Blizzcon Schedule: Four "Coming Soon" Panels that are Free to Watch

Blizzard released the schedule for the convention coming in a week and a half, and there's some curious stuff there.

On the main stage, after the opening ceremonies, there will be four panels. None of these have been given names, but they will be free to watch, which is usually only allowed for those opening ceremonies when they do the very initial announcements - playing announcement trailers and such.

There have been rumors coming from Blizzard employees that this is going to be a very big Blizzcon, and this does seem to play into that rumor.

Here are my general predictions:

We're obviously getting a new WoW expansion, though I also wonder if it's going to be a bigger one than usual. With the conclusion of the faction war, we might see a fundamental shift to the way that the game handles its two rival sides. Indeed, if 8.3 is supposed to see the longterm (though I would never say permanent) defeat of the Old Gods, it would mean that the background villain that has been there for all of WoW (though only retroactively through all of Warcraft) has been dealt with. I don't think we're ever going to get a WoW 2 (or rather, I'd argue that we got it back in 2007 and it was called Burning Crusade) but I wouldn't be surprised if we get an expansion with a more radical redesign of the game - possibly as big as Cataclysm.

Next, I think Diablo IV is looking more and more likely, especially after a German magazine seemed to spoil that announcement. Diablo players have been waiting for a new game for a long time, and I think part of the reason Blizzard was caught off guard by the uproar over Diablo Immortal was that they would never have thought of it as "replacing" a true sequel because they already knew the real sequel was in the works. What Diablo IV is going to be like, however, remains to be seen - Reaper of Souls ended on a scary note - is Tyrael going to turn on humanity, or perhaps are the Nephalem going to be the new villains?

Another big speculation/rumor is that we could get a sequel to Overwatch. The real hope for that would be one that has a single-player mode. Overwatch has a deep well of lore that, frustratingly, is almost entirely absent from the game itself. Having a game where we could play through the story and also allow said story to evolve would be pretty exciting.

Now, the fourth panel could be for another one of Blizzard's major franchises. Or, it could be for a new IP. Blizzard is of course very conservative in creating new franchises - Hearthstone is really part of the Warcraft brand and Heroes of the Storm is just a Smash Bros.-like mishmash of their brands. That means the gap between their two most recent IPs, Overwatch and Diablo, was over a decade. Meanwhile, their most iconic one (except perhaps if you live in South Korea) is 25 years old this year.

Anyway, the rumor mill should be kicking into high gear.