Word from Blizzard is that they are not getting ready to announce a brand new game called Hearthstone 2 at their big BlizzCon event in 2026. However, I’ve been told that there will still be some very important news about Hearthstone coming out later this year.
The company got people talking about a possible sequel during a recent online show about Hearthstone. They were announcing a new part of the game called a ‘Cataclysm-themed expansion’ for their World of Warcraft card game. During this show, they hinted that a really big announcement was coming at BlizzCon 2026 in September, and that it would be something much bigger than usual.
I actually got to see this special broadcast at Blizzard’s main office about a week and a half ago. This meant I could ask the team questions right after. I specifically asked Nathan Lyons-Smith, who is in charge of making the game, if we were talking about something as big as a whole new game. He quickly set me straight.
“No, this is not a Hearthstone 2,” Mr. Lyons-Smith told me. “There isn’t a completely new game coming out as part of this. Over the years, we’ve added different kinds of things, new types of content, and new ways to play the game. This new announcement will be similar to those kinds of additions.”
Even though it won’t be a new game, the announcement at BlizzCon 2026 will still be very special. It will be familiar, yes, but “in a bigger way than we would normally do,” Mr. Lyons-Smith explained. He added that it would be “Bigger than what’s happening with Cataclysm.”
The Cataclysm expansion for Hearthstone is set to arrive on March 17th. It brings back ideas from the World of Warcraft game that had the same name. This means the giant, world-breaking dragon named Deathwing is returning, and he’s bringing some huge friends with him. And by huge, we mean literally huge: special cards called ‘Colossals’ are coming back to the game.
These Colossal cards are like super-sized minions. For example, there’s one called Magmaw, which is a giant lava worm. When you play it, its wormy body takes up all the available spaces for your minions. If any part of its body is defeated, it just keeps refilling those spaces. Magmaw can refill its body 99 times, so you can imagine what a big problem that card can be for your opponent. The other Colossal cards are just as tough and powerful.
The Cataclysm expansion also adds new special words that change how cards work, a fresh story, and strong new abilities like ‘Rewind’ that let you try some of your moves again. Also, on March 10th, which is one week before the new expansion comes out, Blizzard will make every card from the recent Un’Goro and Emerald Dream expansions free for everyone to use during the time that the Cataclysm expansion is active. That’s a nice bonus!
However, Blizzard isn’t quite ready to bring Hearthstone to game consoles or handheld devices like the Nintendo Switch or Steam Deck, at least not officially. Still, there’s a hint that this might become more important to them now that Microsoft owns the company, compared to when Activision was in charge. So, could we possibly hear about Hearthstone coming to new game systems at BlizzCon?
