Blizzard cancels Blizzcon – the end of the show as we know it?
Blizzard’s annual fan festival BlizzCon has brought us some memorable gaming moments over the years. Who could forget the much-jeered announcement of the mobile game Diablo Immortal as Blizzard execs badly mid-read the room?
Overall though the show has been a mainstay of the gaming calendar, like other big show events such as E3, and allowed like-minded gamers to gather and talk about Diablo, Hearthstone, and the likes for many a year.
Not this year unfortunately and, by the tone of the announcement, it is not clear when it will return.
BlizzCon made a return as a live event in 2023.
In a blog post Blizzard announced: “After careful consideration over the last year, we at Blizzard have made the decision not to hold BlizzCon in 2024.
“This decision was not made lightly as BlizzCon remains a very special event for all of us, and we know many of you look forward to it. While we’re approaching this year differently and as we have explored different event formats in the past, rest assured that we are just as excited as ever to bring BlizzCon back in future years.”
The last sentence there is largely a collection of words that promise little and explain even less.
BlizzCon was absent from the calendar between 2020 and 2022 but that was during COVID times and not many shows survived that. It did reappear last year but now, having been shelved just 12 months later, it must raise fears that it has been put out to pasture, in this format at least, for good.
The 30th Anniversary of Warcraft takes place this year and Blizzard does say it will holding a series of in-person events to celebrate and will be attending major industry events, specifically mentioning Gamescom.
“Our hope is that these experiences – alongside several live-streamed industry events where we’ll keep you up to date with what’s happening in our game universes – will capture the essence of what makes the Blizzard community so special.”
Time will tell.
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