In an announcement recently made over the game development studio's blog on battle.net, Blizzard revealed its lineup for this year's Gamescom trade fair in Cologne, Germany. The studio will be unveiling new content and new developments for Overwatch, Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm, StarCraft, and, of course, Diablo. You can catch the live preview for Blizzard's Gamescom on YouTube:
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We've taken the liberty of summarizing the highlights of Blizzard's announcement. Be sure to check out the full posting for more details.
Overwatch
- The big news here comes in the form of an entirely new Overwatch map, which will be previewed first on Monday along with the rest of Blizzard's content.
- There's also going to be a new animated short video unveiled on Wednesday.
- Blizzard will be having a number of other entertaining events, including cosplays of Overwatch's newest hero Doomfist and a live performance from the game's German voice actors.
Hearthstone
- Players will have a chance to see Hearthstone's new "Fireside Gathering" features. This evidently includes a new Fireside Brawl involving the infamous Lich King of Warcraft lore.
- Hearthstone's Global Games Finals will be taking place through Friday and Saturday. Players can "choose their champion" now to win a card pack, and will be able to catch the finals on tv where they'll be airing live.
- For those who will be attending Gamescom, there'll be a special Hearthstone ice cream truck arriving during the tournament to celebrate the Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion - which is probably a bigger deal to some than others, of course.
World of Warcraft
- Players will have the opportunity to experience one of WoW's new dungeons from the upcoming Patch 7.3, while details for the patch will be unveiled later on Wednesday.
- Blizzard will also be hosting the WoW European Championship Finals from Wednesday to Friday, in which the 12 highest-ranking Arena teams will be battling it out over a $100,000 prize. Similarly to Hearthstone, you can catch the event live on tv.
- Though not quite on the same level as the above finals, there will be an additional competition featuring the top European WoW guilds "Nova" and "Set Sail For Fail" as they speedrun their way through Mythic dungeons on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.
Heroes of the Storm
- The game's latest hero (also previewed on Monday) will be playable at the Heroes of the Storm
- A special event titled Heroes of the Storm: Showdown will take place, in which community personalities and popular eSports players will compete live. This includes Teams Liquid and Expert, as well as German YouTube celebrities ApeCrime and PietSmiet.
StarCraft
- Blizzard will be providing a chance to play StarCraft's newest co-op commander. Further details about this will be unveiled on Monday via the previously-linked livestream.
- In addition to the above commander, players will also have an opportunity to try out StarCraft: Remastered, a modernized and highly-anticipated version of
- StarCraft celebrity players White-Ra, iNcontroL, and TLO will be facing off in live matches on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
Diablo
- Diablo III's new Rise of the Necromancer DLC pack will be playable during Gamescom for the PC and PlayStation 4.
Gamescom 2017 takes place from August 22-26. For more information about the event regarding showtimes, dates, ticket availability, and more, visit the official Gamescom website for this year - and enjoy the show.
