arc in Overwatch history. Blizzard treated that as a milestone, since sustained season-to-season storytelling has been something the community has asked for since Overwatch 2 launched.

Blizzard also dropped a clue about Hero 55 and where 2027 is headed, without naming anyone. And the next Overwatch Spotlight is set for February 2027, where the team will lay out a roadmap for the year.

The Sombra and Roadhog Reworks

Both heroes are getting major reworks in Season 5, and one of them is a genuine category change.

Sombra Moves to Support

Sombra is leaving the Damage role and becoming a Support hero. That is a significant reclassification for a character who has been rebuilt repeatedly over the years and never quite settled. Her hack-and-invisibility identity has always been closer to utility than raw damage output, so the move has some logic behind it, but it will substantially change how she is picked and countered.

Roadhog Becomes a Real Tank

Roadhog is being reworked into a tank that, in the phrasing that has been circulating from the reveal, will "actually be able to help out his team." Roadhog has long been the Tank who functions more like a solo hook-and-kill Damage pick, offering his team very little in the way of protection or space creation. The rework appears aimed squarely at that.

Watchpoint: Grimsvotn

The new map is Watchpoint: Grimsvotn, an Escort map set in an Icelandic volcano prison. It is where Doomfist breaks Doctrine out, tying the map directly into the Season 5 narrative setup.

An Escort map with a volcanic prison theme is a strong visual pitch, and it is the setting for Doomfist and Doctrine's reconnection.

Everything Else From the Weekend

Blizzard loaded up BlizzCon with Overwatch activity beyond the reveals:

• A Mythic Gift: play one game after the Opening Ceremony to earn a Mythic Voucher, redeemable for one complete Mythic bundle from Seasons 1 through 14, with an October 5 deadline
• The Overwatch World Cup finals, with the top eight teams competing live
• YOASOBI performing at BlizzCon's first-ever halftime show during the World Cup
• LE SSERAFIM closing the show, with a new in-game collaboration live now
• QuestWatch, a live Overwatch tabletop RPG one-shot written by Matt Mercer and the Overwatch narrative team, with Cassidy as Game Master

QuestWatch is the odd one out and the most charming - Matt Mercer running a one-shot with Carolina Ravassa, Anjali Bhimani and Darin DePaul playing their own characters, with a charity auction supporting Make-A-Wish attached.

The Doctrine reveal is solid but the Sombra reclassification is the announcement with actual competitive consequences, and it will dominate discussion far longer than a new hero release usually does. Season 5 on October 6 is carrying a lot: a new Support, two reworks, a new map, and the payoff to a year of story. February's Spotlight is where the shape of 2027 gets filled in.

Is moving Sombra to Support a fix or a betrayal? Come fight about it in the NerdBlocks forum.

Heroes of the Storm has been in maintenance mode since 2020. It got a new hero announcement at BlizzCon 2026 anyway, and that is the actual story here. Xal'atath, currently the primary antagonist of World of Warcraft, joins the Nexus on September 28 as a Ranged Assassin - the game's first new character in nearly six years. Blizzard also confirmed at least one more hero is in development. Here is what was announced and why it matters more than a single hero release normally would.

Xal'atath Joins the Nexus

Xal'atath arrives September 28, hitting the Public Test Realm first on September 14. Blizzard describes her as a new Ranged Assassin.

She is a strong pick for the moment. Xal'atath is the driving villain of World of Warcraft's current Worldsoul Saga, and she was also central to the other Warcraft announcements at this BlizzCon - she is the final boss of Patch 12.2's Worldcore raid and the subject of the cinematic that teased The Last Titan. Putting her in Heroes of the Storm at the same time ties the announcements together.

Her history also suits a Nexus roster built on Blizzard characters at different points in their stories. Xal'atath spent years as a sentient dagger whispering to whoever held her before taking physical form, which is an unusually good fit for a game where heroes are pulled out of their own timelines.

Why This Is a Bigger Deal Than One Hero

The last new Heroes of the Storm character was Hogger, released in December 2020. Blizzard had announced in December 2018 that it was scaling back development, moving developers off the project and cancelling the Heroes Global Championship esports scene. The game has received balance patches and seasonal rotations since, but no new content of substance.

