BlizzCon 2023's Opening Ceremony Live Blog - Keeping Up With All Of Today's Big Announcements

And that's a wrap! We'll have more detailed articles today talking about all the announcements made during the opening ceremony. What are you looking forward to most?

The World Within brings new zones for players to explore, Delves to tackle, and new dungeons and raids.

Also coming are Warbands, where character alts will share reputation, bank, and more. The Earthen Dwarves are also coming as the next allied race. 

The War Within will release next year, and to learn more the WoW panel will take place this afternoon to showcase even more.

Anduin, a man with a thousand-mile stare, opens up this "small moment" Metzen sets up, in an incredible-looking CG trailer. It seems Thrall has come with Anduin needing to take up his sword again to save the World...of Warcraft

Also, Blizzard is no longer ignoring the giant sword sticking out of the ground.

 

In this chapter, players will return to the "Old World," the fabled lands of "Quel'Thalas" in World of Warcraft: Midnight - the MMO's 11th expansion.

And the third expansion to be revealed, with Metzen saying that "things might not go to plan." World of Warcraft: The Last Titan is the third part of the World Soul Saga, returning to the old world - Northrend itself - where players will witness the return of the Titans to Azeroth.

The next three expansions are now going to be revealed instead of just the one, which meets with approval.

The 10th expansion is called World of Warcraft: The War Within. Players will descend into the hearth of Azeroth itself. 

"What the hell has Magni actually been babbling about all these years?"

"Will there finally be an apocalyptic confrontation between the forces of the Light and the Void?"

"What exactly have the Titans been doing since the dawn of civilization?"

Metzen sets up all of these hooks - "and a bunch more" are "cooking in the pot."

Metzen seems fired-up - and his energy here is infectious. He is teasing the culmination of the first 20 years of storyline, leading into the next 20 years of adventure.

World of Warcraft's The WorldSoul Saga apparently cannot be contained in a single expansion, and instead will play out over multiple expansions over the next few years.

Metzen also teases getting this story to players faster than they are used to - though no actual information is given here today.

"It feels amazing to be back and part of this Blizzard family again," Metzen says on stage. The crowd seems to agree, going legit crazy at the mere sight of Metzen back in a Blizzard T-Shirt.

Metzen sets up the next expansion, talking about what "single story" could match the occasion of World of Warcraft's 20th anniversary.

World of Warcraft's next expansion is revealed by Chris Metzen, returning to the BlizzCon stage after time away from the company. 

Next up is Modern World of Warcraft, with Guardians of the Dream coming in just five days.

There is a lot more to come in Dragonflight, with Longdale teasing the content as both an epilogue and a bridge to the next expansion.

World of Warcraft Cataclysm Classic is coming early next year. 

WoW Classic is getting another way to play as well, Season of Discovery, with game altering changes. From a "warlock tank" to a "healing mage," Season of Discovery will launch on November 30th with zero public testing as well. It's going to be an interesting time.

Longdale on stage tees up the full World of Warcraft team with a great intro. Now, onto WoW Classic. 

Classic Hardcore got one of the loudest cheers of the day, with a new way to play Hardcore early next year - though nothing was actually said about this new way to play.

World of Warcraft Cataclysm Classic was officially announced, with #changes based on feedback from the community.

Let's get Classical - Holly Longdale arrived on stage in full cosplay, thus reminding us just how epic she truly is.

Season 1 for Warcraft Rumble is live with today's launch, bringing Sylvanas herself in mini form with today's launch. Raids are also coming, giving more ways to play and challenge Rumble players.

Warcraft Rumble is meant to give everyone what they "love" about World of Warcraft in what they call, "Joyful Chaos." The idea here is to give players something fun to do everytime they open up the game, whether it's for hours or simply 5 minutes.

The mobile game was released last night, giving players who have phones access right away.

Warcraft Rumble, the latest proof we all have phones, is next up, with a cool, quirky trailer highlighting the mini figures you can collect in the mobile game.

New Mode coming to Hearthstone - team games coming to the card game. A "truly cooperative way to play," Battlegrounds Duos. 

A shared health pool, dual combat, and more, Duos allow players to play with a friend instead of against a friend. Planning to launch it early next year.

Singleton decks, Hearthstone's first ever Neutral Hero Card, and more are coming with Showdown of the Badlands, which releases on November 14th. More cards and details are going to be revealed at the What's Next Hearthstone panel this weekend.

The Hearthstone team is also releasing catch-up packs to help new and returning players, erm, catch up their collections to the current standard meta. All players will have catch-up packs to open, with catch-up packs giving up to 50 cards when cracked, as opposed to the regular packs of 5 cards.

