At BlizzCon 2023, the Developers Lay Out Their Own Marvel Cinematic Universe

ign.com:

Sitting in the press room, watching the BlizzCon 2023 opening ceremony this year as returning Warcraft Executive Creative Director Chris Metzen take the stage to reveal the next three World of Warcraft expansions, I was reminded of Marvel’s Kevin Feige announcing entire new slates of movies coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe at Comic-Con.

This level of transparency is rare in the video game world, and it wasn’t just Metzen’s Warcraft team embracing it, either.

For Overwatch 2, director Aaron Keller announced not only one new hero, Magua, but also the next hero, Venture, and even the concept for the hero after that, codenamed “Space Ranger.” During the Diablo 4 segment the team teased the first expansion, Vessel of Hatred, just six months after the launch of the base game. Hearthstone was demoing a co-op Duos mode on the show floor — months before a proper 2024 launch, and World of Warcraft announced the next three expansions as part of the newly christened “Worldsoul Saga.”

Across all of Blizzard’s main, existing properties, the devs have pursued a strategy of transparency it seems. Beyond just announcing the next big thing, they shared details on things that are some way off, even if they were in incredibly early states like Overwatch 2’s third announced hero, who doesn’t even have an official name yet. It’s a radical departure from the shroud of secrecy that usually envelops the games industry.

“Yes, a hundred percent,” says World of Warcraft executive producer Holly Longdale when asked whether this transparency is a new company initiative. During an interview with IGN at BlizzCon, Longdale tells us, “at the end of day, we exist because of the communities we have, and our fans are so dedicated as you’ve probably seen