A new hero six years later is therefore not a routine patch note. It means:

• A team is actively working on the game again
• Character development, art, voice work and balance passes are being funded
• Blizzard sees enough of a player base to justify the spend

Blizzard's own framing acknowledged this directly, crediting the players who have continued to carry the torch for HotS over the years, and adding that there may be even more to come for Heroes in the future.

More Heroes Confirmed

Blizzard confirmed at least one additional hero is in the works. That is the part that turns this from a one-off gesture into something resembling a plan. One hero can be a goodwill release; two or more implies an ongoing pipeline.

What Was Not Announced

Blizzard did not commit to a content roadmap, a return of competitive support, new maps, or a timeline beyond the next hero. There was no statement about whether the game is formally leaving maintenance mode.

So the appropriate expectation is measured. This is real investment, but it is not a full revival announcement, and reading it as one would be getting ahead of what Blizzard actually said.

For a game that has been on life support since 2018 and content-frozen since 2020, a new hero plus confirmation of another in development is about the best news the Heroes community could have realistically hoped for. Xal'atath hits the PTR on September 14 and goes live September 28, which gives players two weeks to test her before release. Whether anything follows the second hero is the question that actually determines what this was.

Are you dusting off Heroes of the Storm for this, and who do you want as the next addition? Come talk about it in the NerdBlocks forum.

Diablo turns 30 this year, and Blizzard is marking it by dragging the whole franchise's back catalogue into Diablo IV. Season of Hell's Legacy arrives September 15 with Deckard Cain, the Prime Evils, and loot styled after every era of the series. The same day, Diablo IV launches on Nintendo Switch 2. And in 2027, the Amazon returns with a brand new weapon type. Here is the full picture from BlizzCon 2026.

Season of Hell's Legacy

Season of Hell's Legacy begins rolling out on September 15 at 9:30 a.m. PT. It is built as a playable tribute to three decades of Diablo, pulling in the characters, foes, locations and loot that defined the series.

The structure centers on Deckard Cain. His lost soul returns to guide players on a journey to redeem the dark wanderers from the torment of the Prime Evils. The seasonal loop works like this:

• Confront the Prime Evils: Baal, Mephisto, and Diablo himself
• Reclaim splinters of their souls
• Bear the burden of one of the Splinters to take on a portion of that Evil's power
• Pay the cost, because Blizzard is explicit that no demonic gift comes free

There are also anniversary rewards and gear inspired by every era of Diablo, which is the kind of thing that plays extremely well with players who have been around since 1996.

Moophisto Returns

Blizzard also confirmed the return of Moophisto, the cow-themed Prime Evil parody that descends from the series' long-running Secret Cow Level tradition. He is back to terrorize unsuspecting adventurers, and he remains one of the better jokes in the franchise.

Diablo IV on Nintendo Switch 2

Hell arrives on Switch 2 on September 15, the same day the season drops. The release is packaged as the Diablo IV: Age of Hatred Collection, which bundles:

• The base game
• The Vessel of Hatred expansion
• The Lord of Hatred expansion

That means Switch 2 owners get the jungles of Nahantu and the shores of Skovos out of the box rather than buying up to them. Reports have already surfaced of physical copies appearing in stores ahead of the date.

A portable Diablo IV with full expansion content is a reasonable pitch, and it broadens the install base considerably right as the anniversary season lands.

The Amazon Arrives in 2027

Diablo IV's first class pack is coming in the first half of 2027, and it brings back the Amazon. She hails from the island of Skovos, which Diablo IV introduced in the Lord of Hatred expansion.

Blizzard says the goal is preserving the disciplined, athletic, highly trained warrior fantasy players remember while reimagining the class for Diablo IV. She spans four gameplay archetypes:

• Champion
• Skirmisher
• Ranger
• Commander

Weapon-wise, the Amazon brings back the bow and introduces the javelin, which is an entirely new weapon type for Diablo IV. That is the detail that matters mechanically - a new weapon type means new affixes, new animations and new build space rather than a reskinned class.

