A StarCraft open-world shooter that's "Deadwood in space", Diablo 5, and a new classic-ish World of Warcraft branch out this year make up Blizzard of reveals

Things, many of them years away

Well, that report earlier this year was bang on the banana. A new StarCraft shooter, creatively dubbed StarCraft, has been announced for a 2030 release at this year's BlizzCon. Joining it among the headliners were Diablo 5 - which is due out in 2029 - and a new World of Warcraft branch dubbed WOW: Forever. Brave of them to name a Warcraft fork after the inevitable response which follows a WOW player revealing how long they've been playing the MMO.

First, StarCraft. It's not an RTS, but an open-world shooter headed up by former Far Cry producer and director Dan Hay. He's not revealed too much thus far, though seems very much to be pointing towards a story-driven shooter tonally inspired by mid-2000s HBO Western series Deadwood. In an interview with Destin Legarie, Hay pointed to the show's depiction of a relatively lean cast of characters who "all did not get along, but they all understood they kind of had to rely on each other to survive", so one would assume this StarCraft reboot'll feature lots of bickering.

Asked by IGN why the switch from RTS to shooter's been made, Hay seems to have sidestepped getting too specific, but did say Blizzard want "people to go out into these worlds and actually get a sense of what it’s like to meet these different groups". He also hinted at some faction manipulation, with the ability to use enemies of whomever you're fighting as "a tool", being a good for for the open world. StarCraft's not due out until 2030, so there's plenty of time for its makers' lips to loosen a bit.

Also announced for fairly far down the line - Spring 2029 in this case - was Diablo 5. Set after Sanctuary has fallen and namesake baddie Diablo's busy doing victory laps. "At the heart of Diablo V lies a defining question: what must you become when the world has already fallen?", Blizzard declared. As for why it's being announced now, the devs cited a desire to start getting feedback from long-time fans of the series as early as possible, and provide fairly regular development updates from next year on. At the same time, game director Brent Gibson has confirmed to Paladin Crusade Gamer that Diablo 4 won't be getting any more expansions following Lord of Hatred, but support and seasons for it will keep rolling in.

Finally, World of Warcraft was the Con's primary source of stuff that's not a million years away. World of Warcraft: Forever, a new branch of the MMO which turns the clocks back in Azeroth in slightly different fashion to WOW Classic, is set to release on November 4th. According to Blizzard, it's "an invitation to take your first steps in a legendary world of untamed frontiers, warring factions, untold perils, and unseen mysteries", by running around "an Azeroth that grows from the roots of WoW’s first age, continually evolving through regular content patches and updates". It also packs a new race of elves, the Skyborne, though it appears you will have to drop some money to unlock them.

A Forever beta's set to kick off in a matter of days, on September 17th. If that's not your WOW bag, then there's also a newly released campaign for Warcraft III: Reforged dubbed The Forsaken Kingdom and more info on mainline WOW's next big update, Eclipse, should be coming early next year.

So, there's a nicely breathless rundown of the big news from BlizzCon. Blizzard are, of course, still owned by Microsoft, who're currently being boycotted by the BDS movement over their reported ties to the Israeli military.