It is finally that time of the year. BlizzCon is coming, and so are huge updates and new releases for Blizzard fans. BlizzCon 2016 this year is a landmark event that will sum up Blizzard's 25 years of history. What announcements will strike us this year? There are many clues scattered around the Internet that can give you a better idea of what will happen. We collected them for you to check out.

Any News from the Sanctuary?

With the recent hype surrounding a leaked image of what seems to be artwork for Necromancer, it is likely that the Diablo team will make a major announcement this weekend. Many fans are expecting Diablo to celebrate its 20th birthday in style, but no reliable information has been released yet.

Fans' guesses span from a huge patch - think 2.1.0 - to an entirely new Diablo 4, but it seems that the highest probability is the release of a new expansion. It has been five years since Diablo 3 began service, three since Reaper of Souls came out. It seems reasonable for Diablo to release another expansion set this year. We can of course hope for Diablo 4, but it seems just too early considering Blizzard's past behavior and Diablo 3's not yet fully unfurled storyline.

Farewell to Battle.net

This year's BlizzCon will mark Battle.net's last. Blizzard announced on September that Battle.net will be rebranded with a dfferent name that can represent Blizzard better. The company has since been trying to move away from Battle.net as shown in announcing its new streaming program as "Blizzard Streaming" and voice chat service as "Blizzard Voice Chat."

Battle.net was an iconic name in gaming culture that brought 20th century gamers to the realm of online multiplayer, and we will see at BlizzCon how Battle.net's two decades of history close and what new name will be representing Blizzard's online service platform.

Gadgetzan comes to HearthStone

With its Year of the Kraken announcement, Blizzard established an annual plan to release two card packs and an adventure mode. Whispers of the Old Gods was released on April, and One Night in Karazhan on August, which means Blizzard still has to release another card pack according to plan. This upcoming BlizzCon looks to be the perfect timing for such an update, so it seems fit to say that we can expect a new card pack for Hearthstone this weekend.

Remaster: Will the glorious veterans make a comeback?

Ever since game companies began to release their older games' remastered titles, there has been an undying discussion surrounding whether if Blizzard would remaster some of its bestsellers to fit modern platforms. StarCraft, Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3 are Blizzard's most successful titles; they have made the company into what it is today. Blizzard's recruitment post on August suggested that the company might actually release a remastered version of its older-era bestsellers.

"We're restoring them to glory, and we need your engineering talents, your passion, and your ability to get tough jobs done." 

StarCraft 1 saw its league revived recently, and Warcraft 3 still maintains a lively competitive scene, especially in China. Diablo 2 also is still remembered by many, and Diablo's 20th anniversary adds just another reason for fans to expect a Diablo 2 remaster.
 

Will Thrall make his debut as a movie star?

The Warcraft movie has received much criticism largely due to its weak plot and deviation from the original story. The movie showed weak sales volume in most countries, but in China the movie has earned at least $200m in profit.

The movie's Chinese success will have given Blizzard more motivation to create a sequel featuring Thrall, the character that can appeal to the broadest spectrum of Warcraft fans. If Blizzard decides to make another Warcraft movie, BlizzCon would be the best stage to announce such a plan.

Who will be the next hero to enter the Nexus?

Heroes of the Storm is also expected to introduce more heroes and battlegrounds at BlizzCon, and there are many question marks surrounding who the next hero would be. According to an interview with Kent-Erik Hagman, the new hero is someone who can "do mean things to their enemies and help out their allies." Based on the comment, fans have put Varian Wrynn, Arcturus Mengsk, and D.Va on potential heroes list.

Arcturus is on the list just because he did a lot of mean things, but D.Va is a hero who actually does mean things to the enemies and helps her allies. The fact that there are only two Overwatch heroes in the Storm makes it seem more possible. A new battleground as well may be based on Overwatch, as there is no battleground based on Overwatch yet. Overwatch maps also have distinguishable sides and iconic map objectives, so it seems to fit well as battlegrounds in HotS. There are many possible options, and we are expecting to hear big HotS news at BlizzCon.

The world could always use more heroes. Yes, Sombra, I am talking to you.

The year's biggest blockbuster, Overwatch, has recruited more than 20 million heroes so far since its release in May. Overwatch's success is especially apparent in the Korean game market, as it ended years of LoL dominance in Korean PC Bangs. Although it is hard to expect a major update for the game yet, we can still expect a new hero or map; the now tiresome Sombra ARG is still running, and Jeff Kaplan has already revealed the team is working on a new map. Will Sombra finally reveal herself? I truly hope so, for these easter eggs and leaks have been around for far too long.

What is Blizzard's vision for Overwatch eSports?

In an interview with GosuGamers, Bobby Kotick said Blizzard will be hosting an official Overwatch league. While there is no further information about exactly how the company is planning to work it out, we expect further details about Overwatch's competitive scene to be revealed at BlizzCon.

Any news from Tom Chilton?

Back in October, WoW made an official post announcing that Tom Chilton decided to leave their team, but did not reveal where he was leaving. All we know about Chilton's whereabouts is that he is "moving onto a new adventure within Blizzard." The mysterious departure of the main director of such a successful title was enough for fans to get excited. Although Blizzard has not always been successful with their new projects, this is surely worthy of expectation.

A meaningful year that sums up Blizzard's history

The year 2016 is a very meaningful year to Blizzard. Not only does this year mark the 20th anniversary of Diablo, it is also Blizzard's 25th anniversary, along with the 10th anniversary of BlizzCon. Events celebrating Diablo's 20th anniversary will be held both in and out of Anaheim Convention Center, which will surely be worth watching.