After careful consideration over the last year, we at Blizzard have made the decision not to hold BlizzCon in 2024. We’re excited to bring BlizzCon back in future years, and we still have some exciting plans for events in 2024!
— Blizzard Entertainment (@Blizzard_Ent) April 25, 2024
Read more: https://t.co/Ub2rdKdCWs
In an announcement that caught some by surprise, Blizzard suddenly announced this week that the 2024 edition of BlizzCon is cancelled. Citing that the company is approaching 2024 different than its previous years, Blizzard announced the cancellation but affirmed that it would have games and announcements for the future. The most notable possible announcements being World of Warcraft: The War Within and Vessel of Hatred, Diablo IV's first expansion pack. Likewise, the company's press release stated that the event will still be planned for the future. Blizzard has cancelled BlizzCon prior to the COVID-19 pandemic due to a lack of compelling game announcements in the past. For example BlizzCon 2012 was not held for that exact reason.
However, this will be the first time the event has been cancelled while Blizzard is a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. It is not exactly "breaking news" that BlizzCon has been a passion project of Blizzard's senior management and staff and been a loss leader almost every single year it has been held. For example, way back in 2009 Tor Thorson, who passed away in 2021, reported that BlizzCon 2009 incurred a 'substantial loss' even with massive sponsorship deals and excitement for StarCraft II at an all-time high. Furthermore, in-person developer-led fan events are a bit of a dying breed. QuakeCon is still going strong, but that event has a tournament to hitch itself to, whereas BlizzCon errs more towards an enthusiast-oriented event. It doesn't help that last year's event was poorly received and Blizzard's portfolio of upcoming releases are not as compelling as you'd hope. And with Microsoft already writing off about $120 million thanks to the demise of the Overwatch League, you can also imagine that this year's BlizzCon might have been on the chopping block at the start of 2024.
Also, let's not deny that developers and publishers just aren't excited about hosting or attending in-person conventions anymore. E3 is dead and Nintendo is pulling out of Gamescom, one of the few remaining industry pillars in the convention arena not aligned with Geoff Keighley. So, do you even buy Blizzard's promise that there will be a BlizzCon 2025? For how long did we hear out the ESA promising that E3 would be coming back even though we all knew it was completely dead in the water?
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