Blizzard packed a lot into one date here, and September 15 is doing heavy lifting: a nostalgia-forward anniversary season, a new platform, and a Prime Evil cow. The Amazon in 2027 is the signal that Diablo IV has real runway left even with Diablo V now on the board for 2029. Blizzard is holding the Season of Hell's Legacy gameplay trailer for the Diablo IV: What's Next panel on September 13, so more detail lands this weekend.

Which Prime Evil Splinter are you taking, and is anyone else buying Diablo IV a second time for Switch 2? Come talk about it in the NerdBlocks forum.

StarCraft is finally getting a new game, and it is not a real-time strategy game. Blizzard used BlizzCon 2026 to reveal StarCraft, an original open-world shooter led by former Far Cry lead Dan Hay, targeting a spring 2030 launch. That is a long wait for a franchise that has been dormant since 2015. Here is what Blizzard showed, what Hay said about the pitch, and everything the reveal pointedly left out.

What Blizzard Actually Announced

The project is currently just called StarCraft. It is an open-world shooter set in the Koprulu Sector, and Blizzard attached a spring 2030 window to it onstage.

Dan Hay introduced the game and the team behind it. Hay spent years as a lead on Ubisoft's Far Cry series, which tells you a fair amount about the shape this is likely to take - large open maps, outposts, emergent encounters.

His framing was about perspective. The pitch is putting players on the ground rather than above the battlefield, and he described the experience as one where "every step is earned, not from above, but down on the ground, in the mud, in the fire." For a series defined by looking down at a map and clicking, that is a deliberate inversion.

The Announce Cinematic

The reveal was a cinematic called Dominion, with no gameplay whatsoever. It follows a Terran Marine named Holt going through Dominion training, building him up as a competent soldier, and then drops him onto a planet where a Zergling rush runs him over almost immediately.

It is a smart piece of tone-setting. The joke of the original StarCraft was always that a Marine is a disposable unit, and the cinematic reframes that from the inside - the same engagement you would win in thirty seconds as an RTS player is a horror story at eye level.

What Was Not Shared

The gaps here are large:

• No gameplay footage at all
• No platforms announced
• No protagonist confirmed
• No word on whether it is single-player, multiplayer or both
• No detail on setting specifics beyond the Koprulu Sector
• No monetization model

A spring 2030 date also means this was revealed roughly three and a half years out, which is unusually early even by Blizzard standards. The company clearly wanted the franchise back in the conversation at a 30th-anniversary-adjacent BlizzCon rather than waiting until it had something playable.

Why the Long Runway Matters

A 2030 launch window invites a specific kind of skepticism. Blizzard has cancelled StarCraft projects before - a StarCraft first-person shooter codenamed Ares was shelved in 2019, and that history is going to follow this announcement around. Announcing four years out puts a lot of daylight between the reveal and any accountability.

Where This Leaves StarCraft II

Blizzard said nothing about the RTS line at the ceremony. StarCraft II stopped receiving new paid content in 2020 and has been on balance-patch life support since, with the competitive scene surviving largely on third-party organization. A new open-world shooter does not address that, and RTS fans hoping for StarCraft III did not get one.

That said, this is the first meaningful investment in the universe in a decade. A shooter reaching a broader audience is the kind of thing that tends to bring franchise attention - and eventually franchise budget - back around.

StarCraft returning as a shooter is going to be divisive for exactly the reasons you would expect, and the 2030 date means nobody has to resolve that argument for a while. The cinematic was strong and the leadership pedigree is real, but a reveal with no gameplay four years out is a statement of intent rather than a product. The Koprulu Sector is officially back on the board.

Is an open-world shooter the right way to revive StarCraft, or did you want StarCraft III? Come make your case in the NerdBlocks forum.

Blizzard just announced the next numbered Diablo, and the premise is the most interesting thing about it. Diablo V is coming in spring 2029, and it opens with the franchise's heroes already defeated. Sanctuary has fallen. Diablo won. Here is what Blizzard revealed at the BlizzCon 2026 Opening Ceremony, the question the team says sits at the center of the game, and why the structural implications are bigger than they sound.

