Blizzard announces Diablo 5 and a new open-world StarCraft

BlizzCon 2026 is here and, as part of the opening ceremony, Blizzard has announced Diablo 5 and a brand new StarCraft game called… er, StarCraft. That’s exciting news for fans of either franchise (we’ve put an awful lot of time into Diablo 4), but you’ll have to wait quite a while to get your hands on either.

How long? We’re not into ‘Todd Howard announcing Elder Scrolls 6 in 2018’ territory, but Diablo 5 is set for a 2029 release, barring any unexpected delays. Blizzard has shared a few details, as part of its Diablo 5 panel, though there’s plenty the developer is keeping under their hat.

What we do know is that you’ll enter a world where villain Diablo has already won. “Diablo is no longer a distant threat waiting at the end of the journey. He is present from the moment Diablo V begins, shaping the story, the world, and your path through it,” Blizzard states.

And, instead of conquering strongholds, you’ll put your own caravan together as you travel through this ruined world. It sounds very much as if the best result you can hope for is killing Diablo. The realm is already a wasteland and no amount of dead demons is going to fix that.

Blizzard has also revealed the game’s first three heroes, the Demon Hunter, Monk and Plague Knight. “The all-new Plague Knight is the embodiment of walking death. They roam the battlefield, spreading disease and pestilence, ultimately consuming it for power,” the developer explains. No prizes for guessing which hero we’ll be trying first.

You can watch the Diablo 5 teaser above, and Blizzard promises more updates throughout 2027. As for StarCraft, the dev has been less forthcoming about this upcoming title, possibly because it’s not out until Spring 2030. It’s set to be an open-world shooter where you battle through the Koprulu Sector.

Blizzard has yet to confirm if this will be a single-player or multiplayer title. It wouldn’t surprise us if it was the latter, and that the company is attempting to make its own Helldivers 2. But, again, we’ll have to wait to find out more. You can watch the teaser trailer above.

Other announcements from BlizzCon 2026 have included a third World of Warcraft experience, World of Warcraft: Forever, and the news that Diablo is to become a Netflix animated series. Blizzard has also dropped a huge 3.0 update for Warcraft III Reforged, which includes a new campaign.

Hopefully both Diablo 5 and StarCraft will be worth waiting for. A fifth Diablo was always likely, but switching up StarCraft’s genre (the series has traditionally been strategy) seems risky, in a time when AAA publishers are increasingly risk-averse. Let’s hope it doesn’t go the way of the cancelled StarCraft: Ghost.