Show notes
BlizzCon 2026 handed out a StarCraft open world shooter that does not land until 2030, a Diablo 5 release window in spring 2029, and a plan to turn World of Warcraft Classic into something called World of Warcraft Forever. Frank and Squeaks were both on the floor for all of it, and they came back with announcement reactions, three hour lines, a Todd McFarlane signature, and Matt Mercer running an Overwatch tabletop game in front of 8,000 people. The Warcraft talk takes up most of the hour, and for good reason. World of Warcraft Forever adds new races, new zones, dungeons and raids to the Classic version of Azeroth, including undead paladins for the Horde, with a beta starting next Thursday ahead of a November 4 launch. Frank played the five man dungeon demo on the show floor and came out talking about how much real communication a slower pace forces back into a group, while Squeaks, who has never touched Classic, walked away planning a warlock. On the retail side, the Eclipse patch and the language Blizzard kept using about closing out twenty years of story push the two of them into a long argument about whether the next expansion ends World of Warcraft and starts World of Warcraft 2 on a modern engine. Elsewhere: Diablo 4 gets Hell's Legacy with Deckard Cain back as the storyteller, a Diablo animated series is coming to Netflix with Overwatch and Warcraft adaptations teased behind it, Overwatch introduces a vampire healer whose backstory and voice were built around the actor playing him, and Wrath of the Lich King Remix only got revealed if you sat through the deep dive panel. The crowd is the one sore spot, with Frank putting attendance near 75,000 against the 40,000 to 50,000 of past years and both hosts stuck in two and three hour lines for the store and the Darkmoon Faire. 0:00 Intro and BlizzCon 2026 First Impressions 3:36 Meeting Todd McFarlane and Watching Matt Mercer Run Overwatch 6:08 Oversold Crowds, Three Hour Lines, and a Dry BlizzCon 10:06 StarCraft Returns as an Open World Shooter 14:22 Diablo 5 in 2029, Hell's Legacy, and Deckard Cain 19:52 The Diablo Animated Series on Netflix 21:28 World of Warcraft Forever and the Classic Overhaul 29:07 Eclipse, the Titans, and the Case for World of Warcraft 2 38:12 Overwatch's Newest Hero and the Wrath Remix Reveal 41:31 Final Day Highlights, T-Pain, and the Arena Championship 48:37 Recommendations, the Patreon Statue Vote, and the Forever Guild Key takeaways World of Warcraft Forever launches November 4 with a beta starting next Thursday, adding new races, zones, dungeons and raids to Classic, plus undead paladins for the Horde. StarCraft is back as an open world shooter set 100 years after StarCraft 2, but the 2030 date landed hard in the room, and both hosts worry about a Warhammer style game with no Protoss or Zerg to play. Diablo 5 arrives spring 2029, with Hell's Legacy bridging the gap in Diablo 4 and Deckard Cain returning to bring old bosses back for another fight. The Diablo animated series at Netflix is the adaptation Frank is most confident in, with Castlevania and Cyberpunk Edgerunners as the track record, and Overwatch and Warcraft projects teased after it. Blizzard's repeated framing about the culmination of twenty years has both hosts betting the next expansion closes the current story, with Frank arguing a true sequel is the only way past a 2004 engine. Attendance was the weekend's biggest problem, with two hour waits just to enter the convention center on Saturday and three hour waits for the store and the Darkmoon Faire. "When they put that 2030 on the screen, the air went out of the room." - Frank "I got to meet my dream comic book creator. I could be gone tomorrow and I would feel like life was fulfilled." - Squeaks, on meeting Todd McFarlane "That kind of communication is peak Warcraft, and that stuff is not said in World of Warcraft today." - Frank, on the Forever dungeon demo "We are reaching the limits of what this engine can do." - Frank, on why he thinks World of Warcraft 2 has to happen "There is a blood knight in Diablo Immortal and I love the hell out of it. I named him Squeaks Belmont." - Squeaks Every story covered in this episode comes from GeekFreaksPodcast.com, the source for all news discussed on the show. If you have not subscribed yet, do it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so the next one shows up automatically, and leave a rating or review while you are there. Send this episode to the friend who quit World of Warcraft back in Cataclysm, because Forever is aimed directly at them. #GeekFreaksPodcast Follow us: Instagram: @GeekFreaksPodcast TikTok: @GeekFreaksPodcast Twitter: @GeekFreaksPod Threads: https://www.threads.net/@geekfreakspodcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thegeekfreakspodcast Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GeekFreakspodcast Got a BlizzCon take we missed, a WoW Forever class you are locking in, or a prediction about World of Warcraft 2? Send us your questions, reactions, and topic ideas, and we will get to them on a future episode. We are also forming a guild for World of Warcraft Forever in both Classic and retail, so reach out if you want in.
