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Blizzcon schedule released, panels detailed

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
There don't seem to be any mystery panels, so don't hold your breath for new game announcements. There's potentially room for a very short panel after StarCraft 2, but it strikes me as more likely that they just want people to move over to the last 30 minutes WoW stream when that finishes.

The panels cover the following for each game. There's also obviously the opening ceremony.

World of Warcraft: Legion:
-Tour of the new content including dungeons, zones, raid, the plotline, and "a sneak peak at upcoming features".
-A deep dive on said above features.
-A panel about the CG cinematic.
-A Q&A session.

Hearthstone:
-"Come warm yourself by the hearth and hear a tale of adventures yet to come!"
-Nirolak's Note: It's the next adventure which appears to be playable in co-op based on data mining. Judging by the cast photos, it's Indiana Jones-y feeling and probably about some ancient ruins like Ulduar or something.
-A Q&A session that also explains how they build Tavern Brawls.

Heroes of the Storm:
-A panel showing a bunch of new heroes coming to the game.
-A panel showing a bunch of new battlegrounds coming to the game.
-A panel about the state of the game in general, changes to existing content, and their general plans for the future.

Overwatch:
-"Join Overwatch developers as they discuss the newest heroes, maps, and gameplay features coming in Blizzard's team-based first-person shooter."
-A panel about how they came up with the lore/setting/characters/etc for the world.

StarCraft II:
-"Hear about the future of StarCraft II, including plans to continue enhancing the gameplay experience beyond Legacy of the Void's launch."
-A panel on ladder changes, their feedback from the beta, and some ideas they have for the future.
-A panel on sound effects and music.

Diablo 3:
-"Join the Diablo development team to learn about new zones, new sets and legendary powers, new monsters, new features, and more."
-There's only one panel here so neither the next expansion pack nor Diablo 4 are unveiling in all likelihood.
-For the impatient, they covered a lot of ideas for Patch 2.4 here: http://www.diablofans.com/news/48510-reddit-q-a-round-up

Notes:
-There was a reference to "Battle.net 3.0" found in the Hearthstone files not too long ago, but there doesn't seem to be a potential panel related to that.
-The panels immediately following the opening ceremony are Legion and StarCraft II (running simultaneously), which probably isn't shocking given they're both coming out very soon.

Friday: http://us.battle.net/blizzcon/en/event-info/schedule/friday
Saturday: http://us.battle.net/blizzcon/en/event-info/schedule/saturday
 

Nokterian

Member
Diablo 3:
-"Join the Diablo development team to learn about new zones, new sets and legendary powers, new monsters, new features, and more."
-There's only one panel here so neither the next expansion pack nor Diablo 4 are unveiling in all likelihood

Most excited for this new info on patch 2.4 this game has sucking up all my free time with kanai's cube this game is so damn good still a few things to make it better but it is way better anyway than 3 years ago.

Looking forward to a lot of panels really but i do hope Legion is coming out fast because i stopped playing WoD became such a bore :(
 

HORRORSHØW

Member
Diablo 3:
-"Join the Diablo development team to learn about new zones, new sets and legendary powers, new monsters, new features, and more."
yay
-There's only one panel here so neither the next expansion pack nor Diablo 4 are unveiling in all likelihood.
boo
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Diablo 3:
-"Join the Diablo development team to learn about new zones, new sets and legendary powers, new monsters, new features, and more."
-There's only one panel here so neither the next expansion pack nor Diablo 4 are unveiling in all likelihood

Most excited for this new info on patch 2.4 this game has sucking up all my free time with kanai's cube this game is so damn good still a few things to make it better but it is way better anyway than 3 years ago.
In the event you missed it, they covered a lot of what might be in 2.4 here: http://www.diablofans.com/news/48510-reddit-q-a-round-up
 
Will probably check this out since I always do. Interested to see when I'll get to play Overwatch. Not been super interested in most other Blizz games lately.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr

Only in the event they don't have a panel and are just announced in the opening ceremony. I guess they could have a really short panel appended to the end of the StarCraft II panel, but it strikes me as more likely that they just want people to move over to the last 30 minutes WoW stream when that finishes.
 

TheTrain

Member
...
StarCraft II:
-"Hear about the future of StarCraft II, including plans to continue enhancing the gameplay experience beyond Legacy of the Void's launch."
-A panel on ladder changes, their feedback from the beta, and some ideas they have for the future.
-A panel on sound effects and music.
...

Give me all
This year I'll probably buy the digital ticket.
 

Xis

Member
Would this make this the first Blizzcon with no new announcements? Seems so weird to have spilled the beans on Legion early if they weren't saving Blizzcon for something else.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Chances of announcements for a Diablo 3 addon
With only one Diablo 3 panel (less than any other game) that is seemingly about Diablo 3 patches, the outlook is very poor.

and a console version of Hearthstone?
This is mostly improbable due to console vendors not letting you play with other platforms, especially each other. Hearthstone shares a card collection across PC, iOS, and Android.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
At this point I think they're just planning to make Diablo 4.

They had an interview where they mentioned they thought Diablo 3 was in a really good place with how they could just do patch content updates, which along with the time gap suggests to me that the "unannounced project" is simply the next mainline game.
 