The Premise

Blizzard's framing is blunt: Sanctuary has fallen, Diablo has triumphed, and its heroes have been defeated. The studio put a single question at the heart of the pitch - what must you become when the world has already fallen?

That is a real departure. Every mainline Diablo has cast you as the force holding back an invasion that is still in progress. Diablo V starts after the loss.

The Diablo team says there are no towns or safe havens left, and that this changes how players approach the game. That detail is the one worth sitting with, because towns are load-bearing in an action RPG. They are where you vendor loot, respec, repair, bank, and reset between runs. Removing them is not a story flourish, it is a systems decision.

Why Removing Towns Is a Big Deal

Consider what a Diablo town actually does. Tristram, the Rogue Encampment, New Tristram, Kyovashad - each is a safe hub that punctuates the loop. You clear content, you return, you offload, you go again.

If Sanctuary has no havens, that loop has to be rebuilt. The obvious possibilities:

• Mobile or temporary camps that players establish and can lose
• Vendor and stash functions moved onto the player or a companion
• A continuous-world structure with no hard reset points
• Safe zones that are contested and can be taken back

Blizzard did not say which of these it is doing. The team promised more at a dedicated Diablo V panel, and the announcement is thin by design - spring 2029 is nearly three years out.

What Was and Was Not Shown

The reveal was a teaser, not a gameplay demo. There was no class list, no platform confirmation, and no detail on whether Diablo V continues Diablo IV's seasonal live-service model or steps back toward a more traditional release.

Blizzard did point players to a Diablo V: Forging the Next Era panel at BlizzCon for an early look at the world, classes and creative vision, and opened sign-ups for updates. So more detail exists - it just was not in the opening ceremony.

The Timing Question

Spring 2029 means Diablo IV will be roughly six years old at handoff. Blizzard is also shipping a Diablo IV class pack in 2027 and running seasons in between, so the company is explicitly signalling that Diablo IV support continues rather than winding down immediately. The 30th anniversary framing of this BlizzCon made that continuity a theme.

Diablo as a Franchise Right Now

Blizzard says more than 130 million players have entered Sanctuary across the franchise. That number is the context for everything else announced this weekend, including a Netflix animated series and a Switch 2 release for Diablo IV. Diablo is the healthiest thing Blizzard has, and a numbered sequel three years out is the company protecting that.

Diablo V has a genuinely strong hook, and "the world already lost" is a better starting point than another invasion to repel. Whether the no-safe-havens idea survives contact with three years of production is the open question, since it is exactly the kind of bold structural promise that tends to get softened. Blizzard's dedicated panel is where the first real answers live, and everything else waits until closer to spring 2029.

Does a Sanctuary with no safe havens sound like a great idea or a nightmare to actually play? Come make your case in the NerdBlocks forum.

Nobody expected this one. Blizzard announced a brand new Warcraft III campaign at BlizzCon 2026 - the first original campaign for the 2002 RTS in 23 years - and then released it the same day. Forsaken Kingdom covers the last days of Lordaeron and the origins of the Undercity, runs over 30 hours, and arrives alongside a free 3.0 update that overhauls the game's graphics and World Editor. Here is what is in it.

Forsaken Kingdom

The campaign is set in the last days of Lordaeron, taking players into the origins of the Undercity before millions came to know it by name. It is the bridge material between Warcraft III's ending and World of Warcraft's beginning, filling in a period the games have always referenced but never played out.

Blizzard says the campaign contains over 30 hours of gameplay, which is substantial - the original Reign of Chaos campaign was in a similar range across all four of its acts. Familiar characters appear, including Sylvanas, alongside new ones.

It is available now for $30 on Battle.net.

Why This Period Matters

The fall of Lordaeron is one of Warcraft's foundational events. Arthas destroys his own kingdom, the Scourge takes the capital, and what is left becomes the Forsaken under Sylvanas in the ruins beneath it. Warcraft III covered Arthas's fall and WoW opens with the Forsaken already established, but the transition between those two states happened off-screen.

