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How to watch and what to expect from BlizzCon’s opening ceremony

Steven Petite
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Blizzcon
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Since 2005, BlizzCon has been the place to be for all news about current and upcoming Blizzard titles. In recent years, the annual event has seen more than 25,000 Blizzard fans flock to the Anaheim Convention Center in California to see what’s on the horizon for Blizzard franchises like World of Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo, as well as more recent sensations such as Overwatch and Hearthstone. In 2016, Blizzard revealed new modes and the hero Sombra for Overwatch, the return of the Necromancer in Diablo III, a Hearthstone expansion, and much more.

What’s on the plate for the 2017 BlizzCon keynote? We will find out soon enough and thankfully, you can watch it from the comfort of your own home (or at your work computer, we won’t tell). Here is how to watch and what to expect from BlizzCon 2017.

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How to watch

BlizzCon’s opening ceremony begins at 11 a.m. PT on Friday, November 3. To tune in, head over to the official BlizzCon website. While BlizzCon runs all day and into the night on November 3 and November 4, the opening ceremony is what you will want to watch to hear all of the biggest announcements.

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What to expect

As far as what is likely to be shown, the opening ceremony will take place across three different stages at BlizzCon — the Mythic stage, the Overwatch Arena, and the Hearthstone Tournament Stage. The names of these stages don’t necessarily mean everything, but considering that Overwatch and Hearthstone are the most active of Blizzard’s franchises recently, new Overwatch and Hearthstone reveals on their respective stages seems likely.

Blizzard’s longest running series — Diablo, StarCraft, and Warcraft — are harder to pinpoint.

We do know from a September post that Diablo won’t be represented in any major way. That means there will be nothing like last year’s Diablo III new content announcement or news of the next, inevitable Diablo game.

StarCraft: Remastered, an upscaled version of the real-time strategy game that started a phenomenon, launched in August, but don’t expect any updates on that front. Whether or not the future of StarCraft II is represented in any way at BlizzCon remains to be seen, though.

World of Warcraft‘s sixth expansion, Legion, launched just last year so it would be surprising to hear any major Warcraft news.

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Steven Petite
Steven Petite
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Steven is a writer from Northeast Ohio currently based in Louisiana. He writes about video games and books, and consumes…
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