This weekend BlizzCon will return after a two-year hiatus. The convention's longer-than-usual absence means that Blizzard has a lot of juicy reveals stored up for fans.
Here's a short list of what I'm expecting to see from BlizzCon 2013. Some of them are sure things while the others are educated guesses. I've roughly ordered them from most likely to least likely.
Full details on Diablo 3: Reaper Of Souls
Reaper of Souls, the first expansion pack to D3, is going to be playable on both PC and PS4 at the convention. Blizzard's already released a ton of information on its features so I expect them to clear up any lingering mysteries about it. For example, they could reveal the release date. They could also clear up what's going on with the PS4 version. Will Reapers be bundled with the full version on that console? Will it hit the PS4 and PC at the same time? Will the other consoles get the new content, too?
World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor announcement
This weekend Blizzard registered the title Warlords of Draenor in New Zealand and Australia. Everyone on the Internet and I speculated that it might be a new WoW expansion set on the orcs' homeworld. Since we published that article, Blizzard has registered the same title in the United States and Europe. The company tends to release WoW expansions every two years and announce them one year prior to launch so a Draenor reveal seems likely. If past history is any indication, we'll see a teaser trailer and learn some of the key features of the expansion.
Heroes of the Storm beta information
Heroes of the Storm, the latest name for Blizzard All-Stars and Blizzard DOTA, is a battle royale of assorted Blizzard characters. Activision announced yesterday that this free-to-play MOBA title will be playable at BlizzCon. We'll be receiving plenty of details on the gameplay from the press and fans who get their mitts on the game. I'd be surprised if Blizzard doesn't mention when the rest of the world will get a chance to try the beta version. MMO Champion notes that Blizzard updated the Battle.net Beta Profile page with a new image for Heroes of the Storm. This suggests that players will soon be able to opt into the Heroes beta through their profiles.
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft open beta date
Hearthstone, a collectible card game featuring characters from Warcraft lore, entered closed beta back in August. In the months since, Blizzard has been inviting waves and waves of additional players. The next logical step seems to be a beta open to any and all players who want to sign up. The company already announced that BlizzCon attendees will get a bonus card for the game. The gift would be even better if every attendee had the ability to start playing right away.
StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void reveal
The single-player campaign for StarCraft 2 will be wrapped up with a second expansion pack called Legacy of the Void that focuses on the Protoss. We've known that for years but Blizzard hasn't officially announced Void yet. Why not throw those SC2 fans a bone? Still, previous expansion Heart of the Swarm is less than a year old so Void is probably far off. Blizzard might decide not to talk about the expansion in favor of focusing their attention on all the other announcements they need to make. It wouldn't be a huge shock if they dropped a teaser trailer or something small, though.
If you have any other predictions for the convention, let us know in the comments below.
