One of the biggest developers in gaming is Activision Blizzard. Specifically, the Blizzard side of the company has some of the most beloved IP’s out there, as franchises like Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, and Starcraft have all come from the legendary developer. The popularity and love for them eventually led to Blizzard creating a convention specifically for fans to hear about the latest developments with their favorite Blizzard titles, BlizzCon.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 has led to many popular conventions over the last few years being cancelled and that has continued into 2021. According to Blizzard, the challenges of the last year have made creating a worthwhile convention too challenging. There were just too many roadblocks for them to conceivably put something together, and as such, there will be no BlizzCon in 2021. Via Blizzard.com:
Building an in-person BlizzCon is an epic and complex affair that takes many months of preparation—not just for us, but also for the many talented production partners, esports pros, hosts, entertainers, artists, and other collaborators we team up with locally and globally to put all of the pieces together. The ongoing complexities and uncertainties of the pandemic have impacted our ability to properly move forward on many of these fronts, and ultimately 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.
This is unfortunate for anyone that was hoping for updates on titles like Overwatch 2, Diablo 4, and the latest World of Warcraft updates, but fear not. Blizzard has plans to give fans an insight into what they’re up to in early 2022.
But we don’t want to let too long go by before we connect with everyone again. So in the meantime, we’re planning a global event for the early part of next year, combining an online show along the lines of our recent BlizzConline with smaller in-person gatherings, and we’ll share more as our plans come together.
There’s no need for a giant in-person gathering just so it can have a few developers up on stage to talk about a few trailers. While these moments are certainly fun, they aren’t exactly necessary. Activision Blizzard can create the same excitement for its games without a convention.