Blizzard says 2026 will be its 'biggest year yet' thanks to its 'bold new vision'

2026 will be a huge year for Microsoft with some big gaming anniversaries: Xbox turns 20, Bethesda turns 40, and Blizzard turns 35.

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Blizzard Entertainment will celebrate its 35th anniversary next year (it will also mark the third year that the games publisher has been a part of Xbox). The division has some pretty big plans set for 2026, including World of Warcraft's anticipated Midnight expansion, as well as a new playable hero with Diablo IV's upcoming Lord of Hatred expansion.

Blizzard president Joanna Faries tells Variety that the group is aiming for 2026 to be their biggest yet--on a revenue basis, this is unlikely to happen, as Blizzard's earnings hit their highest point of all time in 2016 with $2.4 billion in revenue.

"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. It's all part of this new, bold vision for the future, as I mentioned before."

Faries goes on to touch on the so-called bold new vision for Blizzard, saying that the limited-integration company will continue spending on making its core IPs more modernized over time:

"...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."