“Never say never” is the common refrain, but BlizzCon revealed a bit more about the future of Blizzard’s games on console than perhaps you might expect.
BlizzCon 2026 was pretty amazing. We got new trailers for Diablo V and the revival of StarCraft, as well as a revival for Warcraft 3, Heroes of the Storm, and WoW Classic in the form of World of Warcraft: Forever.
Blizzard also revealed Diablo 4 for Nintendo Switch 2 for the first time, and World of Warcraft also includes native Xbox controller support on PC as well — eliminating the need to use addons like Console Port.
World of Warcraft + Xbox controller works really well, really easy to get used to. – RB+LB for interface shortcuts like bags etc.- 32 keybinds on LT+RT, using ABXY and d-pad. – Radial menu on Menu button.- Targeting enemies and friendlies is intuitive, but unclear how viable… pic.twitter.com/B3yPGxryqDSeptember 18, 2026
When I asked Xbox customers on my Patreon and on X (Twitter) for questions to serve up at BlizzCon 2026, the top ask was always about potential Xbox ports.
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So to honor your requests, I put the questions to the teams across Heroes of the Storm, Warcraft 3, and World of Warcraft about the potential for the games to hit Xbox or other traditional gaming consoles.
All of them offered variations on the same response … Here’s what they said.
“Never say never.”
Warcraft 3 had a big moment at BlizzCon when it revealed Forsaken Kingdom, the first expansion pack in over two decades. I asked Warcraft 3 Project Lead Brad Chan if we could eventually see the RTS emerge on Xbox and other consoles, given that games like Halo Wars and Age of Empires have been successfully adapted for controller.
“You know, we’re going to talk about it,” Chan said, “Maybe, maybe not, I don’t know. Many things are possible, but right now we’re focused [on PC].”
Echoing that sentiment was World of Warcraft Game Director Ion Hazzikostas, when I asked if we could eventually see World of Warcraft itself emerge on Xbox and other consoles. World of Warcraft: Forever is launching in November, and will be the first version of WoW with native Xbox controller support on PC. Is that a hint at a console version down the line?
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“Our focus remains PC,” Hazzikostas said, referring to World of Warcraft Forever’s new Xbox gamepad controllers. “It’s not just Xbox, it’s just gamepad in general. Right? I think we’ve seen tons of people in the community use addons like Console Port over the years, and jump through a lot of hoops to get WoW playable on gamepad — we want to make that easier.”
Hazzikostas said the Classic and Forever eras of WoW are potentially better suited to Xbox, given the slower, more methodical pace of combat before the Haste stat was added, for example. “Our focus remains [on PC], but many possibilities exist in the future, and we’ll see where that leads us.”
Well then, what about Heroes of the Storm? Heroes of the Storm also had a big BlizzCon moment when they revealed the game is well and truly back, starting with new hero Xal’atath. I have a bigger review with the team there coming shortly as well.
Speaking to Heroes lead developer James Yen, I asked if the game might find new audiences and growth were it ported to Xbox, consoles, or even mobile, given the popularity of things like Pokémon Unite. Yen quite rightly noted that their focus today is mostly about getting Heroes of the Storm back on its feet.
“We think about all avenues for where [Heroes of the Storm] could go, but that kind of distracts us right now … from ‘we just came back, let’s make sure that the players that have been here for so long — let’s take care of them, let’s keep building content for them.’
We do have long-term goals, but you know those are more like stars, as you know. Our stars were like, ‘Hey, let’s come back. BlizzCon, that was just perfect timing,’ but we are driving towards thinking about other things. But right now, the focus is, ‘ Let’s give something to the players.”
I think it’s inevitable, at least for World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft: Forever is already poised to be a huge hit, taking the top spot on Twitch despite being weeks out from launch and rocking in closed beta. The fact that it has native Xbox controller support will open up the game to new audiences across PCs, potentially among users who prefer playing MMORPGs in that format. Naturally, bringing it to consoles across Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch would also vastly open it up to new players, particularly among aging millennials who moved to console from PC through the past two generations. The fact that WoW: Forever is based on classic graphics also means it’ll run on practically any modern device at 60 FPS, including the Nintendo Switch 2 and the Steam Deck.
It gets a bit trickier for Heroes of the Storm and Warcraft 3, potentially, though. Warcraft 3 is very much a PC game all up, and RTS has never really found a big audience on Xbox consoles. The Age of Empires 2 Xbox controls are very well realized, but there’s probably not an audience big enough to justify the work.
Heroes of the Storm is a bit different in my view. I feel as though Heroes and other MOBAs would control great with a gamepad; Pokémon Unite and Smite proved that it’s possible. Heroes of the Storm would be virtually without competition on Xbox and PlayStation, and including heroes and characters from franchises beyond Blizzard would also potentially help it find new audiences Fortnite-style. But it’s like James Yen said … it’s still early days for the Heroes’ revival.
What do you think? Would you like to see any of these games hit Xbox, PlayStation, or Nintendo Switch? Hit the comments, let us know.
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