For those who were hoping for a BlizzCon in-person event later this year, we have some unfortunate news. Blizzard Entertainment has officially canceled the convention for the second straight year, both which were due to the world wide effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic. While some areas throughout the world are starting to open back up, the company feels that the time to fully prepare for an event of this magnitude has already passed and that they will now instead look towards a global-type event for early 2022.
If there was going to be a BlizzCon this year, Blizzard would have been knee deep in production for the entire event by this point. The company states in their post that they’re not even close to that level of preparedness “We’re now past the point where we’d be able to develop the kind of event we’d want to create for you in November.” Considering the amount of content and structure building that goes on for both the company and the city of Anaheim, it’s no major surprise that they’ve decided to skip this year and plan for 2022.
Speaking of which, Blizzard also made mention in their post of a global event in early 2022. The company states that they plan to combine elements from their past event, BlizzConline, with “smaller in-person gatherings.” The company says that there will be more information later in this regard, but it’s an intriguing idea to say the least. Hopefully we’ll find out more about this event near the end of 2021.
As we already mentioned, Blizzard canceled BlizzCon in 2020 due to the pandemic, as did all other annual in-person conventions. The company instead held a two-day digital only event dubbed BlizzConline, where we got some new looks at upcoming IP’s such as World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic, Diablo IV, Diablo II: Resurrected, and Overwatch 2.