Long-suffering Heroes of the Storm fans got a small reprieve at BlizzCon 2026 with the reveal of a new hero.
Heroes of the Storm is a MOBA in the vein of League of Legends, inspired by the classic Warcraft 3 DOTA mod. It's perhaps ironic that it was a Warcraft 3 mod in the first place, but Blizzard was unfortunately a bit slow to capitalize on the trend. Riot took full advantage, and effectively cornered almost the entire market.
Blizzard's answer was Heroes of the Storm, which is generally seen as more approachable than League of Legends, which ended up being a double-edged sword in some ways. Without an item economy and slower gameplay, Heroes of the Storm failed to draw in interest from League of Legends and other similar games, but remained popular with a dedicated Blizzard audience niche.
Heroes of the Storm is comprised of characters from across the Blizzard mythos, including Overwatch, Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, and more. There are still dozens of characters from across the Blizzard metaverse that fans have hoped to see emerge in the game, but unfortunately Blizzard put the game in "maintenance mode" after the launch of Hogger back in December 2020, promising bug fixes and occasional balance patches only. That changed at BlizzCon 2026 this week.
Blizzard revealed that Xal'atath is now coming to Heroes of the Storm, hitting Heroes' public test realm on Monday, with a launch penned in for towards the end of September.
Xal'atath is the current big evil in World of Warcraft, threatening to take over the cosmos itself by taking control of Azeroth's planetary world soul. She's a bit of an enigma, with her origins shrouded in mystery, but what's less of an enigma is how powerful she is. She has the capability to level entire cities with her void powers, responsible for the destruction of Dalaran itself.
Blizzard has cautioned players not to expect Heroes of the Storm to be fully revived yet, though ... noting to me that future updates will depend on how well-received Xal'atath is.
It's something of an industry trend to revive classic games at the moment, with games like Age of Empires 3, Witcher 3, Diablo 2, and other old-school titles getting updates after decades of dormancy in some cases. Heroes of the Storm has huge potential to be Xbox's answer to Super Smash Bros. in my view, if Blizzard was willing to add heroes from other franchises. I could see characters like Geralt of Rivia given Blizzard's new collab with CD Projekt RED, and other Xbox characters like DOOM Slayer or Master Chief jumping into the Nexus.
Blizzard faithful might find it annoying ... but a dead game is potentially more annoying in my view. Expanding to other franchises (and even putting the game on console) could give Heroes of the Storm the unique hook it needs to exist in a niche dominated by League of Legends.
Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.
