In 2020, Blizzard Entertainment was forced to move its massive BlizzCon convention online due to the ongoing pandemic. Many fans were likely hopeful that, as restrictions eased with more people getting vaccinated, the company would host its 2021 convention in person. However, Blizzard announced today that will not be the case. Due to “ongoing complexities and uncertainties of the pandemic,” Blizzard has decided to cancel this year’s event.
Obviously, this is sad news for fans. However, it’s not that surprising. There are so many moving parts in putting on a convention like this. If you can’t guarantee that it will happen, that’s a ton of time and resources essentially wasted. Moving those resources into either development or an online event that you know can happen makes much more sense.
To that end, Blizzard revealed alongside its announcement that it will be hosting a global event in early 2022. This will be a mixture of an online BlizzCon and smaller in-person gatherings. While they don’t yet have all of the details ready to share, you can expect to find out more in the coming months.
Regardless, it’s great to see Blizzard taking a proactive approach. Being able to predict what’s going to happen with various guidelines and regulations is always going to be tough, with things changing all the time. Keeping its players safe while still delivering some of that BlizzCon feel is paramount for Blizzard. This option may not be ideal, but it does make sense. If you’d like to see Blizzard’s full statement, make sure to check it out below.