Getting that period as a playable RTS campaign, from a team building it in 2026 with full knowledge of where the story goes, is a genuinely interesting proposition.

The Free 3.0 Update

Everyone who owns Warcraft III Reforged gets the 3.0 update regardless of whether they buy Forsaken Kingdom. It includes:

• An entirely new graphics mode and a significant visual overhaul
• A revamped World Editor
• Additional control options
• Bug fixes and general quality-of-life improvements

The World Editor work is the sleeper item here. Warcraft III's editor produced Defense of the Ancients, which spawned the entire MOBA genre, and it remains one of the most consequential pieces of game-adjacent software ever shipped. A revamp keeps that modding scene alive.

The Reforged Context

This lands with a complicated history behind it. Warcraft III: Reforged launched in January 2020 to one of the worst receptions of any Blizzard release, with missing promised features, downgraded cutscenes, and rights-grab controversy around custom games. It became a byword for a botched remaster.

Blizzard has been quietly patching it for years since, and a 3.0 update with a graphics overhaul plus the first paid campaign expansion in over two decades is the most substantial effort the game has seen. Whether that repairs the relationship is a separate question from whether the campaign is good, but it is a serious investment in a title most people assumed was abandoned.

Shadow-dropping a 30-hour RTS campaign for a 24-year-old game is the kind of thing that happens roughly never, and doing it for the specific gap between Warcraft III and WoW is a smart pick of subject matter. The free 3.0 update matters as much as the paid campaign, since it reaches everyone who already owns Reforged and keeps the World Editor scene going. Forsaken Kingdom is live on Battle.net now, so there is nothing to wait for.

Have you jumped into Forsaken Kingdom yet, or did Reforged burn you too badly in 2020? Come talk about it in the NerdBlocks forum.

Two of the most reliable ways to lose an entire weekend are LEGO and city builders, and someone has finally combined them. Paradox Interactive, Iceflake Studios, and the LEGO Group announced LEGO Skylines during Gamescom Opening Night Live on August 25, putting players in charge of a city made of bricks and populated by yellow minifigures. There is no release date yet, but the pedigree behind it is worth paying attention to. Here is what was shown and why the developer choice is the most interesting part.

Who Is Actually Making It

LEGO Skylines is being developed by Iceflake Studios, the team currently handling Cities: Skylines II, and published by Paradox Interactive.

That is a loaded credential. Cities: Skylines II had one of the rougher launches in the genre, with performance problems that dominated its first year and a community that has not been shy about it. Iceflake took over ongoing development afterward and has spent that time on stabilization and expansions rather than a new project.

Handing that same team a LEGO license reads two ways. Optimistically, it is a chance to build something new without inheriting a technical mess. Skeptically, it raises the fair question of whether resources are being split. Paradox has not addressed the overlap directly.

What the Game Actually Is

The pitch is a cozy, customizable city builder rather than the spreadsheet-driven simulation Cities: Skylines is known for.

What was confirmed at the announcement:

• Cities built entirely out of LEGO bricks, populated by minifigures
• Management of core services including electricity, food, and water
• Donut availability, listed alongside the utilities, which sets the tone fairly clearly
• Heavy emphasis on customization and building freedom

The framing suggests something closer to LEGO Bricktales or a sandbox toy than a traffic-flow optimization puzzle. That is a sensible read of the license, since nobody plays with LEGO because they enjoy zoning regulations.

Platforms and Timing

LEGO Skylines is confirmed for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC. Notably absent is any release window at all, not even a year.

A reveal with no date usually means the game is early, and announcing at Opening Night Live is about staking a claim on the concept before someone else does. The LEGO license has been unusually active lately, and a brick-based city builder is an obvious idea that nobody had properly executed until now.

The combination of a genuinely appealing concept and a developer working through a rocky sequel makes LEGO Skylines one of the more interesting question marks to come out of Gamescom. With no window announced, the realistic expectation is that a proper gameplay showing is still a good way off.

What do you think - does the Cities: Skylines II team have this, or would you rather they finish what they started? Come talk about it in the NerdBlocks forum.