Hearthstone is soon to be 10 years old (I can't believe it either), with events planned for next March. However, in the meantime, players can jump into Azeroth's Wild West with Showdown in the Badlands, Hearthstone's next expansion.

John Hight goes through the various games that inhabit the Warcraft universe, from Hearthstone to the newly released Warcraft Rumble, to the World of Warcraft - the team is committed to setting up the next 30 years of Warcraft.

World of Warcraft is next - or rather the Warcraft universe in general - with a montage trailer showcasing highlights from around the franchise over the last thirty years.

John Hight takes the stage to kick things off for Blizzard's flagship IP.

The Diablo IV team teased the ARPG's first expansion, Vessel of the Hatred. The expansion brings players to a familiar location from Diablo II, with a brand new class never before seen in Diablo before. More details are coming in a panel tomorrow.

New updates coming to Diablo IV, including new Malignant Rings, a new six-week event, Abbotoir of Zir, Enchantment Window Preview, and a new seasonal event - Midwinter Blight.

Diablo IV will also be adding the Gauntlet with Leaderboards.

No joke, when Chris Wilson was announced, I had to double take thinking that Path of Exile had fully overtaken Diablo in every respect now.

Wilson and Tiffany Wat start out by breaking down the changes the Diablo IV team has made since the ARPG launched, such as the ability to reach level 100 40% faster than Season 1, QoL improvements including seasonal rewards carrying over, additional character slots and more.

Rod Ferguson takes the stage, setting up Diablo's segment - complete with tattoo.

60% of Diablo Immortal players apparently have never played a Diablo game before, which is an interesting stat - and something that likely drives that team forward.

Diablo IV is next with a trailer montage of streamers and content creators playing the ARPG.

A few things for next year.

A new competitive mode - Clash - is coming, with a point and capture system. 5 points are up for grabs, with teams needing to capture these points, or reach the point total, to win. The first clash map is a revamp of an original map, a revision of Hanamura called Hanaoka.

Three new heroes are coming in 2024 as well, a new DPS hero, Venture, and another hero codenamed Space Ranger. Mauga, for his part, is available to play all weekend both here at BlizzCon and at home for the weekend.

The collaboration with KPop Le Seeraphim continues in person, with the band playing tomorrow at BlizzCon itself. Should be a fun!

The Overwatch World Cup Final is happening live here at BlizzCon 2023, with teams from all over the world competing for what could be the final cup championship. Over $500K USD is on the line in the world cup. Each player, though, will earn a share of the pot, with the winning team taking the lion's share.

Mauga was first introduced in a side story four years ago, so it's cool to finally see the hero in the flesh joining the game. The team strove for authenticity in his character design - much like Rogers says they do for every hero. As such, even the tattoo on Mauga's large frame is made by an excellent Somoan tattoo artist.

Later today, a Mauga deep dive panel is happening later, with the new hero joining the roster of heroes with Season 8. 

Art Director Dion Rogers takes the stage to showcase the first major announcement for Overwatch 2. Rogers is on stage to reveal the new hero. The latest hero is a Tank with massive gatling guns, Mauga. His chainguns have names too - Gunny and Cha-Cha. The name in Samoan means Mountain.

Overwatch 2 Game Director Aaron Keller takes the stage to kick off the game announcements. We know a new hero - a Tank hero - is being revealed today. 

Apparently, DVa's Mech has crushed people over 26 million times since Overwatch 2 last year. So, that's cool.

After a really awkward pause, Ybarra officially welcomed people to BlizzCon as a new Overwatch trailer started to roll. So here come the announcements!

Spencer promises that Xbox will "nurture the essence of what makes Blizzard unique." 

Hopefully this means we see Blizzard's hallmark creativity come back to the fore, as many have felt it waned in recent years under Activision.

"The future of Blizzard is brighter than ever," Spencer says.

"Both Blizzard and Xbox believe that gaming is a unifier," Ybarra says on stage, referencing the recent 68.7 billion dollar acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Also, a wild Phil Spencer appeared, marking the second MMO-adjacent fan festival he's appeared at this year. It's Phil's first BlizzCon ever - meaning he just needed to spend almost 69 billion to finally attend. Also, he mentioned Starcraft, so you know...here's to hoping. No T-Shirt tease, though.

Despite reports of lagging in-person ticket sales, Ybarra confirms that there are "tens of thousands" of attendees.

As someone who walked past that line this morning, it didn't feel like ticket sales were slowed, that's for sure.

The president of Blizzard Entertainment, Mike Ybarra, takes the stage to kick things off this morning, kicking off the first official BlizzCon since The Before Times. Four years, "That's too damn long," according to Ybarra.

The crowd likely agrees.