Blizzard is exhibiting at Gamescom, which is taking place digitally this year. That would not be unusual if the developer had not skipped Gamescom 2019. From this it can be deduced that Blizzard is worth participating again this year: So are some announcements following?
What does Blizzard plan to do with Gamescom this year? The Californians have to have a plan behind it, otherwise they would probably not have decided to participate in the purely digital version of Gamescom in the Corona year of all places. There are certainly reasons for the activity.
Shadowlands release? Or is it Diablo Immortal?
In principle, several scenarios are conceivable: Blizzard could announce the release date of the eighth expansion for World of Warcraft at Gamescom 2020 or share news from the Diablo universe with the fans - or it is a mixture of both.
Update, August 27th: World of Warcraft: Shadowlands has a release date! As Blizzard announced via the Gamesom opening show, the addon will officially be released on October 27th. Here is the trailer:
The Corona year is anything but ideal for fully rolling out the marketing for games. What is missing worldwide are the trade and public fairs, with which developers and publishers not only reach several hundred thousand fans on site, but also millions via live streams, videos or podcasts. At least the online formats will also be served this year, probably more than ever before. Blizzard is probably planning to take advantage of this fact, and the company is using Gamescom 2020 as a platform, among other things. From August 27th to 30th there will also be content from Blizzard games. Because the "fair time" has to be filled, it can be assumed that Blizzard will have some announcements, or at least new information, in its luggage.
Will Blizzard announce the release date of Shadowlands at Gamescom 2020? Copyright: Blizzard
The release of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is planned for this year, and it will probably be in the fall of 2020. So it's not unrealistic that Blizzard will finally announce a specific release date at Gamescom. The time for this is ideal: The Shadowlands Beta runs that Contents of the Collector's Edition have also long been known, and there is also a lot of information on gameplay and the new features of the eighth expansion. Blizzard could not present much new to WoW: Shadowlands - except for the release date.
It is also possible that Blizzard will present new information from the Diablo universe. This could be news about Diablo 4 or - and it is much more likely - some information about Diablo: Immortal. The mobile game for Diablo was quiet for a long time, perhaps also because the response to the game was rather subdued. There is probably information about Diablo: Immortal mainly because a new trailer only appeared at the ChinaJoy gaming fair. So something is happening with the mobile Hack'n Slay offshoot:
The new trailer shows gameplay and among other things the revised models of all playable characters: i.e. paladin, sorceress, necromancer, monk, barbarian and demon hunter. These are shown in more detail and the overall style is much more "Diablo-like".
Diablo: Immortal should be released in summer 2020, that was the original plan. However, there is no official release date yet. It stands to reason that Blizzard will use Gamescom 2020 to make a corresponding announcement - or maybe even roll out the game during the event period of the digital fair.
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