Blizzard Entertainment is turning 35 and they want everyone to know it.
“While tonight for ‘Diablo’ is such a masthead moment for the franchise, in many ways, we think of it as a kickstart to this huge 2026 for Blizzard, all up,” Blizzard Entertainment president Johanna Faries told Variety during an interview ahead of The Game Awards in Los Angles on Dec. 11, where Blizzard’s “Diablo IV” unveiled a buzzy new update. “And if you’re a Blizzard fan or you’re curious about any of our major franchises, the teams are cooking on major swings. And I think we just have a tremendous amount of pride in what’s going to come forward, not just at BlizzCon, but even in the run up to BlizzCon here. So all hands on deck, but it’s a very exciting time.”
The big Blizzard moments Faries is pointing to include “World of Warcraft’s” much-anticipated “Midnight” expansion in March; the “Diablo” franchise’s 30th anniversary and “Diablo IV’s” “Lord of Hatred” update and; and the 10th anniversary of “Overwatch.”
And perhaps the most important one of all: the September return of BlizzCon, the beloved fan convention hosted by Blizzard Entertainment at the Anaheim Convention Center, which was skipped in 2024 and 2025 following Microsoft’s acquisition of the company in 2023.
“The teams across Blizzard entirely, as an organization, are gearing up for what we hope to be the biggest year yet for Blizzard, and we take that statement very seriously,” said Faries, who joined Blizzard as president in 2024, following two years as general manager of the “Call of Duty” franchise at sister company Activision. “And it’s all part of this new, bold vision for the future, as I mentioned before.”
Faries, who spent more than 10 years in business and marketing exec roles at the NFL, says the message behind the stacked year is Blizzard is “investing in this iconic IP that we have across our entire portfolio, and really thinking about modernizing it, surprising and delighting our fans, being beholden to legacy where it matters, but also really doing some fresh takes that really put us into the next decade or three decades, now that we’re 35 years old, that put us at the industry dominance level that we always aspire to be at.”
When it came to bringing back BlizzCon, Faries says the delay was less about new ownership under Microsoft and more about “really giving our employees time to put on the best show possible for our community.”
“This is all about gathering together as fans of Blizzard. And to see even the early response and announcing our ticket sales has been a tremendous indicator that there’s a lot of demand to come back together as one,” Faries said.
The process was then about taking notes from previous editions of the event, with Faries and her team looking to strike the same tone as previous leadership while bringing in new ideas.
“We really think about, what would speak to our fans? What do they want to see? What’s bread and butter expectation? What are the surprises that we can bring? How do we expand the scope of what BlizzCon can be?” Faries said. “And I think that docks to part of the vision that we talk about a lot, that we want to continue to aspire to be the best gaming and entertainment company in the world. And BlizzCon in ’26 hopefully puts us in a position to really reflect that ambition in a bigger way. So I have total confidence that the teams are going to come very, very big, both with the heart and soul of what I think our core-most fans long for in a BlizzCon, but also bringing some very new things to the table.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source variety.com ’