Dark_castle

Junior Member
Didn't Blizzard already internally confirmed a second expansion to Diablo 3 based on a schedule? D3 vanilla on 2012, D3:ROS on 2014, and D3: second expansion on 2016. If that's the case, this year's Blizzcon would be the perfect time to announce it.
 

Nokterian

Member
With only one Diablo 3 panel (less than any other game) that is seemingly about Diablo 3 patches, the outlook is very poor.


This is mostly improbable due to console vendors not letting you play with other platforms, especially each other. Hearthstone shares a card collection across PC, iOS, and Android.

I don't think so Diablo 3 RoS sold very very well on both PC and consoles. Maybe next blizzcon a new expansion but for now some great patches that makes the game even better well every patch is nearly a expansion anyway see 2.3.
 

Nere

Member
At this point I think they're just planning to make Diablo 4.

They had an interview where they mentioned they thought Diablo 3 was in a really good place with how they could just do patch content updates, which along with the time gap suggests to me that the "unannounced project" is simply the next mainline game.

I really hope you are wrong. Diablo 3 would really benefit from a new expansion and a new class, the game has improved extremely much since the lackluster release but it could go even further.
 

Interfectum

Member
They are juggling a lot of games. Do they have an internal team we know of that is sitting idle (from our perspective) right now?
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
I don't think so Diablo 3 RoS sold very very well on both PC and consoles. Maybe next blizzcon a new expansion but for now some great patches that makes the game even better well every patch is nearly a expansion anyway see 2.3.

Diablo 3 released in May 2012.

Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls release in March 2014.

Blizzcon is happening in November 2015, for which they'd presumably unveil any game releasing before 2017.

I don't know, the timing doesn't seem to line up to me. I guess they could do a PAX East unveil for a Fall release, but GamesCom has so far always been titles for the year after.

They're also presumably not rebuilding the whole game this time if they made one so you'd expect it to not take an additional year or two over Reaper of Souls.

They are juggling a lot of games. Do they have an internal team we know of that is sitting idle (from our perspective) right now?
They hired a few people for an unannounced Warcraft project seemingly separate from their RTS team, but haven't had more openings in a while, so I'm guessing it's very early.

By the time Overwatch unveiled they had 12+ unannounced project openings.
 

Finaj

Member
I imagine the Legion beta will launch just before/after Blizzcon. Blizzard can't really afford to wait any longer.

Nothing for the movie? Going to show the trailer at opening ceremony I hope

The director said the trailer would be there.
 

Heigic

Member
Sad if there is no D3 expansion.. maybe they are just not shown yet. How did they hide the Overwatch panels last year? 1 panel seems like a very small amount of content for D3.
 
Looking forward to a lot of panels really but i do hope Legion is coming out fast because i stopped playing WoD became such a bore :(

I'd pretty much be done with WoD too if I wasn't mythic raiding. Still need at least 3-4 months at the minimum in all likelihood to clear HFC at my current pace on a 6 hour raid week. So I'm fine with Legion gestating awhile. And that's just to clear, let alone farm mounts, when only 1 drops at a time now.
 

Trickster

Member
Why the fuck announce the WoW expansion if that leaves you with nothing to unveil at blizzcon?

This might just be the first blizzcon where I just don't care enough to watch it.
 

Vanillalite

Ask me about the GAF Notebook
Co-op Hearth?!?!?!

giphy.gif
 

Xyphie

Member
I wish they'd be brave enough to just make a Diablo 3: Adventure Mode expansion if they do another one. I really don't care about another story mode act I'd only play once.
 
Didn't Blizzard already internally confirmed a second expansion to Diablo 3 based on a schedule? D3 vanilla on 2012, D3:ROS on 2014, and D3: second expansion on 2016. If that's the case, this year's Blizzcon would be the perfect time to announce it.

I can see them announcing it at some other big conventions, my bet is at PAX East 2016.
 
R

Rösti

Unconfirmed Member
I am very eager to learn more about World of Warcraft: Legion. Overwatch beta interests me too. I won't be attending this year, though some from my WoW guild are.

Also, the Activision Blizzard Third Quarter Calendar 2015 Results Conference Call is tentatively scheduled to happen right before BlizzCon, so we'll get updated subscription numbers the same week as the show.
 
I just want Warcraft 3 on the launcher (to bring in a wider audience) and with native widescreen support (so I can leave my registry alone).
 
World of Warcraft: Legion:
-Tour of the new content including dungeons, zones, raid, the plotline, and "a sneak peak at upcoming features".
-A deep dive on said above features.

-A panel about the CG cinematic.
-A Q&A session.

If it's a honest list this time it's going to be like 4 things.
 

Interfectum

Member
Rösti;181159922 said:
I am very eager to learn more about World of Warcraft: Legion. Overwatch beta interests me too. I won't be attending this year, though some from my WoW guild are.

Also, the Activision Blizzard Third Quarter Calendar 2015 Results Conference Call is tentatively scheduled to happen right before BlizzCon, so we'll get updated subscription numbers the same week as the show.

That should be interesting. I can't imagine the subs are getting any better. I wonder if they've leveled off yet.
 
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