Diablo V and StarCraft Shooter Were Announced Years in Advance to 'Convey Confidence' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 13 September 2026 / 1,527 Views
Blizzard Entertainment at BlizzCon announced the next entry in the popular action RPG series, Diablo V, with a spring 2029 release window and and open-world shooter set in the StarCraft universe with a 2030 release window.
Blizzard president Johanna Faries told Bloomberg the reason the games were announced years before the release was to "convey confidence."
"We want to convey confidence in some of our biggest bets coming forward," said Faries. "We're a Blizzard that's going to ship, and ship big, and ship on time, and all hands on deck to set those projects up for success."
Faries did not comment on the potential lay offs at Blizzard as Xbox plans to cut another 1,600 employees during the current fiscal year.
"I'm completely focused on creating as healthy a Blizzard as possible," she said. Faries added, "The unique special sauce that is Blizzard both culturally and creatively. And to the extent that we can perform well for Microsoft, I think that should be seen as a mutual win."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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This is not really different to a Bethesda announcing TES6 in 2018.
It doesn't convey confidence, it conveys irritation and confusion. A lot can happen in 4 years so unlikely those release dates are set in stone.
They were confident about Starcraft: Ghost...
To gain confidence? to say "we're blizzard" ? huh? That seems weak.... You should know who you are, and not fear MS cutting you, for not announcing upcoming projects ect.
I mean, we’ve been used to it for over 25 years now lol
Announcing a game years in advance often ends well.
I'm guessing the both are live service games. MS certainly has studios that could handle a shooter.
This sounds like a consult idea: something that seems like it makes sense if you're out of touch with actual consumers but doesn't feel like it makes sense if you're actually a consumer.
I imagine they've been announced this soon to inspire confidence, allright. But in the eyes of MS and investers, not the public. The public dreads these long-term announcements more and more (TES VI, anyone?), only avoiding the scythe makes sense for something like this.
